List Rental 101

BorgDirect Marketing
Direct: 415.682.4304
Fax: 415.520.2317
P.O. Box #225022
San Francisco, CA 94122-5022
www.borgdirect.com | Member: DMAnc
Email: Steve@borgdirect.com OR sales@borgdirect.com
List Rental 101

Background on the Direct Marketing
Industry
The practice of using mailing lists by U.S. firms to
promote their good or services is over 130 years
old and the national Direct Marketing Association
was founded in 1917.
List Selection. With over 75,000 lists on the
market (Target Marketing 2013), it can be a
challenge to identify which lists will best deliver
the mailer’s message to their target audience &
deliver results.
2 BorgDirect Marketing 2014

40% - The list
Whether it’s a segment of your internal list or an external
list, the list you use for direct mail, email or telemarketing
is critical. The list represents the universe of people to
whom you are going to present your offer. You need to
ensure that this list is composed of people for whom your
offer is relevant. For example, a campaign offering
discount tires would fail if it were sent to people who didn’t
own cars. You also need to ensure that lists with sufficient
numbers of your target audience exist before developing
your campaign.
The 40-40-20 Rule for Direct
Marketing Success

Marketing Success - con’t
20% - The Creative
The creative needs to express your offer in a
clear and compelling manner that will gain the
attention of your target audience. No matter what
you’re selling, however, it is important to
remember that the right list and the right offer will
generate responses even if the creative is poor.
On the other hand, the best creative in the world
will fail completely if either the list or offer is
unsuitable/ill-matched/poorly chosen.

Marketing Success - con’t
 40% - The Offer
Of course, your product, solution, or service must be
useful, timely, and priced appropriately for your target
audience. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter how good your list
is.
List
40%
Off er
40%
Creat ive
20%

List Sources
The Standard Rate & Data Service (SRDS), is the
accepted reference manual for the entire dm industry
which catalogs the majority of the business &
consumer lists. The SRDS contains the contact
information available for where particular lists are
managed at & who to contact. The publication also
has information on the lists themselves
(datacards/rate cards) which provides pricing, counts,
and selectability on each list (or file).
Marketing Information Network (MIN) and NextMark
are comprehensive list sources as well.

There are three types of lists:
1) Your Customer/Prospect Database:
Your own internal list of customers and prospects is going to perform better,
in terms of response rates, than any external list you might use.
2) Response Lists: (MeritDirect/Statlistics/IDG List Services)
•A response list is composed of people who have taken an action of some
kind to get on the list.
•Response lists are carefully managed by the list owners so as to ensure that
(a) they keep their subscribers/buyers/conference attendees satisfied, and (b)
their mailers are successful and keep coming back.
•Response Lists can be subdivided into:
•Paid Magazine Subscriber Lists
•Controlled Circulation Magazine Lists
•Newsletter Subscription Lists
•Business-to-Business Databases or Masterfiles
•Association Lists
•Event Attendees Lists
Types of Lists

Types of Lists – con’t
3) Compiled Lists (InfoUSA/Dunhills/D&B)
Compiled Lists are derived from public records. Primary sources include the
yellow pages, directories, phone research, government data, internet
websites and any other information that is in the public domain. They are not
as productive as response lists since the people on the list have taken no
action to get themselves on the list. On the other hand, compiled lists are
less expensive.
Compiled lists are good sources – often the only sources - for providing large
numbers of names within a limited geographical area. They have greater
penetration within certain industries and professions (doctors and lawyers,
e.g.), allowing you to reach people and companies unavailable through
Response lists. Compiled lists are also useful for reaching consumers with
specific demographics (women aged 18-30, within a 20 mile radius of a
certain zip code, for example).
Compiled Lists, unlike Response Lists, can be rented for either one-time use
or on a one-year unlimited use basis.

