How do you select a consumer mailing list that will give you the best return on investment?

You use selection criteria all the time to target your mailing list to the right prospects.  But what criteria do you use to make sure that the consumer file you are using will give you the best return on investment?

The quality of data compilation and data hygiene can have a significant impact on your mailing results.  You want to be sure you are using the best consumer mailing list available to give you competitive edge and help increase revenue with more efficient marketing. 

Here are key questions to ask when considering the quality of a consumer mailing list:

• Does the file have comprehensive coverage of the market?
• Is the file built from a large number of independent data sources to cross-verify information?
• Is the data integrated using state of the art technology?
• Is the highest quality data hygiene used to eliminate duplicate and deceased records?

At Acxiom, we are constantly striving to improve the quality of our data.  We know it’s a competitive field, so over the past year, Acxiom has expanded and improved the InfoBase® Consumer List with more information, better coverage, more detail and improved accuracy.  InfoBase-X™ Consumer List now has more than 200 million records from 100 data sources and three times the data elements giving you better coverage, more selections, better deliverability—and better results!

Our goal is to always be #1 so you’re #1.  We are happy to report that for the fourth year in a row, Acxiom has outperformed the competition with the highest number and percentage of marketable records.

Outperforming the competition

Over the last four years, Acxiom has engaged an independent third party to conduct studies comparing the deliverability of InfoBase-X Consumer List with the lists of major competitors. The studies compared files from Acxiom, Experian, KnowledgeBase Marketing (KBM) and infoUSA.

In the most recent survey, conducted in the fall 2007, Acxiom beat the competition—as in each previous year—providing the largest number and highest percentage of marketable records.

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The 2007 study found:

• Acxiom produced the highest percentage of marketable records at 97.10% compared to KnowledgeBase Marketing’s 91.00%, Experian’s 87.33% and infoUSA’s 88.65%.
• Acxiom’s duplicate elimination processes again far exceeded the other files with just 0.10% file duplicates compared to KnowledgeBase Marketing’s 3.10%, Experian’s 5.27% and infoUSA’s 5.29%.
• The Acxiom file also contained the fewest number of deceased records at 0.30% compared to KnowledgeBase Marketing’s 1.90%, Experian’s 1.70% and infoUSA’s 3.60%.

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Translating marketable records into a higher ROI

Statistics are great, but what does this really mean to a mailer in terms of return on investment?

Acxiom’s InfoBase-X Consumer List provides a larger number of marketable records, and a higher percentage of marketable records, than its top competitors. This translates to a higher response rate and significant savings. No matter what your mail quantity, a difference of 6% to 10% in the number of records that reach their target will have a significant impact on your results.   Acxiom’s InfoBase-X Consumer List is the best choice to help ensure the best ROI.

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How the Study Was Conducted

As in previous years, the 2007 study files were ordered through a third party from Acxiom, Experian, KnowledgeBase Marketing and infoUSA; all available individual names and addresses were requested in the six ZIP Codes™* used in each of the previous studies. The ZIP Codes were selected to provide geographical diversity and to allow comparison of areas known to have good data coverage on all files. Also included were areas with known legal restrictions on data.

The ZIP Codes included:

North Babylon, NY 11703
Largo, FL 33778
Clarendon Hills, IL 60514
Shawnee Mission, KS 66214
Alpine, UT 84004
Villa Park, CA 92861

All files were delivered electronically and standard prices were paid.

All files were exported into identical fixed field formats for the Acxiom Data Health Assessment and the AbiliTec® link append processes. For the link append service, records were coded with the file source, a unique sequence number, name, street, city,
state and ZIP Code.

Following the AbiliTec Link appending, the records were processed with Acxiom’s AddressAbility® product to analyze addresses, recognize residential versus business addresses and find deceased records, as well as records that the USPS® file showed as “moved.” Once processing was completed, Data Health Assessment reports were run, statistics generated and a quality index was generated for each file.

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