The 3 Types of Mailing Lists by Kaitlyn Miller

What do you think is the most important factor of a successful direct mail marketing campaign? Awesome graphics? A compelling headline? Your logo on every direct mail piece? Those are all good answers, but none of those is the most important factor of a successful direct mail campaign. Your mailing list is what will make or break your direct mail campaign.
Your mailing list can be comprised of current customers or potential customers that have shown an interest in your product or service (an in-house list) or have shown interest in a complementary product or service (a purchased list).
Your list should be targeted to the market you think will be most likely to want or need your product. An example of targeting your list: Let's say you own a local restaurant and you want to get new customers by offering a buy-one-get-one-free pizza deal. By purchasing a list from the local cable company of who subscribes to sports channels, you have a better chance of getting a response by sending a postcard offer of a free pizza on game night than you would sending a postcard on a non-game night. You've targeted your market to who is most likely to use your product. A non-targeted list would be one that contains people are not likely to be interested in your product; in this case, a group of dieters who subscribe to a health-food channel.
3 Types of Lists
Here are the three basic types of lists you can compile or purchase to reach customers, in order of effectiveness:
House List
This list is also referred to as an in-house list. This is a list you compile that is made up of your customers and prospects. These people are most likely to respond to your catalog printing, your brochure printings and any other direct mail efforts because they've conducted business with you in the past.
You own this list; you didn't purchase it.
Response List
This is a list of people who have purchased something from people who compiled the list or people who have responded to an offer similar to yours. Some people might have even signed up to be on the list (like email opt-in lists). These people are pretty likely to be interested in your product or service because they have bought similar products or services from businesses like you, or from businesses in your area.
You can buy this list from a list broker or from a business owner.
Compiled List
This type of list is compiled by a list broker and consists of people who were selected to be on the list based on the characteristics you asked the broker to screen for. Examples of the characteristics you can screen for include sex, age, income level, number of kids, etc. This is the least effective of the three because you don't know this group's behavioral or buying habits, you only know their fixed characteristics.
You buy this list from a list broker, detailing what characteristics you want to screen for.

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