Datacards:
The description and pricing for a list is represented on a datacard. This
contains a summary description of the list, the source for the names on
the list, the minimum order quantity, and pricing. Selects vary from list to
list.
-With business lists selects include:
•Job Title or Function
•Industry
•Number of Employees
•Annual Sales Volume
•Geographical Location
-With consumer lists selects include:
•Geographical Location
•Interest or Activity
•Average Order Size
•Age
•Gender
•Marital Status
•Presence of Children
•Income

Types of Media
Direct Mail – postal addresses
Email – email addresses
Telemarketing – phone numbers
Multichannel – a combination of two or more of the above,
at a discounted price.
**A sample of the postal, email creative or phone script must be
submitted & cleared by the list owner prior to any list rental use.
Targets:
B-to-B: Business to business marketing. Targeting
company services versus individualized services.
B-to-C: Business to consumer marketing. Targeting
consumers in a 1 to 1 relationship.

List Firms
Many List firms specialize in the management (& brokerage)
of specific types of lists. Examples consists of: Compilers,
Business Response files, Consumer Response Lists,
Associations, Religious-based Lists, Catalog lists &
Attendees to various seminars/events.
List brokers who work out of list mgmt firms usually include
in-house managed lists in their recommendations to
customers even if they are not the best fit because the
commission rates are higher (usually 30%) vs. 20% for
outside list sources.
There are more list firms & data sources available on the
market than ever before. Always note the source of the list
data when renting or purchasing a list. Ask for the list usage
report which contains a sampling of the companies who
have previously used the file & how recently the fileupdated.

List Brokers
•The most important service a list broker can provide is to research and
recommend a list or set of lists for you, along with selects, that will enable you
to reach your target audience. Because brokers do not own the lists they
provide, they are unbiased, and can focus solely on which lists will work best
for you. An experienced list broker offers the additional value of knowing
which lists are reputable. Bring your list broker in at the start of the campaign
development phase so that they can help you plan how best to reach your
target market. You want to find out early on, before the creative is developed,
whether lists and selects for the target audience you have in mind are
available, and in what quantity.
• Your list broker will also handle the nuts and bolts of processing your order,
making sure that your mailing house or call center receives the proper list(s),
that the list owners receive your email creative on schedule, and the tests are
performed to your satisfaction. Your list broker will also take care of the billing
and payment, which can be a significant benefit when you are renting multiple
lists belonging to different list owners.
•So be nice to your list broker, they go the extra mile for you!

List Pricing
An experienced broker will also negotiate pricing
(on behalf of their clients) with the list managers
based on certain order volumes or mailing
budget. Examples are:
Select fee waivers – Especially on multichannel
orders.
Net name arrangements – pay for 85% net
on large postal order
quantities (usually minimum of 50,000 names).
Break on postal & email pricing for reuse/reblast
list orders.

What Kind of Response Rate
Should You Expect?
The short answer to that question is, it depends. The more important
question is what kind of response rate do you need in order for the
campaign to be pay for itself, at a minimum, and, even better,
generate revenue for your company? The formula for measuring a
campaign’s break-even point is simply:
 Campaign Cost / Net Profit per Unit Sold
For example, if the net profit per unit sold for the company is $1,000,
and the campaign costs $3,000, only three sales would be needed
for the campaign to break even. In that case, assuming the mailing
quantity was 5,000, and that 6% of the responses turned into sales,
you would need only a 1% response rate (50 responses) in order for
the campaign to break even.
 % of 5,000 is 50 responses
 6% of 50 3 sales

What Kind of Response Rate
Should You Expect – con’t
Of course, the true measure of a campaign’s revenue
contribution also includes an estimate of the life-time value
of each customer acquired through the campaign. That is,
you don’t just measure one sale but also a projection of
future sales to the same customer over time.
 It is important to note that there are no true general standards for
response rates. It is possible to measure average response rates in
aggregate for industries or types of campaigns (email, postal mail,
telemarketing) but these are merely measures of past results and are not
predictive for any individual campaign. The response rate for any specific
campaign depends upon a number of factors including getting the offer
to the right audience (the list), whether or not the audience is ready to
buy, whether the offer is expressed in a way that gets the attention of the
target audience, etc., etc. That’s the art of marketing.

