The Five Customary Types of Direct Mail Lists:
House list: This is a list you will create for yourself. It is comprised of current customers, past customers, and anyone who has contacted your business for whom you’ve kept a record. House lists are effective since these are “warm” prospects with interest and trust in your business. House lists should be used often.
Response list: This lists the people who have responded to other businesses that offer similar products or services as yours. You can get these types of lists from providers like private list companies, direct mail companies or magazines. Although these prospects haven’t responded to your business directly, they demonstrate interest in your type of products or services, which means they will likely be receptive to your offer.
Targeted demographic list: Also known as a ‘demo’ list, this list type is comprised of anyone you want to target. These lists target prospects by demographics like geographic location, age, gender, income level, number of children living in the home, etc… which means your list can be very specific to who you want to target.
Segmented list: A segmented list is like a demographic list, but it’s even more targeted. Segmented lists use a very specific data set to target prospects, for example: habits on dining out, spending vs. saving vs. credit usage, preferences for reading materials, travel or vacationing patterns, etc. Segmentation technology can also be used to analyze your company’s active customer base. This segmentation allows you to identify similarities within a certain demographic and build a list based on common elements.
Opt-in list: Opt-ins are ideal lists because people have actually requested to be on them. They can, however, be a bit more expensive to obtain, being as they are considered “prime” and highly effective. With regard to this, however, they can yield incredible ROI, so they should not be neglected if possible.
See also: EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) | Saturation Mailing Lists | Occupant Mailing Lists | Residential Mailing Lists
