Q&A: Buying marketing lists
Article Date: Aug 17 2005Q: I am interested in purchasing names and addresses for marketing purposes How can I find a decent list?
Answered by Lee Weavers, MD, Ramesses Group
There are different sorts of lists which you can buy and some of them are rubbish. The best lists (and the most expensive, say £150 per 1,000 names) are made up of people who have already responded to direct mail or advertisements and have purchased products. These people are proven to be responsive and are more likely to respond to other direct mail. However, they won’t respond to your mailer if they are not interested in your product. If you are selling a financial product, for example, a list which is made up of people who have purchased health goods is not likely to be much use.
Other lists might be made up of people who have enquired about a product without buying. These should be cheaper to buy (say £90 per 1,000 names), but you are unlikely to get as good a response from them. Compiled lists are made up from freely published information such as the electoral register. If you have no information about their buying habits and interests, lists like these may not be much use. Lifestyle lists may be produced by using questionnaires with a prize draw to find out information about people and to use this to target them effectively with products which might interest them.
My experience is that many lists just don’t produce the goods. Unfortunately, you can’t always work out which lists will perform well unless you test them - and the minimum order is likely to be 5,000. And don’t forget you have all the cost of the mailer, such as envelope, letter, leaflet, fulfillment and postage. So testing is an expensive business.
Once you send a mailer out, you will then find that a percentage get returned because the addresses or names are wrong or the people have moved away. I once paid £130 per 1,000 names for a list, 8% were returned including one with the comment “Died 8 years ago”. I asked for my money back (but didn’t get it all).
There are list brokers around who can advise you on the quality and likely response of lists. The Direct Marketing Association (www.dma.org.uk; 020-7291 3300) produces some very useful leaflets on the whole subject.
Lee Weavers has extensive experience at executive and management level. Since the creation of the Ramesses Group Ltd (RGL) in 2000, he has been responsible for delivery of key programmes to clients in the UK and Internationally and RGL’s overall business development, strategic planning and developing core systems and processes.
