There are those that claim that the quality of one’s mailing list represents 40% of a mailing’s success or failure. I say BALONEY… it’s more like 80%! A mediocre offer sent to a high quality direct mail list will at least pull its own weight, but good offer sent to a bad or mediocre list will fail almost every time. Let me explain---

There is rarely any other factor that is more important to the profitability of a mailing than the quality of the list you use. While the offer and creative elements are quite important in the total picture, they can’t make or break a mailing like the list can. Typically, direct mail lists come from one of three sources, either purchased (or rented) lists; owned or (“in-house”) lists and email lists. Each has its own special set of considerations. This issue will focus on owned (in-house) postal mailing lists.

Owned direct mail lists are usually customer or prospect lists that a mailer will maintain in their own in-house database. While customer lists can be exceptionally fertile sources for repeat business, such lists can become stale over time if not regularly updated. This is especially true for consumer and small business lists due to high churn rates. So, if mailings are typically sent bulk mail, there is little opportunity to “clean” the list because there are no returns. Presorted first class mailings, on the other hand, will result in most undeliverables eventually being returned to the mailer, allowing for updating of the list. I’ve seen lists that were only 50% deliverable, but the mailer never knew this dismal fact because they used only bulk mail to save postage! In my own operations, we would hire a temp to come in and wade thru the pile of returns, deleting them from our in-house lists to keep our “deliverable rate” around 95%. Cheap compared to the high cost of postage!

Another tip to help in maximizing direct mail profits is “aging” your owned direct mail lists. For example, we would often sort our customer database by date of last purchase and prospect list by how long they had been on the list. By experimenting, we found we could boost returns by eliminating the oldest 20% of names. Your number may be higher or lower, but I guarantee you its worth exploring.

Finally, consider having a mailing service help manage your direct mail list. They maintain sophisticated software that will catch and correct a lot of undeliverables by comparing them to the Postal Service database of current addresses. They can also add the 4 digit Zip Code extensions to your mailings that will help reduce your overall postage costs and boost the profitability of your mailings! Retain a back-up copy offsite... after all your list IS your business!