One key factor in the success of your direct mail campaign is the prospect list you are sending to.

Your mail list needs to be targeted to the right people for your offer. Many times marketers need to augment their customer list with a list of potential customers. In order to accurately find the right ones you need to select the right parameters.

Here are 3 things you need to know about your customers before you order your prospect list.

1. Who: You need to learn about your customers. Analyze all the information you have in your database to find this information out. Some key things to consider are age, income, and marital status.
2. Where: The locations of your customers are important. Analyze your list to see where people live. This can give you insight into areas where you have a large customer base and areas you need to build up.
3. What: Purchase history is extremely important. Keep track of everything your customers are buying. This helps you build a plan for what they like to propose future products or services to them. This also helps build your customer profile when you are going to purchase a list.

Still not sure you have all the details you want? Here are a few questions to prompt you.

• What is the amount of the average transaction for each customer?
• When do my customers purchase?
• Where do my customers purchase?
• How many times a year do they purchase my product or service?
• Are my customers typically the same age?
• Do they have children, and, if so, what are their ages?
• How do they spend their free time?
• What is their estimated current home value, and how long have they lived there?

Now you have your customer profile, you need to choose selects from it to build your prospect list. The more detailed you are in your selection process the better targeted your list is going to be. Yes the upfront cost will be more, but since you are sending to more qualified people you will get a better response rate. Keep in mind that by sending less mail you save on postage too.

You also have the option of running a profile on your current customers to gather more information about them than you have in your data. Profiling combines demographic, consumer behavior, and geographic data to help you identify, understand and reach prospects that are most like your customers. Contact us today. We are glad to help!