Finding Your Way Through the Mailing List Swamp Continued ......

Actually, multi-magazine publishers, like McGraw-Hill, Chilton, Cahners, CMP/Miller Freeman, and Penton offer large, unduplicated databases of their business/trade publication subscribers as "direct mail buyers" because they said "Yes" to a free subscription, or otherwise qualified themselves via a questionnaire. You'll have to decide if you want to consider that a response list. They did take the time to fill out the Qualification Form, and for them, time is money. These companies also offer a variety of marketing tools and services.

A list of similar businesspeople who paid for their subscriptions may be expected to produce better-qualified prospects, all other factors being equal. Indeed, that holds true for response lists generally -- but then, all other factors are seldom equal. Also, response lists cost more to rent than compiled lists.

Surprising as it may seem, your best bet for selling a bible by mail is a person who just bought a bible by mail. You may have a problem getting hold of that list, however, since the owner likely won't rent it to a competitor. (Although they might trade with you if the list universe is close.)

In many niche markets, however (especially business markets), the availability of high-quantity response lists can thin out quickly, which means if you're going to sustain any kind of volume mailing program you'll need to rely on...

3. Compiled Lists

Compiled lists are those that are assembled from existing data sources, either public or proprietary. They can also be custom compiled from special sources or combinations of sources.

Compiled lists start with phone books from which names and addresses are captured in volume, then spot-verified by telephone. White pages yield consumer names (three-line addresses), and yellow pages yield businesses (four-line addresses). R.H. Donnelly/ Metromail is the principal compiler of phone book lists.

Other sources of compiled lists include trade show attendees, automobile registrations (currently under fire for privacy concerns and may become tightly regulated), association memberships, product warranty cards, sweepstakes entrants (choose "Yes" or "No" respondents), occupant lists, and more.

Largely because the purchase behavior is missing, or cannot be quantified, compiled lists usually pull at lower rates than response lists -- but then, they usually cost less.

4. Data Banks

Both business and consumer lists, response and compiled, are available in data banks. These are large databases of lists that have been compiled, combined, de-duplicated, and enhanced. Enhancing means the files have been overlaid with census data and various other types of demographic and psychographic (i.e., lifestyle) data.

Consumer lists can be enhanced with such demographic overlays as driver license data, median age, median home ownership and value, make and value of car, dates of birth of household members, and more.

Psychographic characteristics include hobbies, special interests, product ownership, and more. (Demographic data may show I own an expensive car. But is it a Lincoln Continental or a Porsche? The difference may be important to you.) Psychographic data is collected via mail and telephone for inclusion in various "lifestyle" lists or overlays to lists.

SRDS and The Polk Company jointly publish The Lifestyle Market Analyst . As their ad puts it, "You'll find out who owns a dog, who attends cultural events, who uses home video games and who uses a personal computer." The Analyst identifies magazines and mailing lists that target these special interests. They claim to profile 19 million households.

Another primary source of consumer lists is catalog buyers. The Millard Group in Peterborough, NH, is a major source of catalog lists and manages many of the leading catalog and publishing lists. Some large data banks consist of catalog multi-buyers, unduplicated and enhanced with other data.

Business enhancement is more limited. SIC codes and phone number are two key pieces of information most users seek. The SIC code tells us what business or industry the company is in, and the phone number facilitates the call we often need to make to determine the individual's decision-making functions and purchase intentions...or to (hopefully) get referred to the right person in the company.

Other data enhancements include number of employees, sales volume, and various county, city, and metro codes.

Among the richest data banks for this kind of information are the business publishing databases mentioned above. McGraw-Hill, Cahners, et al. put big bucks into gathering the kind of marketing data mailers seek, and it's usually dependable. Some list brokers manage large data banks as well.