Why Some Lists Work and Others Don’t
   By David Bancroft Avrick

Ah … the age old question – why do some lists work, and others (that look like they’d work) actually fizzle and burn. Here’s a list of factors to check out to see if your list will reap the financial fruits you hope for.

1. Is the list owner holding back multi-buyers, or any other group of names? Unless you have a very sophisticated decoy system, it’s hard to identify when a list owner is holding back multi-buyer, or any other group of names. You should certainly decoy every list that you’re renting to find out how quickly your decoy names appear on the list you’re renting. If you place 2nd or 3rd orders, does your decoy name reappear as quickly as it did the first time you ordered?
 

2. Are the multi-buyers really multi-buyers? A true multi-buyer is a person who has ordered, and then come back and ordered again. The customer has made more than one buying decision. Some data cards list as multi-buyers customers who have purchased more than one item in one transaction. This is more appropriately a dollar selection.
 

3. Does your list broker manage the list? This is a double-edged sword. If your list broker is also the list manager of a particular list they are recommending, the benefit is that they’re very familiar with the list, the accuracy of the list, the selections, etc. Conversely, many times list broker will ‘push’ a list that they are managing, and that can be a very powerful negative to the mailer. List owners are always pushing their managers for ‘new tests’, and one way the manager can push the list is by having their brokerage clients test the files, even though they would not recommend this same list were if managed by another management company.
 

4. What psychological hot buttons did the consumer originally respond to? Good examples of these are the greeting card or name-and-address label donor files. There are many people who will make a donation to a particular charity because they received a mailing with a dozen free greeting cards, or a package of address labels. They feel guilty and make a donation. They have no commitment to the particular charity. If your charity has a similar cause, the greeting card donor will probably not be a good prospect for your mailing. The same thing happened in the sweepstakes area. People who responded to sweepstakes mailings would often be unresponsive to non-sweeps mailings. So the product was irrelevant, the psychological hot button, the gift or the sweepstakes, is what made the person respond. Unless you’re appealing to the consumer with a similar psychological hot button, this list will probably fail for you.
 

5. Are there a lot of tests, but few continuations? Ask the list broker to provide you with a list of companies who tested the list, and who continued on the list. Be wary of those lists that have a plethora of tests, but few continuations.

--- David Bancroft Avrick is president of Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Avrick Direct Inc. His email address is david@avrick.com.