business recognition

The Two Types of Mailing Lists

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Mailing lists are said to be vital pieces of information for anyone who wants to engage in online or direct marketing. Mailing lists – marketing are inextricably linked. However, just what are these lists and are they all created equally? In reality, there are actually many different types of mailing lists around, although two of them are the most important within this. These are the compiled direct mail lists and the response mailing lists. Let’s take a closer look.

Compiled Direct Mail Lists

This is one of the most common types of mailing lists, and they contain names and addresses that have been collected and gathered before being entered into a database. A number of records will have been used in order to create these lists, including vehicle owner registration and other public records, but also private sources including store purchases and warranty cards.

The majority of these types of mailing lists are automatically generated using categories in phone books, for instance. An example would be a full list of horse supply companies in the country or telephone repair shops. As such, the most common example of such a mailing list would be the Yellow Pages. The difference is, however, that the yellow pages cannot be manipulated in such a way that a single message can be sent out to everyone within a specific category.

Usually, trade directories are compiled within specific industries, using information from a range of different sources. These directories are checked using the telephone and they therefore tend to be very accurate. This is mainly because they deal with businesses and not people.

At the same time, however, the world changes very rapidly. Hence, while these lists may have been accurate when they were compiled, they do not necessarily remain accurate. As such, if one of these lists is purchased, you must check it is recent, after which it becomes your own responsibility to update it regularly.

Response Direct Mail Lists

The second type of mailing list to be aware of is the response direct mail list. This is generally a database with details of customers that have at some point purchased or inquired about a certain product or service using a direct mail catalog, a direct response ad, a direct selling TV ad, a direct mail offer or a direct response newspaper ad to name but a few. Catalog merchants tend to have the best and most exhaustive response direct mail lists.

If you need a direct mail list for you own marketing efforts, you have the option of purchasing one from various sources. However, do not forget to take a look at the data you already have yourself. Unless you are a completely new company, it is likely that you already have somewhat of a database of customers. If this has been stored properly, then you immediately also have a mailing list, and you know it will include people who are interested in your goods and services because they have inquired about it before.

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