Direct Mail List Sourcing

Strategy

In direct mail, there are only three important elements:
1) ability of your piece to get the recipient’s attention;
2) perceived value of the offer; and
3) quality of your list.

Having the right list is the difference between the ‘85 and the ‘04 Bears.

Assignments

This Play is a cinch if you’ve already created your media list (Play R-16). Your media list is based on your knowledge of your customers and what publications they read. Now it’s time to get the subscriber lists to these publications. It’s best if you work with a list broker. List brokers, such as LTSG (www.ltsg.com), are intermediaries between marketers (like you and me) and the publisher or other list owners.

This is a great time to pull out the target customer definition from Play T-02. Provide this to your list broker and let them recommend lists to try. In the above sample datacard, you are able to select names that match your criteria. For example, you can select on job title, size of firm, number of employees, and so forth. You may find that several publications will work for you. With a 5,000 name minimum, your list rental could get expensive. When this occurs, it’s a good idea to ask if your broker has access to any lists that are the combination of several lists. Getting what’s known as a Masterfile list, you spare the cost of buying several lists with duplicate names (e.g., the same person may subscribe to several publications you’re interested in). If you don’t get a Masterfile, all is not lost. In this case, you’ll rent the lists you need and have your mailing house do a merge-purge to eliminate duplicates prior to mailing.

I should point out that before you can get a list, you’ll need to provide a sample mailing piece so your broker can get the approval of the list owner (i.e., the publisher). This is a check and balance for the magazine and prevents a competitor from reaching into their subscriber database.

If you don’t have a list broker or want to do some of the research on your own, check out the SRDS Direct Marketing List Source®—a list of lists. It contains sources, selections, costs and a list of brokers.

Coaching Points

• Most lists are rented for one-time use.
• Most likely, the list will not be sent to you directly, but rather to a bonded 3rd-party mailing center. You won’t be able to “see” the names. And please do me a favor: Don’t whine about it.
• Most magazine lists do not contain telephone numbers.

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