Direct Mail: Your List is EVERYTHING

Recently, I was thinking about doing a direct mail piece for my own business. A few weeks into working until midnight, I thought to hold off. But it got me thinking, after handling/advising clients about HOW to best send out a mailer, the most important part wasn't being discussed. You can mail all day, waste all the postage you want, but if you don't reach the right demographic, your chances of making a sale or generating interest in your product/service is basically nil.

It's always best to use an agency (like mine) when garnering new business. But the more information you have (and they don't always ask for it), the better list you get. For example, if you own a new restaurant, best to target certain zip codes first. Seems obvious right? Well, how about if you target those zip codes AND reach people within a certain income range or age? Always think about what you want in these categories: Age, Income, Homeownership, and Home Market Value.

Zip codes: You can give your list broker the zip code for your restaurant, but also give them a radius of 5 miles (for example) to work within. Remember, after you get a number of targeted address from your agency, you can always change the radius to either increase or decrease the number of mailers you want to send. Better to work with more and narrow it down.

Now, let's go beyond age, income, home value and home ownership vs. renter--we can help you further target your list in relation to lifestyle (magazines they subscribe to for example), household size (children or no children) and marital status.

You can always combine this new targeted list with your own database depending on what your pitch is.

Let your agency do the legwork--the amount postage is these days, you can't afford not to.