Last week, I attended the DMAW’s List Bazaar conference at Maggiano’s in Washington, DC. This conference set the standards in more than one way.

Wounded Warrior Project

John Melia started the day talking about the Wounded Warriors Project he started to provide wounded soldiers with a backpack full of essentials immediately upon arrival on US soil. WWP’s mission does not end there – the program now provides many other services to help these soldiers successfully transition back to civilian life including family services, transition training, job placement, sporting activities, and much more.

How does this relate to mailing lists? Mr. Melia admits, “Five years ago I did not know what a mailing list was.” Partnering with a list broker has enabled him to grow from a modest home-based backpack project to a $42 million budget, 100 employees, and a full range of services for these soldiers in transition.

List Rental and Exchange Standards

Patrick Frame of List Service Corp. presented the collaboratively developed “Standards of List Conduct for Non-Profit List Rentals and Exchanges.” This standard, which is currently supported by 39 parties, advocates the rights of list owners, accomodates the needs of mailers to become more effective in their fundraising strategies, and protects the privacy interests of the general public.

The standards document covers a lot of ground. I was particularly interested in the section on data card accuracy:

“The accuracy of datacards is paramount to allowing list brokers to make informed decisions for their clients. List managers should ensure that any publicly available datacards are accurate. These include datacards on the major datacard systems, on company websites, printed materials, etc.

Datacard items which must be clear and accurate include:

• The date the fulfillment file was last updated – “updated monthly” is not sufficiently specific.
• The date the datacard was last updated with current counts.
• The dollar range included on each segment – both upper and lower dollar limits should be published.
• The recency included on each segment “Actives” is not acceptable. A specific recency must be included such as 0-6mos.

If reciprocal pricing policies are utilized (whereby a list owner/manager alters published rates on a case by case basis to reflect the same rates charged by the other party) this policy must be noted on the datacard.”

Data Cards

Data cards were a main topic in the conference roundtable program. Fittingly, these discussions on data cards were held in the Medici room (the Medici family set standards for accounting and created efficient marketplaces). Paul Martin of Atlantic List Company said, “The data card is your store front that invites your customers into your store.”

Some of the specific ideas discussed were:

• List Caps – many donor files exclude donors over a specific amount ($e.g. $99.99). Should this be explicitly stated on the data card?
• Active donors – the definition of “active” varies from one list owner to another. Should the definition of active be explicitly stated on the data card?
• NCOA date – with new rules on NCOA standards, it is important to know when a file has last been through NCOA processing. Should the data card store NCOA date?
• List counts – should the data card have a button that enables the user to get count information?
• List ratings – many other marketplaces enable users to rate products and services. Should ratings be added to the data card?

Many other topics were discussed. I was impressed by the level of thoughtfulness, professionalism, and candor that was exhibited in the conversation. The DMAW is truly a first-class organization with first-class members. They exemplify the standards for the industry. As such, NextMark is proud to sponsor the DMAW.