The first stepping stone to a successful direct mail campaign is acquisition or development of the right list.
Since the main virtue of direct marketing is targeting to specific prospects it makes sense that the selection of those prospects will have a great deal to do with the success of the whole process.
Most experts agree that list selection has a 30% to 50% impact on the overall effectiveness of direct marketing. In selecting a list you want to target people most likely to have an existent interest in what you have to offer as well as some things in common with your present good customers.
These commonalities might be found in age, sex, occupation, income level, neighborhood or geographic area, credit card ownership, family size, magazine subscribed to, or any number of other demographics.
These factors are called demographics and the professional sources you might rent mailing list from can be incredibly sophisticated in finding or compiling a mailing list of people who conform to your set of desired demographics.
In business-to-business marketing the same sophistication is available. Lists of companies can be obtained by size, sales volume, asset value, number of employees, type of business, geographic area, magazines subscribed to, credit rating and other factors.
Lists of executives, owners, sales managers, personnel managers, purchasing agents, stockholders, or secretaries are also readily available.
List selection can be as simple or sophisticated as you need or want to make it. The owner of an upper class restaurant might want to obtain a mailing list of homeowners within a 50-mile radius of his restaurant who have at least one bank credit card.
A private aircraft manufacturer might want the list of corporate officers and business owners with net worth’s in access of a half million dollars all across the country.
As a rule the more demographic factors you can use in controlling the list, the costlier the list. To a great degree extra money spent in narrowing down the list to fit your desired factors is money well spent.
To find mailing lists you can locate list brokers and sources in your own area by looking in the yellow pages under such categories as mailing lists, mailing services and advertising consultants.
There are also many national sources.
For a thorough education in the kind of services and lists available go to the main public library in your area and review the directory of mailing lists online, at SRDS.com Standard Rate and Data Service.
Small business marketing people should also compile their own mailing lists. For one thing you should maintain an up-to-date mailing list of all your customers and clients.
Direct mail to this list can stimulate additional business, introduce new products and services or promote sales or special offers.
Author Info: Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice. 
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
list selection has a 30% to 50% impact on the overall effectiveness of direct marketing
For one thing you should maintain an up-to-date mailing list of all your customers and clients.
yes Dan, I am always focusing on building a list in every niche I go into.
great article.
thanks much.
saying direct mail is too expensive is like saying the sex is not good. No, you’re just not doing it right. Good CD last month
the more highly focused your targeted list is – the more profitable it will work for you…
say you spent $300 on 10,000 names and your return was 1/2% and the average person spent $200 that equals $10,000 or about 34 to 1 ROI
but say you had a highly focused laser pinpointed targeted select list and you spent $500 on just 2000 names – but you got a 8% response rate and a $475 average invoice – now you have made $76,000 or about 152 to 1 ROI
the more focused… the more money!
Thank you for this info!! I am guilty of blindly sending okay mailings to random prospects and getting 0 results from it. I’m preparing a new direct mail campaign and your list building advice has me confident I will see that money return quickly.
So Rob, your saying that, once again, quality is the criterion, not quantity.
I think that most of us tend to go for mass mailings on the basis that we know they’ll be a statistically low rate of response.
You’ve hit the nail on the head when you say that it’s better to have the same spend on a smaller, more focused list and we’ll get a higher response rate.
The logic cannot be denied !
Excellent example, Rob. Hits Dan’s point right on the head.
Contrary to popular belief (and perfectly in line with Dan Kennedy’s renegade teachings), the more people you IGNORE, the better results you’ll get.
I’ve counseled thousands of small business owners over the past 25+ years, and this is one of the tougher concepts for them to grasp and accept.
It’s also why so many small business owners complain that “direct mail doesn’t work” or “direct mail is too expensive.”
Good news for the rest of us who keep reaping huge rewards by doing direct mail the right (Dan Kennedy) way.
Thanks, Dan!
Quality over quantity always wins out!