ProEd InfoLists INSIDER Marketing Report
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ANATOMY OF A MAILING LIST ORDER

To understand a list order, you have to know how the industry works. Let's start with an example:

LIST OWNER: Business Week is owned by McGraw-Hill. Publishing is their business, but they realize they have a valuable commodity in their subscriber list. Rather than trying to market their subscriber list to all of the potential mailers, they hire an outside company known as a ...

LIST MANAGER: A list manager typically represents a number of list owners and, for a percentage of the sales, markets the lists they represent to the...

LIST BROKERS: The brokers have all of the clients, like you, who are the ultimate users of the lists. List managers constantly market to the brokers, keeping them up-to-date on lists they represent. A list broker can get you virtually any list in the world on the rental market.

Most brokers specialize, like we do at InfoLists. InfoLists specializes in business and professional lists, not consumer lists, for clients who sponsor seminars, conferences, and professional training programs. Some brokers specialize in fund raising lists, lists for investment offers, merchandise lists. You name it. List brokers typically have no vested interest in the lists they recommend to you. They want to see you use the best, highest response lists, no matter what the source.

There are some exceptions to the above, such as some list owners who also take on the list marketing responsibility and go directly to brokers. Also, companies who compile lists from yellow pages, trade and association directories, credit files, etc., will also market to brokers (wholesale) as well as to ultimate client users.

Can you save money if you bypass the broker? 99% of the time the answer is no. The price YOU ultimately pay to rent a list is going to be the same whether you work with a broker or an owner, even if there's a manager in between. Take this example for an order of 5,000 subscriber names of a magazine we will call "Strategy." It's $125/1,000 plus selection charges, shipping and output (more on those later.)

Your rent 5,000 names from: Broker Owner of Strategy
You pay $750 $750
Broker makes 125 0
List manager makes 63 0
Cost to fulfill your order` 75 75
Owner makes $487 $675

You pay the same but the owner makes more. Why, you ask, would an owner work through list managers and brokers? Because brokers have loyal client relationships by virtue of the unbiased counsel they provide to their clients. They are motivated to serve their clients well, rent lists as their primary business (not as a by-product of publishing), and account for 95% of the list rental sales in the USA, according to a Stanford University research report for the Direct Marketing Association in 1999. Plus, most list owners would prefer to rent far more names at a lower margin and not have the overhead and hassle of doing it solely on their own.

SO, YOU NEED A MAILING LIST?

Call a broker. Be armed with the following information to help your broker help you.

What is your offer, course -- fax your broker the info first thing.
Who is your target market -- who will buy or attend. Be specific.
What geographic area do you want to cover.
What is your mail date
When do you need to receive the list(s)
How do you want to receive the list(s)
Diskette, email, magnetic tape, cheshire, pressure-sensitive
If electronic, what format ASCII, EBCDIC, other

As your broker, we can help you with any of these areas that may be new or unfamiliar to you.

HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE TO GET A LIST

More is always better. The steps go something like this:

  1. Phone discussion with your list broker to whom you have faxed a sample of your brochure or letter (old, new, draft)
  2. Broker researches to find the best lists to recommend.
  3. You review recommendations provided to you (they are called data cards.)
  4. Broker proceeds to get counts for the geographic area you want.
  5. You decide on what list you want to order and any refinements relating to selection criteria.
  6. Broker submits list orders along with a sample of your order for the owners approval (some owners may say NO due to competitiveness.)
  7. Final counts are generated, along with any documents you may need to sign (like a List Rental Agreement for one-time use.)
  8. You review final counts with your broker and make any final adjustments to the order.
  9. Broker submits the final order with all specifications. The list owner or manager might ask for pre-payment if this is the first time you have ordered a list from them.
  10. Order is shipped to you by the list owner's or list manager's service bureau. (Your broker does not receive the list and forward it to you.)
  11. You check the list and any documentation to be sure it is correct.

The above is the typical process and can take from one to three weeks, or more, depending on the complexity of the orders, the responsiveness of the parties involved, etc. The more time you can allow, the better the results.

TERMS YOU MAY NEED TO KNOW

  • SCF -- Sectional Center Facility is the first three digits of the ZIP code.
  • SAMPLE -- A draft of what you will be mailing to submit to the owner for approval. It does not have to be the actual printed piece. Could be a previously mailed sample, even though you may be making changes to it.
  • BASE PRICE -- Cost per thousand for the entire list.
  • SELECTIONS -- Cost per thousand to select such things as company size, job title, industry, etc.
  • OUTPUT -- How you want to physically receive the mailing list.
  • MINIMUM ORDER -- A minimum quantity of names, or dollar amount, for which you will be charged. The minimum order, typically 5,000 names, is set by the list manager and owner, not the broker.

DIRECT MAIL LISTS, EMAIL LISTS, FAX LISTS

Before you get to excited about the many options you have for these various lists, keep in mind that the bottom-line is what works. And until you are able to track 90% or more of your responses directly to their source, evaluating other options is meaningless. You need to know which lists give you the most bang for your buck. Then you have a basis for comparison.

Once you have a tracking system in place, then proceed to test your options with your internal/in-house list first. Measure the response to your own list for a specific offer via mail, email, and fax. Now you will have a basis for comparing mail, email, and fax lists you rent to the response on your internal list.

AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ... If your list broker can't answer your questions or help you solve your problems, find another list broker.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION ... For direct mail lists, email lists, high volume laser letters, and seminar or conference marketing strategy and production assistance, your can contact us at: