Get the Maximum Results from Your Mailing List

The quality of your mailing list is the most powerful component of your direct mail plan. 

Your list has greater leverage in increasing your response than your offer, the timing of your mailing, or your creative.  So before you starting working on design and copy, spend some more time making sure your mailing list gets you the maximum results.

Your mailing list is really an integration of multiple lists that should include your customers, inquiries and leads, and prospect lists.  But don’t treat all these lists the same.  You’ll get a much higher response if you have a separate mailing strategy for each group.

Treat your customers like gold

Your current customers usually make up your most profitable mailing list, but not all customers are alike. To get the best results, you need as much information about your customers as possible so you can send them the most appropriate and personalized offers. 

From your first point of contact—whether it’s an order form or a landing page—make sure to request as much information as you can so you have mailing, phone and e-mail contact information as well as information that can help you determine market and product preferences.

If your company is working to build customer email contact information and permission, you may want to consider online surveys a cost effective way to gather additional information on customer characteristics and preferences.  Customers appreciate the opportunity to answer a short, well-designed survey that will improve their shopping experience.

Store all customer information in a secure contact management database that will allow you to customize the data fields you store, capture promotion and purchase history, and allow you to run reports analyzing the data.

Consider segmenting your customers by matching your customer list against a national consumer or business database that can give you a more detailed analysis of your customer characteristics.  This portrait can uncover hidden affinities that will help you improve your marketing to customers and prospects.  You can also use this data to enhance your customer file for future mailing selections.

With a well-designed customer database, you can use RFM selections (recency of purchase, frequency of purchase, monetary value of purchase) in combination with customer portrait characteristics and affinities to create personalized mailings and communications that will give you a much higher response to your mailings.

In fact, customer mailings that are highly relevant are usually so well received and profitable that you can mail your customers more frequently than you would leads and prospects.  But be careful not to overdo it.  Unwanted mail causes waste—it wastes the customer’s time; it wastes resources; and it just ends up in the recycling bin or garbage.

Don’t let your inquiries and leads get lost in the shuffle

One of the biggest sources of lost revenue are the inquiries and leads that are collected from lead generation mailings, trade shows, and phone inquiries that sit in a pile on someone’s desk waiting to be entered in a database, but are never followed up.  After your customers, this is your next most powerful list.

The No. 1 step is to get these valuable leads into your contact management system as quickly as possible.  Use all the same procedures you would for entering a customer by capturing contact information and classifying them by characteristics and preferences. 

Make this a top priority for someone in your organization.  Consider ways to automate data entry by using scanners, electronic file transfers from trade shows and direct feeds from your company’s website landing pages.

Be sure to send a personalized e-mail or mailing promptly after any event or activity that generated a lead.  This is a great opportunity to make an impression with a thank you and a presentation of additional appropriate information.

Your leads and inquiries should then become part of your ongoing mailing program so these individuals continue to be alerted to new products and services that may ultimately convert them into a valuable customer.

Prospect for new customers to grow your business

When you analyze your mailing results, your customer segments are likely to be the most profitable.  But you need to prospect for new customers to grow your business.  Here are some of the direct mail strategies you can use to boost your prospect mailing results:

Know your customer portrait and it will help you improve your prospect list results.  Match your customer portrait against the selection options on prospect lists to find the best match.

Look for affinities with your product.  Find lists of buyers, subscribers or members whose group demographics match the subject or type of product you are offering.

Use a list broker to make list recommendations for your prospect mailing.  A list broker doesn’t cost you more, and you get the benefit of their experience working with other mailers.

Understand the different types of lists.  Not all prospect lists are alike. The most commonly used types of lists are compiled lists and response lists.

Compiled lists – These have been specifically created to provide very detailed characteristics about different segments including demographics, purchasing behavior, lifestyle preferences, economic status and geographic location for households and individuals.  For businesses, these lists provide firmagraphic data such as employee size, sales volume, SIC code and location.  For professionals, these lists provide job-related information such as job title, job function and licensing.

Response lists – These lists are also called “buyer lists” and are usually the customer lists of other companies and organizations that are available for list rental.  These lists provide actual buyer names and households, but tend to have far fewer characteristics than compiled lists.  Companies may also deny a request to use their list if they feel an offer is too competitive.

Test new lists and new selections with every mailing.  Use the “winner” as your control in your next campaign, then test something new again.

Review all the list selection options.  Be sure to consider all the selection options that a list owner provides.  There may be a select option that has an affinity for your product and offer that can give you a lift in response.

New names and recent buyers almost always perform better.  If the list owner offers a recency selection, use this selection option to mail more recent buyers/inquiries.  This will reduce your mailing quantity, but the more current the names in your list, the better your response will be.

Strategies to improve results for all mailing lists

There are three key ways to improve your results on all of your mailings:

Use good mailing list hygiene.  Good data hygiene saves money and makes a good impression on the recipients of your mailings.  You can do your part by making sure you capture and update customer and inquiry lists on an ongoing basis.  Work with a reliable mailing services company to run a merge/purge on your list and provide enhanced list updating and suppression services.

Track your results.  Direct mail will provide you with a wealth of data if you track your results.  Invest in a database marketing system to provide you with results on your different mailing segments so you can evaluate which lists, offers and creative are most effective. The improvement in results will usually more than offset your investment.

Calculate your ROI.  Last, but not least, use the analytics from your database marketing system to calculate the ROI on each mailing and test segment.  Upfront response is never the ultimate measure of the success of a campaign.  The real “winners” may surprise you when you take ROI into consideration.

When planning your next mailing list campaign, contact the Acxiom Xpress team to help you put these recommendations into practice to improve your results.

The Acxiom Team Helps You Grow Your Business

At Acxiom, we help companies increase their market share and create enduring customer loyalty.  Whether your order is $20 or $25,000 we will help you create the best marketing plan to generate new leads and grow your business.

Our knowledge of the direct marketing industry and the unparalleled quality of Acxiom data is the combination that leads to your success.  Our dedicated account team will work with you to make your job easier.   We know you’re busy enough doing your job.  Rely on us to do ours, and see the results.

Call us for a free consultation 800-732-9250
8:00 – 6:00 ET Monday through Friday

Email us any time with your questions:
IBLExpress@acxiom.com

To order Acxiom mailing lists online, go to:
www.mymailingleads.com

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