What you should know prior to purchasing any Email Marketing List Rental, Direct Mail,Telemarketing, and Mobile List Rental

You’ve got questions about email marketing list providers, direct mail marketing lists, telemarketing lists, and mobile marketing lists.

We’ve got answers. 

If you have ever received raw count reports from a mailing list provider, you probably already know that you practically need a PhD to read them, as they can appear to have been spit out of a NASA computer just prior to launch. No worries, though!  

The List Warehouse system translates these marketing list rental proposals into an easy-to-read human format, and will even let you compare your offers. Read on to have your questions answered about:

1. Cost per Record
2. Count
3. Customer Service
4. Accuracy Guarantee
5. Recent File Usage
6. When were the data files updated?
7. Vendor Reputation

1. Cost per Record

Cost may always be on your mind—and it should be!  However, using cost as your sole determining factor can lead to poor marketing results. The old adage, “you get what you pay for” is true for the list industry, as well.  

Cost, of course, should be an important consideration, but other factors are even more important. Cost, in the list industry, is quoted as CPM (Cost Per Thousand). When reviewing “My Proposals” you will see a figure like $95/M ($95 per 1,000 records) or 9.5¢ per contact. This is the cost of the general record for direct mail and telemarketing. For consumer records, this normally includes name and address. For business records, it includes name, title, company name, and address.  

Additional selects will be presented in the same format, such as telephone or income level (on average, about $15/M or 1.5¢ per record). So, if you are looking for consumers with telephones, it may cost $95/M + $15/M, or a total of $110/M or 11¢ per contact. Most vendors have minimums of from 5,000 to 10,000 records. You can expect to pay around $65–$110/M for basic consumers records and $95/M–$270/M for business records, depending on your search criteria. 

When ordering in large volume (more than10,000 direct mail marketing list records, or more than 50,000 email marketing list records), you should expect to see volume discounts. If you are planning a very large campaign, you can contact our experienced List Experts to help you negotiate volume pricing with the vendor you choose.

2. Count

Your mailing list count will come in two basic forms:

• The Universe: meaning all available records in your general criteria
• Your Count: is based on geography, title, income or whatever selects you have provided to the vendor.

When you are requesting a quote, you’ll let the vendor know how you want your count broken down (geography, title, and income).  For example if you are selling medical supplies, but your main target is dentists, you may want your count broken down by profession. That way, if you are on a limited budget, you can make an informed choice about the records you want to purchase, based on the counts and your budget.   

3. Customer Service

At TheListWarehouse.com, we handle all of your customer service issues. Too often, you don’t know you even have an issue with your marketing list until it’s too late. Whether your order wasn’t filled properly, or there are accuracy issues, or you have other issues where you need someone on your side to fix the problem, we’re always accessible to handle your customer service concerns.

4. Accuracy Guarantee

An accuracy guarantees is a statement about how accurate your list is. You may read something to the effect that 85%–90% is an accuracy guarantee on a direct mail list. If you find you are receiving more returns than the promised percentage, simply keep them in a file and, after your compaign has concluded, contact customer service. We stand behind our recommendation - we will replace or refund any poor data immediatly then seek our replacement from the vendor.  You are always taken care of with The List Warehouse. (Read more about our refund policy here).

 Unfortunately, no data vendor, list broker, or agency can guarantee how much business your campaign will generate. And a step toward fulfilling that goal is to provide you with the most accurate list available.

5. Recent File Usage

Recent file usage information may be available on specialty mailing lists; that is, those that the vendor has separated into special selection. For example, this could be a mailing list from a magazine subscription or a recent professional conference. If this information is available, consider only renting the list that hasn’t been used in the last month. If this information is not available, use the other criteria, such as cost, customer review, and count to make an informed decision.

6. When Were the Data Files Updated?

Most reputable mailing list vendors update their data monthly. If your data files are coming from a specialty list, there should be updated information on the file. All approved vendors of The List Warehouse update monthly. For telemarketing lists, the data company is required to update their list quarterly against the do-not-call registry.

7. Vendor Reputation

The reputation of your mailing list vendor may be the most important decision point for renting your list. If you rent from an unknown or poor vendor, the rest of the criteria will not matter. This is where you can help yourself and your fellow marketers. Using your Pinpoint Accuracy Rating system , you can contribute feedback on the accuracy of your list. Shortly after your mailing list rental, we will send you an email, inviting you to return to our website to share with us how accurate you feel your list was. By participating in this brief survey, you will help set the tone for how our vendors’ data files are rated, and will provide valuable information to the next organization looking for email marketing list rental, direct mail, telemarketing, or mobile marketing lists. 

Start the RFQ process for your marketing mail list here. 

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Email marketing lists
Direct mail lists
Mobile marketing lists
Telemarketing lists