List Selection – Pinpoint Your Target Market

March 21, 2010 by Tim
Filed under: Direct Marketing Lists

List Selection to Pinpoint Your Target Audience

Selects are used, as the word implies, to “select” only the specific segment
of the list that most closely fits your target market.

For example, instead of mailing to a random 5,000 group of Information Technology subscribers, you could mail only to IT job titles or functions like Managers, Directors and Vice Presidents which selects are available varies by list.

Using list selection to target your market more effectively is an important skill and requires an understanding of how selects are derived combined with the art of creative compromise.

The narrower (smaller) or more specialized your target market, the more skill required to use selects to reach your audience. The more select the higher the response and the higher the list costs.

List Type Postal Email Business to Business, Business to Consumer prices per 1000 Response lists can be active magazine subscribers or compiled from vehicle registration through state departments.

List type and estimated pricing per thousand:

B2B – Response $100-$250 $125-$400
B2B – Compiled $60-$90 $100-$160
B2C – Response $95-$170 $80-$300
B2C – Compiled $40-$100 $85-$110

Selects, as stated above, vary from list to list, but some of the most common business list selects include:

• Job Title or Function – President, Vice President, Production Manager
• Industry – Standard Industrial classification, Retailing, Manufacturing, Government
• Number of Employees – How many work at a particular location
• Annual Sales Volume – In millions of dollars under 5,000,000 is small business
• Geographical Location – select by country, county, region, metro area or zip
• Purchase Influence – preferences

With consumer lists, some of the most common selects include:

• Geographical Location
• Interest or Activity
• Average Order Size
• Age
• Gender
• Marital Status
• Presence of Children
• Income

You can combine multiple selects with AND, OR, or OMIT. OMIT allows you to take all of a particular category EXCEPT the one(s) you specify. Of course, the more selects you add, the more the price increases.

What is more important, the more selects you combine, the more you reduce the number of names available for your campaign. And sometimes you can wind up with too few names to mail.

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So the goal is to choose the minimum number of selects that will sufficiently identify your target audience to ensure that the respondents will be good prospects for your product or service. That is where the art of compromise comes in.

Once you e-mail segments, track how they differently they react to messaging options. buy mailing lists

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