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Mailing Lists Explained

You may think that once you have a sizeable mailing list that you can stop prospecting new customers. Think again. Competition can take away your customers. Layoffs can shrink your postcard mailing list. So you need to keep marketing your business and direct mail pieces, such as postcards, can be just the ticket you need when times are steady and you don’t want to spend a lot on advertising.

You can use postcard marketing as a cheap way to build a relationship with current customers to make sure that they stay your customers. You can also use postcard printing pieces to follow up with customers and ensure that they are happy with your product. Purchase a mailing list

Small and large companies alike generally purchase mailing lists of qualified customers to reach their target market. InfoUSA is one such provider of business and consumer data. That’s the old way, although it still works.

Today, it’s much easier to search through Internet databases of 14 million U.S. businesses and 250 million customers. Because many databases verify and update their consumer data, you won’t waste your money sending your postcard printing pieces and other direct mail pieces to old addresses.

Kinds of Info You Get From a Mailing List

The amount and kind of information you can get from mailing lists depends on how much you’re willing to pay.

For business prospects, the basics include a prospect’s business name, contact name, business type, address, city, state and ZIP code. Usually you can download these lists to make your postcard marketing mailing go faster.

If you need more than the basics you’ll have to pay! For an additional fee, you can get the prospect’s phone numbers, fax number, Web site address, number of employees, years in business, sales volume and even square-footage of the company’s headquarters.

For consumer, or individual leads, you can get a prospect's name, address and type of residence.

For an additional fee, you can get a phone number plus more personal information such as marital status, age, household income, size of household, homeowner or renter status, average home value, whether the household includes children and whether it includes pets. You can even find out hobbies and interests if people have filled out questionnaires.

Just think how this info can enhance your postcard mailing list. You won’t be wasting as much money because it’s like you know the people you’re sending them to!

Where does this info come from?

All the info comes from publicly available records. Some data companies also verify the info by calling the prospects. Business info is generally compiled from telephone books, business and government directories, Web sites and public company filings. Consumer information is generally compiled from phone books and online and off-line surveys.

How much does it cost?

Costs vary depending on how much info you want and the company you choose to get your mailing list from. The size of the list also contributes to the cost. For example, let’s say you want a list of all the used car lots that have 50-100 employees in XYZ city. The cost for purchasing a basic mailing list of about 600 leads would cost about $400, and to get a complete database for all the leads would cost about $500.

Consumer mailing lists are generally much cheaper – a list with about 600 individual leads generally costs between $100-$200.