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With so much negative coverage on ‘junk mail’ in the recent press, you’d be forgiven for thinking that direct mail – and the subsequent list buying this entails - is a rather hit and miss affair. After all, you hear enough consumer complaints through programmes like ‘Brassed Off Britain’ –coupled with the rising levels of consumers registering on the Mailing Preference Service- that it’s enough to put you off direct mail for good. So why buy lists in the first place?
It’s certainly true that badly targeted mail not only upsets the recipient, it doesn’t do well for your brand either. This therefore means that brands must develop a reputation for its ‘best practice use of direct mail’ in building its relationship with customers and prospects alike. Companies must send well-designed, timely, relevant communications or risk facing well deserved consumer backlash. But the bottom line is that people who receive well-targeted mailings that are of interest to them will not complain or think badly of direct mail. Indeed, they are most likely to respond positively. And the key to getting this right, of course, is in the careful selection and purchase of data, the names and addresses of people who will genuinely be interested in your products/services.
Most comforting news for mail order businesses is that consumers, it seems, still like to ‘see what he or she is buying on paper’ and, as a result, direct mail continues to work well. And it will work well for you too, but only if you invest in the right data, or lists, to begin with.
One option, of course, when starting out on your quest to buy in data, is to go direct to suppliers of worth: both List Owners and List Managers. They are fully geared to work with any type of client, whether you are looking for a niche list of 1000 consumer names or companies, or a list of 100,000. Their data consultants will have the necessary knowledge and skills to advise you accordingly.
Without a doubt, there are some extremely good data suppliers in the marketplace; reputable companies are investing heavily in data cleaning and segmentation. Selections are more detailed than ever, and the more established data sources have had the opportunity to be tested thoroughly enough to highlight the high-and low –performance lists. But, for obvious reasons, it’s not always the data supplier who is best placed to share this ‘collective’ intelligence with you. The answer is a good, impartial List Broker -the second, and perhaps most canny, option of all when sourcing B2C and B2B data to expand your database and grow your business through direct marketing.
A good broker, a list consultant by any other name, literally lives and breathes lists. An experienced broker will keep a detailed knowledge bank of which data supplier they can turn to and which ones to avoid like the plague. And this knowledge, insight and money saving intelligence is crucial to get hold of if you’re venturing into direct marketing.
So the next question is, ‘How do you find a good broker –and once ‘found’, what should you realistically expect from them?’
Pick up any Marketing Directory or dm magazine (including this one) and you’ll find plenty of list broker’s advertisements and listings. Ask around. Recommendations mean a great deal. A good word invariably points to a good broker, so do ask to see those testimonials.
Once you’ve got to the stage of putting together a short list of list brokers to work with, invite them to pitch for your business. They understand more than most that if they get it right for you first time around, then you’re more than likely to forge longer-term relationships with them in the future. And pitching gives the list broker the ideal opportunity to answer all those important questions you’ll have.
The majority of List Brokers derive their payment through commissions from the list owners and list managers, not you. However, in order to guarantee their on -going support, research and investment in time, some brokers will ask whether you want to work in partnership with them for a mutually agreed fee. At the end of the day, it’s your call. Choose what suits you and your business the best.
When you’ve finally worked through the check list and found yourself a List Broker you feel you can work well with, here’s what you can realistically expect from them in your quest for successful list buying:
A good broker will prove that they get involved right at the start , at the planning stage. They will evaluate the consumer profile to match your brief. They’ll then be in a position to help decide not just who you should target, but when and how frequently.
Just as you’ve gone through a vigorous selection process to find them, a good broker will do the same for you when it comes to sourcing quality data for your direct marketing campaigns. Aside from offering you years of experience and knowledge on what data works and what doesn’t, they also know what questions to ask when it comes to unearthing the true quality and accuracy of data. How is the data captured and verified? And how regularly? Do they have an industry stamp of approval to their data? They will be able to provide you with detailed information on a data suppliers’ credentials and the origins of their data.
They can also save you lots of money. A large List Broking team will regularly purchase huge volumes of data for their clients, which in turn gives them more market leverage when it comes to negotiating the very best data prices for you.
They’ll also be fully clued up on the issues of suppression. No one wants to waste valuable resources targeting individuals who have expressed a clear desire not to be contacted via telephone or mail.
A good broker also has a better understanding of new and unfamiliar markets and will always think ‘outside the box’. Having got around the intricacies of your business, they will instinctively know where to turn to for the best responses.
Finally, they will also provide you with detailed reports on campaign performance. A broker offering strong administrative support can provide you with just the right level of analysis and feedback necessary to assess a campaigns’ true success –and thus help you plan your future campaigns.
Successful list buying is the key to growing your business through direct marketing. And the key to successful list buying is first finding a good list broker you can trust to do the job for you. Make good use of the experts. After all, direct mail continues to be an extremely powerful marketing tool and indeed some would argue that we have reached the ‘golden age’ of this powerful medium. But this is because more than ever before, data is being sourced, targeted and used more intelligently. Buy the right data for your campaigns, and you’ll see your business grow.
Savinder Lefevre
List Broking Director
Prospect Swetenhams
