When you commit valuable resources to renting a mailing list, you want to make sure you're maximizing your ROI and odds of success. How do you do that? List selects.
Although datacards by nature provide key information about a list—quantity available, description, cost per thousand names, source, last update, etc.—sometimes you have to read between the lines to find out the quality of the names you're getting. The next time you review a datacard for a mailing, ask your list broker the following:
1. What selects are available?
According to David James, President of Bethesda List Center, a good list broker can help you rent a list of names, using selects, that looks like your best customers. Start by choosing a type of list--response or compiled--and your trading area--business or consumer. Then, look at the job title and function selects. But don't over select, he warns. "You're always looking on the outskirts of your target customers, to the ones that are 85% qualified," James says. "That's where you'll frequently find new customers."
2. How complete are the selects?
When you look at all of the counts for a given select category, do they total the number of names available? For example, do the state counts, when combined, equal the total names available for that list? If they don't, ask your list broker why. In the case of a membership list, for example, the gaps could be from lack of member input. It may, however, be a housekeeping issue, in which case you may want to keep looking at other available lists.
3. Can you run a list merging two selects?
This is a biggie. For a seminar company, what's better than renting a list of human resources professionals? Renting a list of human resources professionals (job title select) who have made a purchase in the past six months (recency select). For some list owners or brokers, running a list of contacts who meet two criteria is simply a matter of programming. For others, it's not, but you won't lose anything by asking. The more you can fine-tune your rental, the more likely you are to hit your target audience.
