by Brice Sanderford | July 1, 2009
Finding, buying and using direct mail lists can be a time consuming and expensive process. Let’s face it: list brokers and consumer mailing list databases can easily drive you mad. We know first-hand because we often manage the list process for our direct mail clients.
But making the most of your mailing lists is one of the best ways to increase your direct mail’s return on investment. So we’ve put together a list of five simple questions you should ask yourself to ensure that you have the best mailing list and that you’re putting it to good use.
1) Were you creative with your mailing list approach?
The more relevant your offer is to the recipient, the greater the chance that it will be used. So think creatively about who will most likely respond to your mail and how to best reach them. If you know that men or women who read a certain magazine are perfect for your mailing list, then make sure that you or the company who is handling your list rents the subscriber list from that magazine or other source. Your list should be based on more than just basic demographic data like age, sex, location and income.
2) Is your list mover friendly?
16% of Americans move every single year, and when your business is mail that is a very important number. Make sure you list broker is selling you fresh, updated information. If you maintain your own in-house mailing list, be sure to update it whenever one of your customers changes location.
3) Was your mailing list cross-checked against a do not mail database?
DMA Choice collects the information of consumers who do not want to be contacted with direct mail. Make sure your your mailing list is compared with the people stored in the do not mail database. There is no sense wasting your mail on people who consider all direct mail “junk”
4) Are you testing your mail’s results?
Sometimes you can get way more bang for your buck by just switching around a few words in your direct mail piece. Doing something as minimal as switching your offer from two for the price of one, to half off can get you surprisingly different results even though you’re essentially offering the same thing.
The trick is to test different pieces against segments of your list and see what gets the best response.
5) Are you tracking your list and your results?
Now that you have gone through all the trouble to make sure your mailing list is pumped up and ready to bring in the big bucks, don’t forget to check the results of your campaign.
Things don’t always go according to plan and that is why you need to be constantly vigilant in your quest to read the results of your actions, and to know if what your doing is cost effective. Unique phone number and URLs are traditional methods for tracking direct mail response rates. We’re experimenting with some cool new technologies that combine personalized URLs, social media tools, and online data analytics that automate tracking and list management process for our clients.
Do you want to add a mailing list tip? Please put it in the comment section below. We’re all ears.
Image Source: Flickr
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 11:51 am and is filed under Mailing Lists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Along with #2 I’d suggest using address standardization/Delivery Point Validation (DPV) on your house list and ask the vendor to provide only records that standardize and DPV. Only standardized names will match to NCOA and data append sources and only DPV addresses will qualify for the best postage rates.
Also, standardization gives you a level playing field for my other suggestion: De-dup both internally and to rented lists. Some duplicates to your buyers list means you are on the right track, but make sure you aren’t paying for too many names you already have!
Hey Sharon, Great input. Thanks for reading and contributing.
Nice!