The keys to a successful direct marketing campaign weigh heavily on two critical components: the offer and the AUDIENCE. Ideally your audience has an awareness about your brand and/or company and will quickly identify and more importantly respond to your direct mail communication.

The best way to approach acquiring a prospect database is to take a hard look at your current customers. Write down everything you know about them: gender, age, ethnicity, education, income, occupation, interests, hobbies, children in the household, car(s) owned, pets, vacation and leisure affinities, etc… These characteristics are broken down into two categories: demographics and psychographics. Demographics include items such as age, income and gender. Psychographic data would include a consumers buying preferences, lifestyle, values, attitudes and interests. The research and detail you collect will serve as a foundation for acquiring a targeted mailing list.

Mailing lists come in all different shapes and sizes, just like your customers. To simplify your search you will need to choose between a “compiled” vs. “response-active” list. Compiled lists are just that – compiled. They often have tons of information like age, income, homeowner, renter and interests to name just a few. You pay per thousand for the names and selections. Response active lists contain names of people who have responded to a direct mail offer in the past. These lists are definitely more expensive but typically outperform a compiled list. Either list allows you to choose a geographic location – city, zip code(s) or MSA (metropolitan statistical area).

SunDance can help you weed thru your data and drill down to key commonalities to help define your perfect “target” market and acquire the mailing list for your next direct mail campaign. Unsure of where to begin? Call SunDance today and schedule a FREE consultative review of your next targeted mailing campaign.

FIND OUT ABOUT OUR DIRECT MAILING SERVICESFIND OUT ABOUT MAILING LIST DATABASE MANAGEMENT