The other day, I came across a mailing list that could literally save your ass.  According to the data card for the Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue mailing list:

"Donkey’s (sic) in today’s society are misunderstood and poorly treated. Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue provides a safe and loving environment for neglected, abused, and unwanted donkeys. It is their mission to educate the public on the history, usefulness, treatment, proper care, and personality of these wonderful creatures."

The Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue mailing list is a perfect illustration of how precise mailing lists are these days.  Can you think of a better way to reach a group of donkey lovers?

This is just one example of more 70,000 targeted mailing lists available.  I am constantly amazed by the variety of lists and have come to conclude there is a perfect list for everyone. But the sad truth is most marketers don’t know about all these great lists.

Why is this sad? Because 40% of the success of every marketing campaign depends on the list. If you send your promotion to the wrong people, it gets tagged as spam or junk mail and promptly discarded.  It’s a waste of your time and money to send to the wrong people.  It’s frustrating to them when you fill their mailbox with stuff they don’t want.

I’ll let you in on a little secret… great lists are not hard to find if you have the right resources.  You can hire a list broker (which I highly recommend).  You can also use a mailing list search tool. 

Whether you are saving donkeys or simply trying to improve the results of your direct marketing campaigns, you owe it to yourself to learn more about mailing lists.

Last week, I spent a couple days in New York to attend three list industry events: FastForward Conference, The List Leader of the Year Awards Dinner, and List Day.  Although lightly attended, I thought the events were worthwhile because it’s one of the few opportunities I get to meet these colleagues face-to-face.

One of the more provocative comments came from Amy Africa.  I’ve seen her speak many times in the past — she’s really great because she knows her stuff, is entertaining, and is willing to tell you what you don’t want to hear.  In her presentation, she expressed her disdain for the list industry and compared it to an afghan blanket: "comfortable, colorful, and out of date."

Amy’s not wrong very often.  Is the industry out of date?  (It’s certainly colorful)

As discussed in the Mergers and Acquisitions Panel discussion, the industry is maturing and consolidating.  What used to be a bunch of disparate family-run businesses is now a much smaller number of corporations and private equity firms.  Outside professional management is replacing tenured industry veterans.

Another change predicted is the introduction of an infrastructure for the industry.  We discussed this at the EDI roundtable discussion.  Basically, the industry has no infrastructure today.  Despite the complexity of the deals and the number of parties and transactions involved in the value chain, it’s effectively a "bubble gum and bailing wire" operation today.  The reason it has hung together in the past is because the procedure has been verbally handed down through the generations.  That’s all changing and the world is moving faster so it’s inevitable the old methods will fall apart.  In fact, one well-respected company reported a 97% error rate on order entry (can you believe that?). Fortunately, all the technology exists today to efficiently build an infrastructure.  The major challenge will be adoption.  Fortunately, Ramesh Ratan from the Direct Marketing Association and others recognize its need and support the solution.  I hope it’s implemented before it’s too late.

Your thoughts?

I just read an article in Direct Newsline that cites do not mail legislation under consideration in 15 states.  Do we really want no mail? I don’t think anyone wants no mail. Some of the mail that arrives is appreciated. For example, I always like receiving a new fishing catalog. I don’t have the stats here in front of me, but I would guess that mail is welcome in most homes (perhaps in contrast to attitudes towards telemarketing).

Then why all these do not mail bills? What to we really want? I have a theory…

We want more control over our mailbox. When I get something in the mail from a company with whom I’ve never had a relationship, I would like to know "how did they get my name?" And, if I feel the mail was inappropriate or not relevant, I want an easy way to stop it from happening in the future (opt out).

Maybe what we really need is a universal "how did they get my name tool" with an opt-out feature.  What do you think?  Would this work?  What would it look like?