A perfect message requires the perfect audience.

Solo Values helps you choose a mail list that will ensure that your postcard reaches the ideal target market.

Your mail list is the most important element of a successful direct mail campaign. Unfortunately, it’s also the most misunderstood.

Not to worry… Solo Values makes it easy to get the perfect list.

To help you get started, we’ve compiled some basic information that you should know here.

Targeted or saturated lists
A saturated list is a collection of everyone within a geographic area (such as zip code or postal carrier route). Saturation lists are cheaper and require less expensive postage.

A targeted list allows you to mail to only people with your desired demographics, such as age, income range, home ownership, occupation, geography, etc. Targeted lists are more expensive,
but often achieve higher response rates.

Mail lists fall into one of four main categories.
They are as follows:

• House lists – The list your business maintains
• Compiled lists – Lists built out of public records, such as driver’s licenses, vehicle registrations, white pages, etc.
• Response lists – A list of customers who have taken an action, such as subscribed to a magazine, completed a survey, or ordered from a catalog, and are, therefore, known to be responsive to direct marketing.
• Business lists – A mailing list contains people that are likely to make purchases for business use.

Ensure you’re using a clean mailing list
A direct mail program is only as good as its list. Thus, it’s critical to ensure that your list is as “clean” as possible, meaning, all addresses are true and deliverable. Direct mail pieces sent via standard mail to bad addresses will not be delivered or returned to you. Thus, you’ll be left wondering why your response rate wasn’t higher.

To ensure the you’re using a clean list, purchase lists only from firms that utilize the Natinoal Change of Address (NCOA) service to keep the data updated and relevant. Be sure to check your list for duplicate addresses. Whenever possible, run your list through CASS certification to add ZIP+4 codes, include missing directionals, and correct misspellings – all of which speed up delivery.