Reaching the right people is crucial to your direct mail marketing campaign.
The main driver of your direct marketing campaign is your mailing list[amsive_tooltip term=”compiled-list”]. Sending your pieces to the wrong audience can negatively impact your brand and can be a waste of resources. You may have the most appealing offer or a beautifully designed mail, without building a targeted mailing list, you wouldn’t achieve your desired results.
However, one question comes to mind amongst marketers: How do you find the right addresses for your list? We’ve listed a couple of effective ways to help you find addresses for marketing and build your list.
Ways to Obtain a Mailing List
Whether you are new to direct mail starting out to build your list, or a veteran looking to increase your lead generation or expand your list, finding addresses can be quite a challenge. You have the option to buy mailing lists from sellers but it won’t guarantee high success rates. Or, you can choose to do it manually but it would take more time and effort in doing so.
Look Into Your Current Customer Base
Marketers, oftentimes, are guilty of chasing new opportunities that they forget nurturing their existing ones.
Your customer list is a great place to start. These are the people you already have a relationship with and are more likely to appreciate receiving direct mail from you as compared to cold leads[amsive_tooltip term=”lead”].
They are an integral part of your target audience and they will be more responsive to what you offer. Best of it all, this can save you money as you don’t need to shell out to get their addresses. Make it a habit to keep your customer database[amsive_tooltip term=”database-marketing”] clean and up to date. Keep your list free of incorrect information, duplicate entries, or any other inaccuracies.
After a single purchase, a customer has a 27 percent chance of returning to your store. That may not sound too appealing but if you can get that customer to make a second and third purchase, there’s a 54 percent chance of them making another purchase. This is why it is important to keep organized records of everyone who inquires about your business or has been in a transaction with you.
Buy or Rent a Mailing List
If you don’t have a customer database yet, you can buy or rent a list. Renting a mailing list is the best way to go especially for startups as it is less expensive. It’s also less of a commitment since you don’t need to maintain the list. Although you won’t own the names on the list and they are likely to be shared with a competitor, you own whoever it is that responds to your campaign.
There are two main types of rented direct mail address lists: response lists and compiled lists. Response lists are individuals who inquired, replied to, and purchased an offer from a similar business. Since they are proven to respond, this type of list is more expensive than compiled ones.
Compiled lists are people with similar interests such as car owners, homeowners, and so on. This list is compiled using several sources like government databases, magazine subscriptions, credit card lists, vehicle registrations, and phone records. Compiled lists are less expensive as they often generate lower returns.
Takeaways
Reaching the right people is crucial to your direct mail marketing campaign. If you’re set on building your own list, we hope our tips help you decide on how and where to acquire mailing addresses. For the best return for your budget, consider working with a professional mailing house, such as Amsive. Using proprietary tools, we highly target the right audience and we offer the best performance metrics possible to greatly improve the predictability of your marketing efforts.
