Direct mail marketing is one of the most surefire ways to boost your sales. It gives your business an opportunity to deliver your marketing piece to a prospective customer “directly”. But, you have to be careful in selecting whom you are sending the direct mail coupons, serve deals and product catalogs. For your marketing campaigns to be truly successful, you will have to develop, rent or buy effective direct mailing lists. This will ensure that you are sending the mail to the “person who is actually interested in buying from you”. Here are some of the things that you must consider before choosing a direct mail marketing mailing list:
ASK THE LIST PROVIDER HOW CUSTOMER PROFILING HAS BEEN DONE
The most integral part of choosing a mailing list from a rental company or a broker is that your respective vendor has done a market research and has a list of prospects, which have the attributes of becoming your ideal customer. Therefore, before you select a list, ask the vendor about how the breakdown of the demographics has been done and whether the behavioral characteristics of the customers are considered when updating the lists.
DO MARKETING PROFILING YOURSELF FIRST
Before selecting a mailing list, it is imperative that you profile your prospective market. You should know what exactly your target market is really like. If you are a local business, you may actually want to visit the area you want to do your business and analyze what are the basic interests and activities of the people. Knowing the preferences of the people and the estimated number of targeted individuals for a desired ROI should be considered when you are developing an ideal mailing list.
ASK THE BROKER FOR OPTIONS WHILE CHOOSING THE LISTS
Getting the list of leads from a mailing list broker is a common approach. But, make sure that when you reach out to a broker to acquire the list, the mailing list broker does not show you the exact number of lists that you want to order. For instance, you are launching a new hair product, and you want to order fifteen mailing lists, the broker should show you at least twenty to thirty mailing lists, giving you the option to take your pick.
ANALYZE THE MAILING LIST TYPE
There are various different types of direct mailing lists. Typically, mailing lists that contain the leads similar to your current clientele and specialty mailing lists are most successful for direct mail marketing campaigns. However, you can always build a unique mailing list for the recent campaigns by merging different lists or telling your mailing list provider about the various criteria that you would want to be incorporated in the list. These special parameters may include the lifestyle, worth of the homes that the prospective clients live in, rental income, gender, and other factors.
COVERAGE DEPTH AND UPDATED INFORMATION
When you are choosing the mailing list, you must ensure that it is updated and contains the most recent information about the prospective customers. The mailing list ought to have coverage depth in it, that is, it takes all the necessary factors and caters to the geographical, demographical and behavioral aspects of the customers.