Yesterday, Act One Lists unveiled their new list search tool. It allows you to search through their portfolio of ~250 mailing lists under management to find the list that best suits your needs. The website is powered by NextMark's MarketMax Pro service.
Direct Media just relaunched the managed lists section of their website using NextMark's MarketMax Pro data card publishing service. Direct Media supplied the graphic design. NextMark supplied the technology to manage the content. Their ~1,300 data cards are now automatically updated, indexed, and searchable. Direct Media has one of the biggest portfolios of lists available — maybe there's a perfect list for you? Take a look.
The session title was "The New Way to Find Mailing Lists on the Internet". Session attendees (12) included investment bankers, international opportunity seekers, media consultants, and others who were sincere about their desire to learn more about mailing lists – a subject that is getting lost in the multi-channel marketing mix of analytics, attitudes, and anything else that sounds new and exciting. As the host of the session, I was certainly in for a surprise.
I began by asking three questions that would help me better understand the group's knowledge about mailing lists.
"Who knows what a response list is?"
"What is a net name arrangement?"
"Have you ever ordered a mailing list?
Here's the surprise. Only a couple had any idea about the first two questions, and only a third of the attendees had ever ordered a mailing list. However, it didn't take long for the group to gain momentum. Before the box lunches were eaten, I would confidently say that the group was up-to-speed on all three of the following learning objectives:
1) Leverage free internet portals to find targeted mailing lists and usage information.
2) Monitor the success of your competitors' direct marketing efforts.
3) Uncover highly correlated lists without a statistician or regression model.
We referenced a copy of the data card for "The Swiss Colony Catalog Food and Gi
ft Buyers Mailing List" (accessible in the public domain). It was a great example because the list manager had done a comprehensive data card update to include 39 mailer usage entries, 30 list segments and selections, and all of the key source and demographic information. There were also ten highly correlated list titles including: Harry and David, Wolferman's, Lillian Vernon, Godiva, and Figis Gifts.
It was as much a learning experience for me as it was for those who attended. The group left the table with a sense of empowerment, because they could find valuable direct marketing information in the public domain. I left that afternoon with a sense of obligation to help direct marketers learn more about mailing lists, and with a renewed interest in the "Rise of Direct Marketing Freeconomics".
The $0 cost per chair (CPC) and cost per table (CPT) were also pretty good for these DMA Ask The Experts (ATE) Roundtable Sessions, especially when compared with the $143.85 CPC and $152.60 CPT for the exhibit hall. So if you're upset about the DMA's Annual Fleecing of Vendors, take advantage of the free chairs and table and hopefully we'll see more reasonable rates in 2009.
I'm so glad it's Friday! Is that just because you are ready to crash from a long week of problem solving and managing expectations? Or is Friday the only business day when you are able to carve out some time to do what you do best? After speaking with a few list brokers, I believe we've got something in common here.
"There is no better day than Friday when it comes to doing list research," according to Donna Belardi, President of Belardi/Ostroy. "I've been making new test recommendations for 20 years, and the best ones are created on the days with the least interruptions."
Rather than rely soley on insights from industry veterans, take a look at some recent results from the NextMark CTA program. 
As indicated in the following graph, there is little variation between business days in regards to the number of impressions. The coefficient of variation for impressions is only 10 percent. What does that mean? Simply stated, about 90 percent of the search activity is consistent throughout the week.
Therefore, it makes more sense to look at the number of firms who are advertising on a given weekday and target your audience when your message will stand out the best.
If you're wondering about click-through rates, then take a look at the next graph.
The number of data card pageviews, for the same list management advertising campaign, reflects a similar pattern. The coefficient of variation is a little higher at 12 percent, but that is insufficient to disprove the hypothesis that Friday's are not so bad after all. So what's the take-away in all of this? How should this affect my advertising decisions when the reality is that Monday through Friday are 'almost' (10 – 12 percent) equal in regards to reaching my target audience of list brokers?
Again, all you need to do is look at the when your competitors are advertising and promote your list titles on the days of the week when your message will stand out the best.
For some reason, list managers seem to prefer Wednesday for search engine marketing, at least with NextMark. Surprisingly, only a few have decided to avoid the traffic and stand out in the crowd. 
