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Lucky Lists: Secrets Of Finding And Using Magical Mailing Lists For Your Direct Marketing. by Jeffrey Dobkin

The list used to address your mailing is by far your single most important consideration. Why? Because a poorly conceived marketing message will pull more response from a good list, than a well-conceived message will from a bad one.

Thankfully, the worst that can happen to you in direct mail is that you’ll lose money. Considering life’s grand scheme—with illness, car wrecks or the occasional rotten bottle of wine—that’s not so bad.

But still, it stinks. After all, you’re in the mail to make a profit, right? At least you should be. If you don’t make money, you won’t be in the mail again. Profit is why you are in business. Any arguments?

You can make lots of mistakes in direct mail. You can create a terrible mailing package that no one will open. You can set your price too high, or too low and people won’t buy. You can offer your products at the wrong time.

Nothing, however, is as bad as mailing to the wrong list. Poor list selection is the worst goof you can make in direct mail. It’s Chevy hubcaps to Buick owners. Radios to the deaf. Bottle caps to a tuna factory.

The #1 Secret of List Selection Success
Direct marketing can be dynamite. Why? Because no other marketing channel offers you the ability to focus your message so precisely on an audience that is interested in your product or service.

But direct marketing success eludes many small businesses because they fail to grasp the purpose and value of the one key thing that can make or break their marketing program—the mailing list.

The list used to address your mailing is by far your single most important consideration. Why? Because a poorly conceived marketing message will pull more response from a good list, than a well-conceived message will from a bad one.

The best of all worlds is a well-conceived message presented to a highly targeted list of people with demonstrated interest in both the offer and the channel used to present it—direct mail.

Expanding Your Horizons
Most entrepreneurs first encounter mailing lists when talking with a local ad agency, printer or lettershop about an initial direct mail effort. Such sources of list information are usually quite limited, since mailing lists are not a major line of business for any of these suppliers. These vendors are most likely to steer you to what the list industry calls “compiled lists.”

A compiled list is any mailing list assembled from a public source—telephone directories, court records, surveys or any other publicly available source of names, addresses, phone numbers or other contact details. There are about a half dozen large companies that compile, maintain and sell such addressing data on a nationwide basis, and they are often the source of the lists you’d acquire from a local partner. There are also dozens of smaller, regional companies that offer compilations covering parts of the country or perhaps specific industries.

Response Lists Stand Tall
What many small business owners don’t know is that there’s another kind of mailing list that can, in many instances, increase response of the same mailing piece by four to ten times. They are called response-generated lists.

A response-generated list is vastly different from a compiled list. That’s because it’s actually another direct marketer’s customer or buyer list. In other words, it’s a list that has already proven successful for somebody. Every name on it has already demonstrated a responsiveness to some kind of direct marketing effort.

And this demonstration of responsiveness is golden. It’s the key to understanding the great power of using the right list. People on response-generated lists have raised their hand and said, “I need or want this product or service, and I’d like to acquire it by mail order.” Talk about demonstrated interest! Response-generated lists deliver prospects who’ve clearly indicated their buying interest and have shown a preference for the very channel you want to use—direct mail itself. There are tens of thousands of commercially-available, response- generated mailing lists, including:

* Magazine subscribers
* Catalog/mail order buyers
* Cause contributors
* Trade or professional association members

Almost every conceivable human interest or need is represented among this great class of mailing lists. Find a reputable data company to help you find the ones that might be right for you. If you’re using only compiled lists in your marketing program now, you should test a response-generated list in your next mailing.

Jeffrey Dobkin, the author of the books "How To Market A Product For Under $500!" and "Uncommon Marketing Techniques," is a specialist in direct response copywriting. He analyzes and tunes-up clients' letters; writes powerful, response-driven sales letters, TV commercials and scripts; crafts persuasive catalog copy; and creates exceptionally hard-hitting direct mail packages. He also analyzes direct marketing packages, ads, catalogs, and campaigns. Mr. Dobkin is an acclaimed fun and funny speaker and a direct marketing consultant. Call him directly at 610-642-1000 or visit www.jeffreydobkin.com for free samples of his work. Or fax your letter to (610-642-6832) for a free evaluation.