Business Marketing Newswire

Posts Tagged ‘Buy Mailing List’

REUTERS – In a report by Ben Gruber on May 22, 2009 he cites that direct mail – or “junk” mail – whether you love it or hate it, is here to stay and that it can help stimulate the troubled U.S. economy.

In his report, Gruber points out that nearly one third of all mail delivered anywhere in the world is U.S. direct mail. While that volume has decreased in 2008, the figure is still staggering. According to the U.S. Postal Service, nearly 100 billion pieces of advertising mail were delivered to U.S. households last year.

Direct Mail Supporters and Detractors

Direct mail has its supporters and its detractors. William Craven works for an environmental group called ForestEthics. He says direct mail is a “pointless waste of natural resources.” Craven says, “Direct mail’s impact on the environment is enormous, especial considering that it’s something that most Americans don’t want and have no user for.” Craven points out that for direct mail there are 100 million trees are logged every year for something people largely don’t want and don’t use. Aside from the logging issue,  he also points out that the carbon footprint for the production and distribution of direct mail equates to that of some 6 million cars on U.S. highways.

But a strong case can be made for direct mail. One of direct mail’s supporters is Matthew Broder from Pitney Bowes, whose company represents the interests of direct mailers. He says that direct mail is recyclable and emits the same amount of carbon as that consumed by Americans when brewing their morning coffee. Broder says that the benefits of direct mail far outweigh the costs. He points out that direct mail very much stimulates economic activity. He says that study after study shows that consumers respond to direct mail. He points out that Pitney Bowes did a study showing that almost half of Americans have started a relationship with a business because of a direct mail piece they received.

According to the Direct Mail Association, the industry generates some two trillion dollars of sales and charitable contributions annually. Gruber points out in his report that although opinions on direct mail vary, most people are not ambivalent. They either love it or hate it.

As one woman being interviewed in the Reuters video report says, “If it can bring attention to a particular product or service, we need to stimulate the economy. We need to have people go out and purchase and buy and so the best thing I think to do is to find really creative, good ways to recycle those papers and to be creative as far as using it best for the environment.”

According to Broder, one thing is for certain – direct mail is not going anywhere, anytime soon. Broder also points out that there are several ways for consumers to decrease and have a say in the type of direct mail they receive. One such online service is dmachoice.org  that has 4 million registered users. Ironically, the association is seriously considering using direct mail to increase their membership.

Mailing Lists Direct is a full service mailing list company where you can find consumer lists, business lists and specialty lists at competitive prices. Mailing Lists Direct provides first rate customer support. No matter what your business needs in the way of an address list or managing your mailing list campaigns, our mailing lists will be able to satisfy all your needs. Call toll free at 800-741-0116.

Mailing Lists

Many businesses can increase sales and improve their bottom line by using direct mail. Sending out periodic direct response mailings will create inquiries that salespeople can convert to new sales and new customers. Doing so requires the use of quality mailing lists.

A small startup may be able to do it from their kitchen table, but most businesses – whether small, medium or large – will require a mailing list service to supply the names and addresses, print the mailing pieces, prepare the mailing labels or print the names on the mailing pieces, prepare the postal barcodes and sort, bundle and deliver the mailing pieces to the Post Office. These are a lot of steps but are only the ones needed to get the direct mail pieces into the mail.

There are also some follow up and maintenance steps to do if you want to get more mileage out of the address list. Someone needs to clean the list (remove the duds and make address corrections to the good names), make selections for future mailings and merge your in-house names (your own customers and prospects) with the purchased mailing list to remove duplicates.

More Than a List Broker

A full service mailing list company is more than a list broker. Although finding the right list broker is vital to the success of your mailing list venture, as you can see there is a lot more to managing a successful, ongoing direct mail list campaign. Just consider these facts:

• How are the names going to be affixed to the mailing piece? Are you going to use mailing labels or will they be printed on the piece?
• Who is going to design the piece? Does the designer understand the necessary postal regulations? The dimensions have to be right. The location of the mailing labels, indicia and other markings have to be right. On a folded piece is the fold supposed to be on the left or the right in order to be run through the postal equipment? If they mess this up you may have to pay surcharges because the piece doesn’t conform. Worse yet, the piece might not qualify at all. Then your whole printing job is down the drain.
• If the mailing piece consists of separate parts – an offer letter, coupon, return envelope, brochure, etc. does the designer know how to assemble all the pieces in the right order? Are the pieces laid out properly to be assembled by machine? If this isn’t done right you might be stuck with a lot of manual assembly or a poor response rate. Design errors can cost you big time.
• Do you have a mailing permit or are you going to use the mailing house’s permit?
• How are you going to handle address corrections? Are you going to clean the list in-house or use a mailing service or are you simply going to skip it altogether?
• How are you going to make the selections from your in-house customer list? How often do you mail to them? What if you are doing a monthly mailing? Do you send the mailing to all the customers every mailing or do you prioritize the names? For example, do you mail more often to customers who have purchased something recently? Do you mail less often to customers who have not purchased in awhile? What are the rules? How do you make the selects?
• Who is going to do a merge-purge of your in-house names with the mailing list? Are you going to attempt to do this yourself? How can you find and remove duplicates?
• Who is going to print the piece?
• Who is going to sort, bundle and deliver the mailing to the Post Office?

Mailing Lists Direct is a full service direct mail list company where you can find consumer lists, business lists and specialty lists at competitive prices. Mailing Lists Direct provides first rate customer support. No matter what your business needs in the way of an address list or managing your mailing list campaigns, Mailing Lists Direct will be able to satisfy all your needs. Call toll free at 800-741-0116.

Mike Doughty is a small business owner and entrepreneur with a background in direct mail marketing, manufacturing and distributon. During his career, he produced a mail order catalog and worked on many successful direct mail campaigns.

As mail volume declines, Post Offices are looking for a way to remain viable.

More than 3,200 post offices and retail outlets out of a total of 34,000 will be reviewed for possible closure or consolidation during the next three months.

The United States Postal Service is burdened by a multibillion-dollar deficit and may have to reduce the number of its operations and post offices across the country. Each year, hundreds of postal operations worry, but this coming fall could be the single biggest consolidation in Postal Service history.

Downsizing is a business imperative, says Linda Welch, acting vice president of delivery and post office operations at the Postal Service. “Revenues have declined, and mail volume continues to decline,” she says.

Not only has the recession contributed to a pullback in direct  mail  marketing advertising, but the utilization of e-mail and electronic bill paying has lessened the flow of mail as well which in turn has hurt the Postal Service.

In March, Postmaster General John Potter asked Congress for the right to reduce the mail week from six days to five, for a savings of $3.5 billion. Shutting down post offices will have similar cost-saving effects. And most Americans say they’re OK with the cutbacks, as long as they don’t have to pay more to send mail. A recent USA Today/Gallup poll found that more Americans would rather the Postal Service curtail services than seek a bailout or raise stamp prices.

Most people say they understand unless it happens to be their post office.

Mailing Lists Direct provides consumer lists,  mailing lists by zip codes and address lists. Businesses can buy mailing list information that is customized for their specific needs in order to run efficient advertising and direct marketing campaigns.