When, however even your customer list seems to contain little useful information, some basic research is in order. People with like lifestyles tend to purchase alike. The key to selling is to determine which lifestyles match what you are offering. There are thousands of mailing lists available through list companies and brokers. (Chicago’s business-to-business Yellow Pages list about 100 such companies.) The more we know about the meaningful characteristics of our current customers or clients, the easier it will be to find likely prospects by matching their customer profiles to ours. What’s meaningful may not be a matter of common sense, so discuss with several mailing list professionals how they propose to help you find out and what they charge for their service. Then check the advice you get in a test mailing.
• Fewer than 5,000 names is not a statistically valid test. No matter how large the list, a 10,000-name test is almost always adequate.
• For consumer lists, services exist that can match addresses with socioeconomic census data. Use the nth-name system of every 20th, 50th, or 500th name, depending on the size of your list, for a test mailing. You’ll get a wealth of information on these people’s lifestyles.
• For business and professional lists, existing directories can tell you everything you need to know—from an individual’s specialization, age, income, family, and automobiles owned to a corporation’s history, profits, officers, and credit rating. If a certain piece of information seems pertinent, it’s there for the matching.
• A mailing list specialist, preferably experienced with your type of business, can help you analyze your lists. Before you request such help, get firm, written cost quotations and current references. Check them out!
For New Businesses
When your business is new, without customers or clients, there are four possibilities regarding mailing lists: 1. Lists exist to fill your needs. Your market is so well defined that available lists are all you need to get started. 2. Your market is hidden within a larger audience for which there are lists. 3. Lists exist, but they are not available to you. 4. No known list exists that will fill your needs. Let’s consider each of these in more detail. Lists That Fit With lists that fit, your most important decision may seem to be whether to use the list as a whole or to start in with a test. But before you do either of these, check on the percentage of previous mail order buyers in that list, no matter what they have bought or what you are selling.2 Have the sources of the list give you those proven direct mail buyers only. (Forced subscriptions to association magazines and newsletters don’t count.) It’s almost always easier to sell such buyers a second time than to sell nonbuyers the first. If no list of previous buyers exists—and you feel that you must sell by mail—test! Lists That Hide Let’s assume that you have a special racket for overweight, left-handed tennis players, but no mailing list exists for such individuals. A broader “umbrella” list of all tennis players, however, is available. Should you try to sell your submarket within it?
The answer involves the same analysis you should do before any other mailing. Do as little blind guessing as possible. Do a market breakdown; that is, work with what you know or can learn—for instance, the percentage of left-handers in the general population and the degree of overweight seen at local tennis courts and clubs. Although this type of “knowing” is far from certain, it’s better than sheer guesswork, and it lets you go to the next step: the calculation of testing costs and the application of test results as a predictor of complete mailings. A number of easy-to-use formulas exist for this purpose (see pages 105–107). Lists That Remain Private Many mailing lists are so valuable to their owners that they are never made available to anyone else. This is especially true of business customers and prospects, such as Collectibles for whom their list is their most valuable promotion property. General consumer lists tend to be less jealously guarded, for two reasons:
1. Increased use of a mailing list tends to build a larger universe of frequent buyers. As different kinds of products and services are offered, more recipients get into the habit of ordering by mail, making the list increasingly valuable as a source of proven mail-order buyers.
2. For many owners of a list, the income from renting the list is a major factor in their profitability. Suppose a list of 200,000 names generates net rental revenues of $25 per thousand 15 times a year. How much of the product would have to be sold to produce the same number of dollars in net income? The fact that some lists are not generally available tells you that people have been able to build them for themselves. If you have a list of your own, perhaps you can trade, rather than rent. If not, perhaps you can build your own list, too. When No List Exists Even when no list exists for a particular market, it’s probable that the names are there if only you can find a way to get at them. It is possible that no one else has previously wanted just those names badly enough to create a list. But it’s more likely that gathering the list would have been too difficult or costly. When no list exists, test using other media, including the Internet, to generate leads or sell. When no list exists, think very hard about the practicality of making direct mail the key to your selling effort.
Source: Mailing lists advertising
• Fewer than 5,000 names is not a statistically valid test. No matter how large the list, a 10,000-name test is almost always adequate.
• For consumer lists, services exist that can match addresses with socioeconomic census data. Use the nth-name system of every 20th, 50th, or 500th name, depending on the size of your list, for a test mailing. You’ll get a wealth of information on these people’s lifestyles.
• For business and professional lists, existing directories can tell you everything you need to know—from an individual’s specialization, age, income, family, and automobiles owned to a corporation’s history, profits, officers, and credit rating. If a certain piece of information seems pertinent, it’s there for the matching.
• A mailing list specialist, preferably experienced with your type of business, can help you analyze your lists. Before you request such help, get firm, written cost quotations and current references. Check them out!
For New Businesses
When your business is new, without customers or clients, there are four possibilities regarding mailing lists: 1. Lists exist to fill your needs. Your market is so well defined that available lists are all you need to get started. 2. Your market is hidden within a larger audience for which there are lists. 3. Lists exist, but they are not available to you. 4. No known list exists that will fill your needs. Let’s consider each of these in more detail. Lists That Fit With lists that fit, your most important decision may seem to be whether to use the list as a whole or to start in with a test. But before you do either of these, check on the percentage of previous mail order buyers in that list, no matter what they have bought or what you are selling.2 Have the sources of the list give you those proven direct mail buyers only. (Forced subscriptions to association magazines and newsletters don’t count.) It’s almost always easier to sell such buyers a second time than to sell nonbuyers the first. If no list of previous buyers exists—and you feel that you must sell by mail—test! Lists That Hide Let’s assume that you have a special racket for overweight, left-handed tennis players, but no mailing list exists for such individuals. A broader “umbrella” list of all tennis players, however, is available. Should you try to sell your submarket within it?
The answer involves the same analysis you should do before any other mailing. Do as little blind guessing as possible. Do a market breakdown; that is, work with what you know or can learn—for instance, the percentage of left-handers in the general population and the degree of overweight seen at local tennis courts and clubs. Although this type of “knowing” is far from certain, it’s better than sheer guesswork, and it lets you go to the next step: the calculation of testing costs and the application of test results as a predictor of complete mailings. A number of easy-to-use formulas exist for this purpose (see pages 105–107). Lists That Remain Private Many mailing lists are so valuable to their owners that they are never made available to anyone else. This is especially true of business customers and prospects, such as Collectibles for whom their list is their most valuable promotion property. General consumer lists tend to be less jealously guarded, for two reasons:
1. Increased use of a mailing list tends to build a larger universe of frequent buyers. As different kinds of products and services are offered, more recipients get into the habit of ordering by mail, making the list increasingly valuable as a source of proven mail-order buyers.
2. For many owners of a list, the income from renting the list is a major factor in their profitability. Suppose a list of 200,000 names generates net rental revenues of $25 per thousand 15 times a year. How much of the product would have to be sold to produce the same number of dollars in net income? The fact that some lists are not generally available tells you that people have been able to build them for themselves. If you have a list of your own, perhaps you can trade, rather than rent. If not, perhaps you can build your own list, too. When No List Exists Even when no list exists for a particular market, it’s probable that the names are there if only you can find a way to get at them. It is possible that no one else has previously wanted just those names badly enough to create a list. But it’s more likely that gathering the list would have been too difficult or costly. When no list exists, test using other media, including the Internet, to generate leads or sell. When no list exists, think very hard about the practicality of making direct mail the key to your selling effort.
Source: Mailing lists advertising
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