In order to guarantee your direct mail (and e-mail marketing for that matter) triumphs, you must create niche-marketing lists in order to reach the right demographic, and not all lists are created equal. We will take you through a couple types of lists that you should sort based on your target consumer, and believe us, we have seen some good ones and bad ones throughout the years. In order to get the most of your marketing money, paying attention to “who” they are will set you up for victory!

Consumer Mailing Lists

Consumer mailing lists are comprehensive lists of people associated with their demographic, economic, and psychographic information. The consumer mailing list helps your business target individuals with very specific profiles for maximum return on investment. Typically, you can choose to filter these types of lists by the following data:

- Gender
- Age
- Ethnicity
- Marital Status
- Estimated Household Income
- Children Present
- Home Value
- Single or multiple family homes
- Hobbies and Interests

These lists are a little pricier than a neighborhood mailing list, but filtering out recipients that will not react to your quality marketing materials can make your investment worthwhile, especially when you are spending more money on brochures, multi-page letters or large, colorful and high-quality postcards.

Neighborhood Mailing List

This list is by far the most cost effective and it works for obtaining new clients, especially if you want a broad reach to all kinds of consumers (i.e. restaurants, movie theaters) something that everyone can enjoy. You can obtain these lists based on your geographic location, not specific demographics or psychographic categories like consumer mailing lists. These lists include coupons, postcards and small trifold stock brochures.

Business Mailing List

Business mailing lists are the "Holy Grail" for B2B companies, enabling them to maximize new targeted opportunities. This list type includes data pertaining to:

- Business Type
- Number of Employees
- Annual Sales
- Credit Rating
- Geographic Location
- Executive Names
- Phone Numbers
- Years in Business
- Owner Gender
- Public vs. Private

These lists are harder to compile (we know from experience) and are also harder to guarantee, because as with larger corporations, purchasing power can lie with multiple employees. Using the data points carefully is your best bet and differentiating the type or content of your marketing materials. For example, if you wanted to connect with women-owned non-profits, a list like this would be beneficial for you, while also allowing you to send out materials to other businesses in your demographic.

Specialty Mailing List

Specialty mailing lists are, just like they sound, lists of people filtered by special categories that you determine. Common types of specialty mailing lists include:

- New Parents
- New Movers
- New Homeowners
- Homeowners
- High-income Homeowners
- Renters
- Investors
- Health Conscious
- Green Consumers
- Sports Enthusiasts
- Voters (by political party)
- Seniors
- Consumers by Hobby

As you can see mailing lists are infinite based on your product or service, type of connection, demographic, etc. If you think of an explicit group you want to market to, you should make the mailing list for that consumer and market to them as specifically as you can in order to get the most out of your materials.

As a successful business owner, philanthropist, or large corporation you already have a track record of success, so telling you that truly understanding your customers is something of utmost importance is irrelevant. But it is true, with every marketing piece you produce you want to speak to them directly, their interests and their concerns and make sure solve their problems and you will guarantee that next sale.

For more about how to attain a rock solid mailing list, contact us we have the right people for the job.

 AJ Printing & Graphics and Wine Country Signs is a commercial printer in Santa Rosa, California specializing in all things signs and printing including direct mail. We put our relationships with our clients over everything in order to ensure their success. With over 30 years’ experience in the industry, you can leave the printing to us and focus on other things. We are a green business, recycling all of our paper and buying from trusted businesses that commit to the sustainability of our planet. We are your partner in print, design, signs and marketing located at 1315 North Dutton Ave, Santa Rosa, CA (707) 525-8600!