Business Mailing List 101: 5 Important Steps to Know Before You Buy

On a good day, 80% of direct mail gets opened while only 20% of emails get opened. This means that direct mail has a higher response and conversion rate compared to email marketing. The success of any direct mail marketing campaign rests on a few factors. One of those key factors is a targeted business mailing list.

Business mailing lists ensure that you get to send eye-catching direct mail pieces to the right audience. Without a targeted direct mail list, you risk sending your mail to the wrong prospect and wasting your money.

Want to buy quality business mailing lists? Read on and learn 5 important steps to know before you buy a mailing list.

1. Know Who Your Target Audience Is

Before you buy business mailing lists, you need to learn more about your target audience. In other words, you have to know who you sending it to for your campaign to be successful. Sometimes the best way to do this is to look at your current customers. Your future customers will typically look like them, so when buying a list you want to find like-minded people. With your mailing list, you have the ability to narrow it down based on specific elements that are key to your marketing campaigns.

For example, you can segment your mailing list as follows:

• By geography
• Demographics
• Business stats
• By traits and hobbies
• By customer status

In some cases, you may need to combine different segments to reach your target audience. For instance, you can combine data from geography, demographics, and traits or hobbies to compile of the most effective list.

2. Determine the Update Frequency

Before buying a mailing list you will want to know where your list vendor is getting their data form and how clean the list is. Mailing to the wrong list or an outdated one will dramatically affect the success of your campaign. So, it is important make sure your list is NCOA and CASS certified before buying.

Second, a clean list ensures that you don’t send direct mail to people who no longer live at a particular address. If this were to happen, you will end up losing money and time. In fact, this can be all be avoided during the NCOA process, which should be done on all mailing lists.

Another tip: Before buying business mailing lists, always find out when it was last updated from your vendor. For reference, a quality mailing list should get updated every 30 days.

3. Have a Clear Marketing Goal

What would you like to achieve after running your direct mail marketing campaigns? Would you like to improve your brand engagement? Are you just trying to get your name out to possible prospects? Or simply direct your target audience to your new store? Would you like to make a quick sale or foster long term relationships with your customers?

Having clear marketing objectives before sending out your direct mail pieces is very important. With clear objectives, it is easier for you to design your direct mail for your target audience. As such, it makes it easy for you to achieve your marketing objectives.

4. Cost of Business Mailing Lists

List owners sell business mailing lists at a cost per thousand. As such, you can find general mailing lists ranging from $20 to $85 per thousand and those prices can increase if you purchase for multi usage.

For specialized lists, the price is a bit higher per thousand but the goal is that you are getting a more targeted list, which will yield a higher response. If you need the phone contacts only or business email lists, you can add those to a mail file and purchase on the per thousand basis from the list vendor.

5. List Source

There are many list vendors out there selling data so you will want to know where they are getting their lists from and do they guarantee the information. Most data is profiled from Credit Card reports and mail back rebates, but understanding where your vendor is getting the information is very important.

As mentioned previously, you want to make sure they are selling you clean, up-to-date data that they will back. Not knowing where your lists are coming from is a dangerous game and could not only hurt your brand but waste thousands of dollars.

How to Get a Mailing List

When it comes to sourcing business mailing lists, find a reputable company. It should offer quality, accurate, clean and up to date data. Doing so ensures the success of your direct mail marketing campaigns.

For all your direct mail and custom mailing list needs, get in touch with us today. Above all, we at Modern Mail & Print Solutions will ensure your business needs are met.