Mailing List Strategies

Mailing List Strategies: The entire Direct Mail industry is often misunderstood and misrepresented. Most books on mail order should really be called "10 Steps On How To Go Out Of Business." I know, I was founder and president of a company that mailed up to 3 million pieces of mail per month. My company mailed in such high volumes that we helped develop many cutting edge techniques in common use today.

In my experience, most readily available mail order advice has proven to be highly questionable, especially that found in books. Here's some real world advice which may be useful to those of you dabbling in direct mail to build your downlines.

There are 3 golden rules for direct mail success. Number one is "test," number two is "test," and number three is "test." This applies especially to mail order's most important component. It is not the mailing piece, even though it ranks a close second, it is the mailing list. (I will only discuss mailing lists and list brokers in this article.)

Never underestimate the importance of who you mail to. The best mailing piece is useless if you mail it to the wrong person. (Junk mail is nothing more than mail that has been mailed to the wrong person).

So how do you know who to mail to? First, you should test different mailing lists. Try different types of lists, not just MLM lists. Unfortunately, the MLM and Opportunity Seeker files are some of the "muddiest" in the industry. They tend to be tremendously oversold and often of dubious origin. The best way to insure the quality of a list is to find out how and when it was generated. It should consist of respondents to some kind of related offer. Stay away from compiled lists (lists that are created from other sources such as the phone book, demographics, psychographics, etc.). They are often useless.

Next, use only hotline names whenever possible (less than 30 days old). They cost slightly more but are well worth it. If hotline names are not available, forget the list.

The list broker who offers the list should also be considered. If one of their lists is good, keep testing for more with the same broker. The reverse holds true also.

Beware of delivery guarantees. If a broker offers you 10 free names for every returned undeliverable, it is merely an ingenious way for them to get back their bad names so they can clean up a dirty list. It may be a nifty guarantee, but it certainly does not mean it's a good list.

There are outstanding lists out there and good list brokers. There are also numerous effective list strategies relating to merge/purge, split-testing, tracking, timing, data processing and much more. Most of it becomes worthwhile only when your mailings are more than several thousand pieces. Keep in mind that mailing lists are part of a science. Like any science, it can be learned.

Hopefully the above tidbits will help you with your current mailing strategies.

I am currently the Founder and Managing Director of The Mentor Network. We are a new MLM company with a totally new concept, an exclusive product, and a dynamite strategy. Feel free to call me at (714) 759-0221 for details or E-mail you phone numer to: MentorNet@aol.com.