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[D392]Direct Mail Marketing Lists

by Ramon Vela, Ram

The better the list you have, the better the results you will get. I define a good list as one that contains customers and clients who you have marketed to several times at the very least. Of course accuracy is important, but updating your list happens in the natural course of marketing if you are diligent about updating your records as you receive new information.

Some experts suggest that you touch your list about 30-50 times a year in multiple mediums such email, direct mail, telemarketing, in person, etc. I agree with this advice. You are building recognition.

Yes, another thing to keep in mind is that a hand-built or an opted-in list is better than a purchased list. But, if you do buy a good list, there is no reason why you couldn't use it as a foundation for your eventual in-house list. Your continually updated list is your key to more sales and ongoing relationships. Keep it progressing, keep it updated.

Here is an example we experienced recently. We purchased a list for a client project and conducted a telesales phone appointment campaign. We generated about 23-24 appointments. To our client's credit, they next wanted to immediately follow up with a webinar on the same solution we had focused upon during the phone appointment campaign.

The results?

We generated nearly 40 new prospects the second time around! These respondents were interested in the solution. I credit this to the fact that we touched our list several times. The people on our list were already "warmed up" to my client's (actually, our team's) call.

Now, there are differences to direct mail and email. Yes, email is less expensive but, quite frankly, there are deliverability issues. This can be overcome by having an opted-in list. (The people I know who can absolutely get in are those "adult" and pharmaceuticals emails -- but they aren't technically playing by rules that we can follow.)

On the other hand, I think, when done correctly, direct mail can be incredibly effective. Don't underestimate the power of a message arriving through a different medium than phone calls, voice mail and email - direct mail still has a powerful impact. Just ensure that the direct mail campaign clearly stands out as *not* a type of "junk mail" to be discarded without reading.

There are two main ways to target affluent buyers: where they abide, and what they buy.

Where they abide
Every area of the country has places where the wealthy congregate. The affluent are concentrated in cities (London, New York, Toronto) neighbourhoods (Knightsbridge, London, Manhattan, New York and Yorkville, Toronto) and streets (Cadogan Square, London, Park Lane, New York, Yorkville Avenue, Toronto. Reaching the wealthy by city is too expensive. Reaching them by neighbourhood or street makes more sense.

One disadvantage of targeting the wealthy by neighbourhood is that you do not know if people on your list want or need what you are selling. All that you have is a good hunch that they can afford it (because some people who live in wealthy neighbourhoods only appear wealthy, and cannot actually afford to live their).

The best place to look for lists of wealthy neighbourhoods is a list broker. List brokers will show you the breakdown of the wealthy neighbourhoods you want to target. Affluent Austin, for example (www.affluentaustin.com), claims to have data on the top 50,000 most affluent homes in Greater Austin, Texas. Their data card lets you target your mailing by zip code, neighbourhood name or number of households. It looks like this:

78610 Creedmoor 9
78613 Cedar Park 117
78734 Lakeway 2,643

So you could target the 78610 zip code and reach 9 homes. Or you could target the Cedar Park neighbourhood and reach 117. Or you could ask the list broker to name the zip codes and neighbourhoods that had the most households, and Lakeway, zip 78734, would be near the top of the list.

If you are needing to reach wealthy buyers in the United States, try these top list brokers:

Dun & Bradstreet www.dnb.com
Experian www.experian.com
InfoUSA www.infousa.com

What they buy
Another way to reach affluent prospects with direct mail is to find lists of people who already buy what you are selling, or something like it.

Selling yachts? Rent a list of boat/yacht owners from the government department that issues boat licenses.

Selling yachts to people on Mercer Island, Washington State? Rent the mailing list of subscribers to Yacht Magazine and select only those readers who live on or near Mercer Island.

Selling yachts to newcomers to Mercer Island, Washington State? Rent the names of new home owners on the island or recent movers to the island.

Article Source : Vp Of Sales Jobs

About Author

Both Ramon Vela & Alan Sharpe are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Ramon Vela has sinced written about articles on various topics from Entrepreneurship, Marketing Strategies and Sales and Negotiation. Ramon provides more marketing information, especially created for the IT VAR industry but also applies to everyone who wants to improve their sales. Stay up-to-date at