Tracking Mechanisms
 The mechanisms for tracking responses are very similar for email and
direct mail. Ideally, a direct marketing piece will offer multiple methods
for a recipient to respond, each of which can be tracked by the direct
marketer.
 Direct mail tracking methods include use of keycoding, URL with
Tracking ID, 800 Telephone #, Order Form.
 Email tracking methods include use of URLs with Tracking ID, Web Site
Registration, Landing Page Registration, 800 Telephone #, Order Form.
 URL with Tracking ID:
 The URL with tracking ID enables you to count how many web site
visits from each list and/or creative piece occur as a result of the
campaign. The URL is the web site address for the landing or
registration page, created specifically for the campaign, that recipients
are invited to visit. The tracking ID is an extra set of characters at the
end of the URL which can be captured in order to identify which list
the recipient came from and/or which creative piece the recipient
received. Each visit (click-through) to the landing page can be counted
along with how many click-throughs are associated with each tracking
ID16 BorgDirect Marketing 2014

Tracking Mechanisms – con’t
 Web Site Registration
 Whereas the URL with Tracking ID allows you to count the number of
visits or click-throughs, web site registration lets you know who visited
your web site, how to contact them, and, depending upon the questions
you ask, how they rank as prospects for your product or service (or if they
actually buy – if the goal is a direct sale from the web site). This is a
crucial part of measuring the success of the campaign and maximizing the
chances that a response will eventually lead to a sale.
 Web site registration is a simple form that visitors are asked to complete in
order to receive whatever it is that the campaign is offering. The form
should be as short and easy to complete as possible. It should consist of
basic contact information (Name, Company Name, Job title, Address,
Phone Number, Email Address, e.g.) and also a few key qualifying
questions that determine whether or not the registrant is a good prospect
for your product or service. Those questions will depend upon the nature
of your business. This is especially important if you receive a large
number of responses (say, two-hundred or more) so that your sales team
can identify which company has the most potential and whom to contact
first.17 BorgDirect Marketing 2014

Definitions of Email Metrics
BorgDirect Marketing 201418
•Open Rate (Unique): The unique open rate measures one open per recipient and
is expressed as a percentage of the total number of delivered email messages.
•Gross/Total Open Rate: It measures how many times the email message is
opened, either by the original recipients or by those to whom the original recipient
forwards the message by using the “forward” button in the email client instead of a
“forward to a friend” link.
•Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measures the percentage of email messages that
drew at least one click.
•Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR): Measures the percentage of opened messages that
recorded clicks. To calculate, divide the number of unique clicks by the number of
opened messages and multiply by 100.
•Unsubscribe/Opt-out Rate: The percentage of delivered email messages that
generate unsubscribe requests.
Hard Bounce Rate: The percentage of sent messages that failed (bounced)
because the address doesn’t exist or the account was closed.
Conversions: An email recipient performs the desired action based on an email
received. A conversion can be defined as a lead, a sale, or a download.

Direct Marketing Industry
Benchmark Sources
The national Direct Marketing Association of America
http://thedma.org/
The DMA publishes the 2014 Statistical Facebook. A
compilation of hundreds of facts about data-driven
marketing.
Marketing Sherpa is a primary research facility, wholly-
owned by MECLABS, dedicated to determining what
works in marketing via exclusive case studies, surveys,
and results data analysis
http://www.meclabs.com/marketing_sherpa

Best Days to Deploy Emails

THANK YOU
BorgDirect Marketing
Direct: 415.682.4304
Fax: 415.520.2317
P.O. Box #225022
San Francisco, CA 94122-5022
www.borgdirect.com | Member: DMAnc
Email: Steve@borgdirect.com OR sales@borgdirect.com
Contact us today to obtain your mailing list!

List Rental 101

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