News
 7
Ways to Combat List Fatigue
Attend any direct marketing conference or chat with
your peers, and you’ll undoubtedly encounter the
double whammy of shrinking universes and list
fatigue as a topic of conversation and concern. So
what’s a marketer to do? Stefanie Pont shows you
your options.
Logically, the decreasing responses that direct
marketers are seeing across the board make sense.
Combine less available universe, consumers who are
more marketing-savvy, ever-widening options for
purchase and the increasing cost of marketing; and
the result is intense competition for the most
likely consumer prospects. And those prospects are
becoming more inured to the message every day.
As mailing becomes more expensive on all fronts,
there often is a tendency to cut back and focus on
the most responsive files. While this is an
acceptable short-term solution, over the long term
it greatly contributes to the decreasing
response/purchase cycle.
An additional contributing factor is the spread of
shared marketing databases. The structure of these
bases is to group a variety of mailers and identify
the most responsive names using RFM and other
metrics. But what is most responsive for Mailer A
also is likely most responsive for Mailers B, C and
D—and they all are mailing into the same narrow
prospect pool.
Since it’s unlikely that 30 or 40 brand new lists
will pop up in the next month or so, the next best
option is to effectively manage the leads you have,
and make the most of them.
1. Manage recency segmentation
This doesn’t mean focusing on hotlines alone. Test
or retest older segments of files that have been
successful. In many cases, a three-month hotline may
have cooled slightly after six months, but still
will deliver decent response and ROI.
2. Review duplication across lists by campaign
While your hits against the housefile may be
acceptable, review lists that have high duplication
against each other. Alternate them on campaigns to
retain more of each.
3. Revisit marginal lists
Carefully mine those “less than stellar” list
results for any pockets of possible retests. What
was considered marginal a year ago may just make the
plan today.
4. Re-examine your frequency
Like many of you, I’ve purchased from a catalog,
only to receive weekly solicitations from that
mailer. Needless to say, my fatigue level
skyrocketed, and I won’t buy from the catalog again.
It’s worth the time and expense to look at how often
you’re hitting prospects, and determine the point of
diminishing return. It’s actually possible to
artificially fatigue a list right out of your mail
plan, particularly when the list is small.
5. Explore different channels
If you’ve mailed every name on a file, consider
talking to those prospects through another channel.
If there are e-mail names available for a file, send
an e-mail. Or, test an insert in the mailer’s
package insert or statement stuffer program. It may
be the same prospect, but you’re knocking on a
different door.
6. Test, Test, Test
In addition to your other testing strategies,
consider one “out-of-the-box” test for every mail
plan. Aggressive testing will increase your
available universe and give some relief to your core
lists.
7. Explore new creative treatments
Testing a new package or alternating controls can
substantially improve response rates on many
continuation files.
Like postage, paper and shipping costs, list fatigue
is endemic for all marketers. While there is no
silver bullet, consideration of these strategies may
help you give your best lists a rest, and extend
their life in your mailings.
---Source:
Stefanie Pont is managing partner of Pont Media
Direct, a list brokerage and direct marketing
consultancy based in Norwalk, Conn. She can be
reached at (203) 354-8074, or by e-mail at stefanie@listgoddess.com.
This article was originally published in Target
Marketing in May 2006 (www.targetmarketingmag.com).
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