Why would this be happening? Although we've consistently shared this message with list managers, we just recently ran the numbers to back it up. We wanted to wait until we had a valid test sample to do that properly. Now that we've quantified a few of our assumptions, it's time to spread the word.
List research is happening Monday through Friday with little variation, so spend your list marketing ad dollars wisely and take advantage of the open opportunities while they last. Based on this simple study, you might want test your next campaign on a Friday. I'm so confident that this will work for you that I'll guarantee it. If you sign up for NextMark's Contextually Targeted Advertising Program and do not get at least 1,000 top ranked impressions on at least one given Friday (holidays excluded), then I will personally send you a $100 gift card to T.G.I. Fridays. Either way, you'll be able to 'Dip Into The Down Time'.
"I just need a mailing list!" states a recent inquirer who is ready to write a check to the first list broker to call her back with more information. We are distributing leads from a variety of direct marketers with some pretty hefty customer acquisition budgets, one recent inquirer is looking to order 12 million names in 2008. The increased awareness of mailing lists — much due to the presence of free list research portals used to find mailing lists on the Web — is fueling demand.
It's hard to believe that so much effort is focused on proactive sales, when new customers are waiting at the doorstep. They keep knocking, but many of us are too busy cold-calling to answer the door. Is it because they "Just Need A Mailing List" and we're looking for the next big campaign management opportunity? Or have we lost sight of the simple truth that a mailing list is just what many prospects are looking for?
So what's happening with the list business? I think that we're all trying to figure that out. Some managers and brokers are embracing the traditional list buyer and are less prepared for the future of marketing convergence. Others are re-positioning themselves in such a manner that comprehensive solutions, many of which are promoted by list brokers and managers, are the face of their organization. In my opinion, none of it matters all that much as long as the customers' needs are met.
Most industry veterans can share stories about how easy it was to grow list rental income by doing just a little more than maintaining data cards. Today, there are more than 60,000 active list titles for mailers and brokers to choose from, and many of these titles are taglines for databases containing hundreds of millions of names, addresses, and enhanced data points. From an economic perspective, there is more supply than ever before — but what about the demand for lists? Has traditional list rental taken a back seat to predictive analytics?
Of course not — these products and services are integrated complements not mutually exclusive substitutes. However, the commoditization of mailing lists has changed the landscape of the direct marketing environment, while regression analysis tools and other analytical resources are being applied and refined at a much higher frequency than in the past. Advances in technology have undoubtedly enabled direct marketers to apply these solutions at a lower cost, and many multi-title list owners are further monetizing the value of their house file through enhancements and modeling.
All of this is great for the future of major mailers and multi-channel marketers, but what about the new business owner who wants to rent a response list or order a few thousand names froma compiled database? These mailers are looking for a solution — and that solution is a mailing list. They are getting lost in the shuffle — and are ready and willing to buy. Can you help them? We'll do our best to provide them with industry definitions from the direct marketing glossary.
Is your list marketing message competing for space? With more than 60,000 active direct mail list titles on the market today, it isn't easy to stand out. 
It's time for all of us to stop thinking about survival and learn how to navigate.
Be honest. How satisfied are you with the results you're getting from your list marketing campaigns? Are you consistently meeting or exceeding monthly projections for list rental income? Are you able to measure the effectiveness of traditional list advertising alternatives? If so, then are these advertising solutions continuing to deliver the return-on-investment that you're looking for?
There are some impressive ads out there, and many of them have found their way to my in-box. The collaborative efforts of list managers, list brokers, and advertising agencies have produced some appealing list promotions. When I look at them, I sometimes think more about purchasing the product than list rental. That's an impressive consequence for list promotion, but how does it generate leads and a list broker's call-to-action — adding the data card to their mailer's test recommendation? If you're a list broker, then I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
In the meantime, here's a thought regarding diversification of the list owner's marketing investment. Leverage the list research channels! This is where thousands of list buyers go to find the next titles to test, and these searches are now being converted to orders and exchanged electronically. It's time to evaluate a new revenue model for advertising dollars. Maybe your ship has just sailed in — come aboard!
