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Has anyone on here actually bought mailing lists to advertise their business?

Have they worked or are they a waste of money?

Public Comments

1. understand that no man of sense would just honestly answer your question with a 'yes' and so on.
2. It all depends on your view of cost to purchase ratio. Mailing lists are often just a random sample of homeowners who could possibly be interested in your product, not guaranteeing a purchase. If you can get your names for around 5-10 cents each from reputable vendor, and your product sales will offset the list cost.
3. I have sold lists and handled them for years. I have seen good ones and I have seen crappy ones. I have never seen a great one. You will have more luck purchasing business lists as opposed to residential. I could go on and on. Just remember this. At the end of the day you are one piece of many coming into the mailbox. If you try and do it on the cheap you will waste your time and energy.
4. Without knowing your business I can't be specific here, but there are quite a few companies that have targeted past purchase lists based on the product or service you will be offering as well as other information. Those can be very lucrative for your campaign if your price point is in the right range.
5. Another thing you have to take into consideration...while the list is definately your first priority, the design of your mailer is the gateway to "response" or "trashcan". You have to make your piece a very professional looking instrument...if its cheezy and home made looking...its straight to the trashcan. Alot of people poo poo direct mail...primarily because I'm sure they had a bad experience with it then gave up on it...its their own fault for not doing their homework first. When direct mail is done correctly...it gets results. in fact...for many companies that I work with personally, it is multi times more effective than radio or TV. The key to getting the best list for yourself is to get the right consumer data. ....If you want to target households with over 100K income, because you want to target people with enough money, that they won't have a problem putting out the money to buy your product.....are you really sure that these are the people that will actually respond to your offer?