Chapter

1

• Chapter 4
• CONSUMER AND BUSINESS MAILING
  LISTS

2

• To Promote a new product or service or a new
  venture, or to thrive in the growth stage of a
  business, an organization needs to prospect for
  new customers.
• Even established organizations need new prospects
  to replenish (Complete) their customer base.

3

• Successful customer retention programs dont
  keep 100 percent of customers. Maintaining a
  balance between customer and prospect marketing
  efforts is one of the key to business success.
• Many organizations rely upon direct mail for
  their main medium or as a support medium for
  their prospecting efforts.

4

• Mailing lists can help them
• Target businesses or consumers ,
• Sell a product or service direct,
• Generate a lead,
• Drive traffic into an on-line or off-line store,
• Sell subscriptions, or persuade contributors.
• They may also use television , radio , print
  advertising , co-ops, the internet , or the other
  media to create new customers.
• They may even supplement with trade shows or
  events .

5
Mailing List Basics

• Mailing lists are not sold but rented, typically
  for a onetime use. If after testing a portion of
  a list, the renting organization wants to remail
  or roll out the list(e.g., in continuation), it
  must pay an additional rental fee.
• The List provider seeds the list with names that
  come back to it in order to monitor list usage.
  Companies that repeatedly violate the rental
  agreement soon find they are unable to rent lists
  from any organization.
• Seeding is a significant deterrent to abuse.

6

• Specialty lists of hard-to-get names such as
  buyers of airplanes , sailboats, and exotic cars
  small and large cap investors and foreign lists
  may rent for three to four times premium!
• The Quality of the names and difficulty in
  acquiring them is always a major factor in list
  rental costs.
• Hot-line names also are rented at premium price.
• Hotline names remain a very popular category of
  names to rent.
• Some organizations choose not to rent their
  lists. But even they will often exchange lists
  with other companies that have noncompetitive
  offers.

7
Types of Mailing Lists

• There are three kinds of mailing lists House
  lists. Response lists, and Compiled lists.
• House Lists They are simply the databases of an
  organization
• Considered the key asset of any organization ,
  they include current customers , former customers
  , and inquiries(i.e., prospects).
• Because the house list is so important , it must
  be maintained and updated constantly.
• The word customer usually refers to an active
  buyer. Someone who had purchased within the
  last 12 months.

8
Response Lists

• Response lists are the house list of other
  organizations.
• Response lists are made up of individuals who
  have exhibited a particular kind of behavior.
• They may have responded to a direct mail offer, a
  print ad, a broad-cast commercial, via telephone
  , or on the Internet.
• Response lists can be broken into number of
  further categories.
• Buyers List
• Attendee/Membership/Seminar Lists who attend
  conference ,trade show ,event
• Subscription Lists to news paper or publications
  
• Donor Lists contribute money to charities
• Credit Card Holder Lists
• Merged Database List

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• Merged Database Lists This type of lists
  includes the merged lists of companies that often
  wont rent theirs individually.
• Using the merged list simplifies the selection
  process because duplicate names are eliminated.
• Compiled Lists
• Compiled lists are made up of individuals or
  companies without any previous indication of
  willingness to respond, but with some defined and
  identifiable characteristics such as demographics
  , psychographics ,zip code etc. its useful for
  retail ,consumer goods ,business offer . Its
  three kinds consumer complied lists, lifestyle
  and business complied lists

10

• Consumer Compiled Lists
• Consumer compiled lists are created from a number
  of different public and private sources. Name ,
  Address, and phone numbers are gleaned from
  telephone directories and credit bureau records.
• Consumer Lifestyle Enhanced Lists Based on
  lifestyle
• Business Compiled Lists
• Typical firm graphics include,
• Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)
• Annual Sales
• Number of Employees
• Headquarters or Branch Office
• Geography
• Business Structure (e.g., corporation,
  subsidiary)
• Recent Relocation

11
Profiling

• Profiling is a first step in understanding an
  organization's customers by identifying
  demographics, firm graphics, or lifestyle
  attributes of each customer.
• Appending this information to the customer file
  adds valuable information for targeting future
  promotions, understanding customer defections,
  and identifying cross-selling and other new
  business opportunities.

12
List Selection Guidelines

• Description. Who is on the list?
• Affinity. A close relationship with the target
  group that the marketer is trying to reach.
• List Source. The origin of the names on the list.
• Renting Mailing Lists
• Mailing lists may be from list owners, list
  managers, and list brokers. Each source has its
  strengths and weaknesses.

13
Evaluating Mailing Lists

• Steven Roberts, president of list brokerage Edith
  Roman Associates, Inc., notes that the following
  information, included in most data cards, should
  be evaluated when deciding upon a list rental.
• List size
• Cost per thousand
• List description its sources, history, profile of
  customers
• Average order size
• Percentage of the list that is direct
  mail-generated
• Hot line responding customers who buy
• Active versus inactive his membership valid
• List usage report if its used by our competitors
  for the same offer
• Selections available is it include selection
  criteria by which could be segmented
• Frequency of updating

14
List Hygiene

• According to the Direct Marketing Association,"
  The most important step every mailer can and
  should take is to improve list hygiene."
• Standardizing formats
• Merging multiple files
• Eliminating duplicates and
• Updating and verifying address elements
• are all critical steps essential to maximizing
  deliverability

15
Applying List Hygiene

• There are number of steps that can be taken to
  clean lists before mailing. They are
• List Standarsation
• Editing and Reformatting
• Merge/Purge
• Verification and Correction
• Privacy Questions of data compilation and usage
  are sensitive. Many consumers and businesses
  alike view them as privacy issues
• Unauthorized access is focused in three areas
• Fraud
• Identity theft
• Anonymity

16

• The Direct Marketing Association has two services
  available free of charge for consumers
• Mail Preference (MPS) Which enables individuals
  to receive less national advertising mail by
  having their names removed from many national
  mailing lists.
• Telephone Preference Service(TPS) which enables
  people to receive fewer telephone sales calls in
  their homes by removing their names from many
  national telephone sales lists.

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• Privacy concerns often arise when information
  collected for one purpose is subsequently used
  for other purposes.
• Concerns abate when mailers and lists renters
  offer consumers the opportunity to object to this
  reuse.