News
 12
Questions to Ask a List Vendor
By Jeffery Dobkin, marketing consultant, author, and
professional speaker
1. Ask the origin of the list.
There are two types of lists, determined by their
origin: compiled lists and response lists.
Compiled lists are a common source of names and
records that have been gathered, collected, and
entered into a database. The names may have been
acquired through public records such as vehicle
owner registrations, or through directories such as
phone books from each city across the U.S. Examples
of compiled lists are all the photography shops, or
all the luggage dealers in the United States.
Directories, such as a directory of plant
maintenance engineers, are usually compiled lists.
Response lists are names and addresses of people or
firms who have responded to a magazine ad, or who
have purchased from a catalog, direct mail package,
TV ad, or other offer. List with respondents are
better bets when selling general lines of
merchandise.
2. Precisely who is the list comprised up of?
With any mailing you are considering, first ask
exactly what groups or what characteristics make up
the perfect target audience for your offer. Then try
to find a list that closely matches these definable
characteristics.
3. Does the list include actual purchasers or merely
inquirers?
Purchasers are much more valuable than inquirers -
anybody with a pencil can inquire; purchasers have
proven they have money to spend and aren’t afraid to
put it in the mail when they see an offer they like.
This key question separates the spenders from the
rest.
4. How old are the names on the list?
Like fish, names go bad rather quickly when left out
on the table for any length of time. The more recent
the data records, the more likely you’ll have a
greater percentage of response. The list is the last
piece of the direct mail puzzle to buy - research it
well, and ensure the freshest names actually make
the purchase right before your mailing.
5. How often - and how recently - has the list been
cleaned?
Cleaning a list means running it through the
National Change Of Address (NCOALink®) file of the
Postal Service™ - and removing the non-deliverable
names or “nixies.” You’ll get less mail back if the
list has been cleaned recently.
6. How recently have the people on the list made a
purchase?
A person who has just made a purchase through the
mail is MOST LIKELY to immediately purchase again.
Recency of purchase is one of the key issues in the
purchase of a list. Some list houses offer “Hot
Name” selects: a file of just their latest name
acquisitions. Test this list segment first - if it
mails profitably, you can go back and order the rest
of the file. Beware: different companies have
different time requirements on their hot name files.
Some companies have a hot file of one-month-old
names, another company’s hot file may be
six-month-old names. So ask.
7. Can you get a “Select” of multi-buyers - and how
frequently they’ve purchased?
Some of the larger list houses will run a program to
find names that appear on several response lists,
and offer these as a selection you can mail to.
These are proven mail order buyers and are more
likely to purchase again through the mail. They’re
my favorite, and I recommend this option if it’s
available.
8. How often has the list been rented?
You want to rent a list that gets some use, but not
a list that is rented too much. If it never gets
rented, there is usually a reason - it doesn’t work.
Most list houses will recommend a list to other
mailers if it’s working. However, you don’t want to
buy a list that is fatigued - you don’t want to be
the 30th pet products catalog the pet owner receives
that month.
9. How many other mailers have tested the list?
Look for a list that has been tested enough so that
you can get a read-out of its activity. Mailers rent
5,000 names to test if that segment of the
population is profitable for their offer. Ask how
many others have recently rented the list for a
test.
10. How many people continued after their test?
Probably the second BEST way to tell if a list is
working: mailers mail to it once, find that it’s
profitable, and come back and purchase more names. A
good rule of thumb: if you mail to a list and it’s
profitable, you can mail up to ten times the names
of your last mailing. If you rent 5,000 names and
it’s profitable, you can now go back and mail up to
50,000 names. If that tests successfully, go back
and rent up to 500,000 names. If that tests
successfully, call me and we’ll talk.
11. How many people rolled out to the rest of the
list?
Dramatic success in a mailing list shows up if the
tests are successful and the mailer eventually winds
up mailing to the entire list. This is the BEST way
to tell if a list is working.
12. Ask if you can get a free sample of 2,000 names
to test.
You never know unless you ask. You may be able to
test your mailing without paying for a list. Some
list owners know their list works well, and if it
works for you, you’ll be back for more names. Don’t
forget to ask.
---Source:
Jeffrey Dobkin is a copywriter, a speaker, and
direct marketing consultant. He is also a Favorite
Author of Melissa Data’s Direct Marketing Advisor.
Read his most recent article here and call for his
free instructional booklet of direct marketing tips:
610/642-1000 or visit his Web site at
www.dobkin.com
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