News
 5
Questions to Ask When Testing a List
By Donna Loyle
In looking at your marketing plans for the rest of
2007, you may be considering testing prospect lists.
Here are five questions you’ll want to answer when
shopping for list rentals:
1. How actively is the list owner prospecting for
new customers? “If the zero-to-six-month file size
is greater than 50 percent of its total 12-month
file size, the owner is actively prospecting and
adding new names to its file,” says Stephen R. Lett,
president of catalog consultancy Lett Direct and
author of the recently released book, “Strategic
Catalog Marketing” (Target Marketing Group
Publications, 2006). Lett calls the 50 percent-plus
rule a top consideration when selecting lists to
test, because it denotes that the list includes
fresh names of active direct mail buyers.
2. Is the file well maintained? That is, does the
list owner regularly run the file through list
hygiene programs?
3. What selections are available? Can you, Lett
asks, select names based on recency, frequency or
monetary value? And can you select based on customer
demographics and types of merchandise purchased? He
cautions that you should pay only for selects that
you truly need.
4. Who else is using the list? Knowing this will
help give you an idea of how the list works for
other mailers in your market, says Lett. Be sure
your broker tells you only the names of other
companies like yours that are using the list on a
continuing basis. That is, if you’re a cataloger,
you want to know only if other catalogers are using
it and if those catalogers sell products similar to
yours. And you want to know who is using the file
regularly, not who has tested it once or twice.
5. How did the list net out in the merge? If the
list is from a mailer that sells the same type of
products as you do, the higher percentage of
duplicate names (on your list and the mailer’s), the
greater chance the list will work for your offer,
says Lett. “That’s because there are more people on
the [mailer’s] list who are like your customers.”
But if the list is from a mailer that doesn’t sell
similar products to yours, what you net out of the
merge isn’t a significant indicator of the list’s
performance, he continues. “The rules change only
when you’re trying to expand your universe of
potential prospects by testing out-of-category
lists.”
---Source:
Reprinted with permission from Target Marketing
Tipline (1/10/07) a free e-mail newsletter from the
Target Marketing Group. To subscribe, visit
www.targetmarketingmag.com/tipline.
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