A:In the marketing list trade, there is a middleman standing between the owner of a list and the marketer who wishes to use it. He/she is called the list broker. The list broker, like a travel agent, has specialized knowledge of lists -- their profiles, quantities, costs, sources, etc. -- and uses it to advise list users.
This knowledge is shared with the list user free of charge with the understanding that the user will order the lists through the broker. Top >
A: B2B lists reach people at their office or workplace. B2C lists reach people at home. These are not strict definitions as some lists have mixed addresses. B2B lists are used for business, professional, industrial and, occasionally, investment offers where the product or service will likely be used - and paid for - by a person in a business or professional context. Top >
A: The vast majority of marketing lists are supplied on a one-time rental basis. This means that the owner agrees to allow the renter to use the list once in return for a fee, typically expressed on a per thousand address basis. A list renting for $120/1000 is said to have a base rental rate of $120 per thousand addresses. Most list owners set a minimum order size or value, designed to insure that they make a profit on even the smallest order quantity. In practice, this minimum order size is often 3,000 to 5,000 records or the equivalent value in money.
Most owners of response-generated B2B lists require a purchaser of a list to submit a reasonably complete sample of the marketing content for their review. This enables them to screen out competitive, questionable or otherwise inappropriate offers. These are very general terms and conditions; all list owners reserve the right to set the price and terms under which they will rent their lists. Prices depend on quality, how often the list is used for advertisements and the number of selection variables, i.e. demographic, geographic, age, gender, etc. Top >
A: Experts agree that your choice of lists has more impact on the response produced by your direct marketing effort than any other decision you make. A poorly conceived marketing message will pull more response from a well-targeted list, than a well-conceived message will from a poorly targeted list. Top >
A: No single list selection strategy guarantees success, except this:
Find lists that work and keep using them until they stop working. And when you discover lists that don't work, stop using them. Top >
A: Response rates for B2B marketing efforts run from fractions of one percent to as much as 5% or more depending on the nature of the offer. A high-priced offer (e.g. $100+) will normally have a much lower response rate than a low-priced or free offer.
Predicting a response rate for an untested list or new offer is impossible. Savvy marketers test several lists and then set financial goals for the individual lists as useful benchmarks for response analysis. Top >
A: Direct marketing is unique among all advertising media in its ability to measure response and identify its source - precisely. All successful direct marketing programs track and analyze the source of every order, inquiry, lead or other response they generate. This analysis tells you which lists worked and which didn't. Top >
A: Testing a list is the process of sending a sample of it under controlled circumstances, recording its response and projecting it over the list's entire universe. This avoids wasting money by using unprofitable lists in their entirety.
A list test is carried out with a small sample of names chosen by chance from the total list universe. This sample is called a random or nth sample, Nth referring to the mathematical variable used to select the names (such as every 7th or 9th name).
All list suppliers should be able to provide random samples of their lists. Many can also record that sample and exclude it from subsequent list orders. In a typical scenario, a 5,000-name random sample is selected from a list of 35,000 names and used in the test effort. The measured response rate is 25 orders or .5% (five-tenths of one percent). If .5% response is judged acceptable, the marketer asks: "Can I expect to get at least .5% response, if I rollout to the entire 35,000 universe?" A statistician would answer that the next effort could produce response ranging from .3% to .7% and that this range of results would hold true in 95 of 100 efforts. This range (.3% to .7%) is called the confidence interval. Top >
A: Many inexperienced direct marketers make the mistake of using a minimum sample of 5,000 names from the same list, over and over again, regardless of the response it produces. They fail to maximize the enormous opportunity of a list that tests well -- to exploit its full potential as quickly as possible. This is the strategy of the rollout or continuation. For example, following a successful test of 5,000 names from a 50,000-name list, the savvy marketer then tests an additional 10,000 or 15,000 names. If that effort is successful, he/she then uses the remainder of the list. In this context, the size or universe of a list becomes an important selection consideration. It's best to begin by testing good lists with larger, rather than smaller, universes so you can exploit them quickly if they perform well. Top >
A: Probably much more often than you think. Keep in mind that most direct purchases only occur when an order form (computer generated or not) lands in front of a prospect. The more often a prospect sees an order form, the more often he/she is likely to purchase. Re-sending exactly the same direct marketing package and offer to the very same list within 90 days or less will often produce 75% to 90% of the original response, and not infrequently the same or more. Top >
A: The concept of affinity is a good tool for identifying new ways -- and new lists -- for reaching your audience and increasing their response. For direct marketing purposes, affinity is defined as "a logical connection between a marketer's offer and the people on a particular list." This is why you send your investment banking newsletter promotion to a list of investment bankers, not goat farmers. Common affinities include industry, job function/title, profession, geographic location, company size, ownership and professional interest. But don't be misled by this simple illustration: Almost always more than just one logical connection exists between your offer and its audience. Some of them are more powerful than others. Identifying the many possible affinities that characterize your audience or market is a useful exercise. Once identified, they can help you find new lists. By testing these lists, you can measure the relative strength of the affinities they represent. Focus on affinities that define your audience -- as many as you think of; then use them to look for new lists. Top >
A: B2B lists are often described as response-generated or compiled. The difference is crucial for your list selections. Response-generated lists are lists of individuals who have responded to some kind of direct marketing offer. Lists of magazine subscribers, mail order buyers, and even free literature requesters are all response-generated. Response-generated lists are really some other direct marketer's customer names. Every name has demonstrated responsiveness to some kind of direct marketing effort. In contrast, compiled lists are collections of names and addressing data compiled by a third party from public records, printed directories and other information sources, usually for commercial purposes. Compiled lists frequently include considerable demographic data (job title, company size, telephone numbers, etc), but always lack that important propensity for response. All other considerations being equal, a response-generated list will out-perform a compiled list because of its demonstrated propensity for direct response. This is a particularly powerful list selection consideration. Top >
A: Compiled business lists can be useful for many marketers because they target specific industries, professions or business interests and often contain a large array of selectable segments. These features enable the marketer to blanket an entire market (e.g. all commercial banks in Europe) or tightly target some specific portion of it (e.g. European commercial banks with $100 million in assets). Compiled lists are useful when:
• There are no good response-generated lists reaching your target audience, or you've exhausted their supply.
• Your objective is brand awareness, publicity or general information, but not immediate response.
• Your target audience or market is geographically limited - a city, county or region of the country -- and response-generated lists don't offer sufficient coverage to be economically viable. Top >
A: Geographic location (country) is a powerful predictor of the responsiveness of many international and multinational lists. Different countries have different business cultures, different economic conditions and different business needs -- all of which affect response rates.
For this reason, international marketers often experience huge differences in response among countries on the same list. Top > |