Did you know that your mailing list is promoted publicly on the World Wide Web? Did you know that your list data card can be found and viewed using several free list search engines? If not, then here's an eye-opener for you. Click on any of the links below and run a search on any one of your list properties:
Official Mailing Lists Search Tool
These list search tools are used by the next generation of direct marketers. Take a look at the ordering instructions and you'll see that there is a call to action for the buyer. Yes, it's that easy to request a mailing list, and on the other end, it's that easy to receive the lead. Therefore, the quality of this information is very important!
Take a look at the 'Counts Through' date to the right of the mailing list segments header. Are your counts up-to-date? How do the selects look? Look at all of your data cards, and if you like what you see, then give your list manager a call and let them know. And if you want to see how your list manager stacks up in terms of overall data card quality, then click below and find out:
Top 50 List Mangers By Data Card Quality
If you don't see your list manager's name on this report, then don't jump the gun too quickly. There are over 800 list managers represented in the database, and about 200 that manage 50 titles or more. However, you'll notice that there are companies on this list that manage hundreds, or even thousands, of titles (at least at the time of this writing). Therefore, it would not be unrealistic to ask or expect that your manager be positioned accordingly.
Now that I've spoken to a few of the list managers out there in the marketplace, the question is "How?"
I know there are several search engine optimization (SEO) consultants out there that charge big bucks just to give advice on key words, and just as many others who are actually qualified to deliver a comprehensive strategy. Here are a few tips for getting started:
· Educate yourself. Invest the time to read a beginner’s text on search engine optimization. It will not only boost your confidence, but also help you to recognize a qualified consultant.
· Run searches. One of the easiest ways to see what’s working is to run a few searches. Search on list titles, key words, clients and competitors to get a feel for who’s on top and doing things right.
· Take a look at your own website to see which pages are indexed. You can do this in Google and most other search programs by typing in the following text in the search engine results page (SERP): site:your website URL. Here’s an example for the United States Postal Service: site:usps.com.
· Talk to your hosting service or marketing technology services provider about how to improve your list title page ranking. Here are a few basic principles to guide your conversation:
o Search algorithms are not only extremely complex, but also a carefully guarded secret. Don’t get caught up in trying to figure them out, but spend your time implementing strategies that have historically been successful for others.
o Getting you web pages noticed involves both managing the page content (on-page) and placing links (off-page) on other web sites.
o The content on your web pages will be indexed in search engine databases by key words and phrases. Search engines do not scan the web for content – that is the job of ‘crawlers’ or ‘robots’. The search engines are actually retrieving results from a database of indexed keywords, locations and formats.
o Keywords are indexed in the search databases by the document ID for the URL where they are found, the actual position in that document, and the type of position in the document (heading, title, body, link, etc.).
o The links to your web pages are not ‘created equal’. The page-ranking implications of an off-page link are not only based on the referring site’s popularity, but also on the number of external links on that site. This is an important point that is often missed by the less experienced SEM professionals. A link that is placed on a popular site may actually be less effective than a link that is placed on a less popular, more targeted site that has fewer links.
o Other documents that are posted on your site may also add value to your page ranking. Search engines will convert Microsoft Word documents and Adobe Acrobat (PDF) documents to HTML in order to index the information contained within them. Furthermore, the font sizes, styles, and other attributes may also be captured and used further down the road in the user-search algorithms.
o Note: if you hear the word ‘vector’ mentioned in the conversation, don’t run for cover. All you need to know is that a ‘vector space model’ can be used mathematically represent a web page. This makes it easier for search engines to match user-defined search terms to the most relevant web pages. It’s much more complicated than that, but I promised to keep it simple.
· Look into some of the advertising programs available through marketing technology services providers such as contextually targeted advertising and preferred provider programs. These targeted programs are similar to paid search, but available exclusively within direct marketing list search applications.
· Finally, be patient. It takes some time for your changes to be indexed by the search engines, so you may not see results for weeks or months.
Don’t be discouraged if you begin to feel like you’re chasing a moving target as you learn more about search engine marketing. The field of search engine optimization continues to evolve as companies like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft implement new personalized, localized, and contextualized search methods – but this should only improve the user experience and increase the relevance of search results. If you’ve done the SEM job right as a list manager or list owner, then these users (or mailers) will be waiting at your online doorstep to place their list order. So be encouraged about the future of mailing lists… but don’t ignore the role that search engines play in directing existing customers and future prospects to you and – that’s right – your competitors.
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