Presented by:Kathy Stivaletti, Client Relationship Director

Lake Group Media Associate Vice President, List Brokerage 1 Byram Brook Place Armonk, NY 10504

Phone 914-925-2481 Fax 914-925-2499

email: kathy.stivaletti@lakegroupmedia.com www.lakegroupmedia.com

 

New Customer AcquisitionAcquiring lists to generate buyers, donors, members or

subscribers

KEY WORDS & PHRASES

Core List - a continuation list that performs well for your client. It is client specific and functions as a “control” list, while other lists are tests.

Compiled List - a list that is prepared from directories or other printed sources. Example: Names from motor vehicle registrations.

Data Card - Basic information about a list including: Universe, costs, selects, source.

Direct Response List - Individuals that have responded to offers through the mail.

Donor Lists - Individuals who have made a donation to a charitable or fundraising appeal.

Exchange - arrangement in which two mailers swap on a name for name basis.

KEY WORDS & PHRASES

List Rental - arrangement in which a mailer obtains the right to mail the list owned by another on a one-time basis at an agreed upon cost per thousand names on an agreed upon date.

Recency - time frame when a purchase or donation was made.

Segment - portion of a list or file selected on the basis of a special set of characteristics (MRG time frame, dollar select, gender, demographics).

Test List - a list that has not been used previously by the mailer.

Universe - The total names and addresses in a given list or segment.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Will my clients make money in acquisition?

Should my clients exchange their lists?

Should test lists be included in my campaigns?

What is an acceptable response rate or average gift?

How much will the lists costs?

List Strategy

What is the Acquisition goal for the client? Are they most concerned with acquiring names (% Response) and can they tolerate more financial loss or “investment?”

What is the % loss range for your client? What metric does your client like to use to evaluate performance?

How much list testing do you want to recommend?

List Strategy

New or “Start-up” Client

All lists selected are considered tests.Best types offer affinity to mailer’s offer.

Rental/Exchange Strategy

It is a positive to have a list to exchange!Foster exchange relationships with lists that perform best for your clients

Exchanges yield higher results and keep package costs lower (BUT they are not FREE!)Ratio of rental to exchange lists can be client driven.

List Strategy

• Re-test lists that are marginal performers or haven’t been mailed in a while

• Revise segment (drilling it down) – tighten recency, change dollar select or apply performance based zip file

• Life Time Value (LTV) – poor upfront performance but high LTV

• Negotiate Pricing – ask for select caps, special selects

• Age segmentation and gender selects – on larger &/or enhanced files

• Mail multi-buyers (interlist duplicates) - mailed 1 subsequent piece per occurrence at no additional charge

List Strategy

•Categories – lists can be sectioned into categories, such as fundraising or commercial and subsections such as type of list within the main category.

•List categories determine the types of lists that work for you and you can expand upon those list groups. •By selecting a variety of categories, you will be able to get a basis of response and adjust strategy as you move forward.

•Fundraising lists work best for fundraising appeals

Exchanging Lists vs. List Rental

• A list exchange is an agreement between two mailers to make their lists available to each other on an even trade basis. This would be instead of charging the usual rental fee.

• Exchange balances are strictly kept to ensure that one organization doesn’t owe another an abundance of names. Therefore, the size of your file matters since you never want to be put in the position where you are exchanging all of your names with any one organization. Since a test order is typically in the 5-10M name range, if your housefile is around 25,000 names or more, the relationship should work well for both sides.

• Your list broker and list manager should be monitoring the exchange balances to ensure they don’t get out of whack with one side owing too many names. Since exchange volumes are based on gross names shipped when calculating exchange balances, this could happen if a large mailer comes in to exchange with you several times a year.

Exchanging Lists vs. List Rental

• Depending on the economics of your mail plan, a list being approved on exchange vs. list rental can make or break your mail plan. As you heard in the budget portion, the costs of list rentals can add up when a list is $90-100/M. As your organization’s mail plan grows and you start to mail in the millions of records, list costs alone could be $100K+. If even a portion of those names are approved on exchange, a significant cost savings will be realized.

• Reciprocal rentals are another important topic. Some list owners will impose an additional selection fee on those mailers who do not want to reciprocate a list rental with them. This cost could be upwards of $20/M per list or an additional $1000 on a 50,000 name mailing. Just imagine how quickly those fees would add up as your mailings grow! Being open to exchanging names or reciprocating can save you real dollars.

Mailing Budget

Clients provide different drivers for their budget:

•Mail 50,000 names: How much will that cost? Each list has a different cost but, generally, 50,000 names would be:50,000 x $90-100/M = $4500-$5000

•A 50,000 name test mailing typically means we can mail 5-10 different lists with a 5,000 name minimum.

•Additional data processing fees, NCOA, postal qualification, etc could be an estimated additional $1500. Dependent on quantity and number of lists into merge.

•Lettershop services would be additional based on the size and weight of your piece.

Mailing Budget

I have $5K to spend, now what? We take that figure and work backwards. Using the previous scenario, $4500 will allow us to test 50,000 names. That will eat up most of our $5K budget so I would then advise that we consider less lists going into the mail plan.For example: 25.000 x $90-100/M = $2250-2500 for the lists.

• Now we have 3-5 lists so you will have fewer options if you need to stay strictly within this budget.

•Additional DP fees would be about $1100-1200 (driven by the quantity of names into the merge, services applied such as NCOA, postal qualifications, etc.)

•Again, lettershop is dependent on your mail piece

List Research

How do we define Continuation”lists?

How do we find Test lists?

List ResearchHow do we find lists?

Research ToolsList Performance History

SRDS (Standard Rate and Data Service)

NextMark

Data Cards & List Usage Reports

Recommendations from list managers

Publications

E-mail Promotions

Conferences and Meetings

List ResearchContinuation Lists

Core Lists: Study the Statistics! List Performance History

• Determine Your Criteria/Know Your Goalso Is your client focused on growing their file (% response)o Is your client focused on minimizing investment ($)

• Choose metric based on client or agency preference, using our analysis tools.

List ResearchTest Lists

Why do we need to perform list testing?

Ultimately, to get more names. Testing can expand the universe of names that will work for a client. New lists will begin to perform and become new core lists, while other lists will drop from core list status.

If we only mail our current core lists, some of those lists’ performance will decrease resulting in fewer names to mail if we are not continuously bringing new names into the game.

List Research

Test Lists

• Testing an appropriate quantity (usually about 10-15% of overall mail volume)

• Expanding segments

• Testing formers/expires

List ResearchTest Lists

Looking at a Datacard…

Datacards provide basic information needed to order a list.

Factors to be considered:

•List description

•Universe, selects & pricing: How many names are available, what segments, and for what cost?

•Rental or Exchange?

•Source – Where do the names come from (direct mail, direct response, surveys, internet, compiled)?

•List Usage – Sometimes usage is on the datacard.

•Gender Ratio (some clients might be geared more toward one gender)

Competitive Analysis

• Ask your broker to perform a competitive analysis so you can see which lists are performing well for similar mailers in your space

• Competitive List Usage – identifies which lists are being used by your competitors – going so far as to show the number of competitive mailers using each list. This is a great way to identify new test ideas!

Competitive Analysis

Competitive Analysis

LIST NAMEBoys Town Father Flanagan's

Boys Town Of Missouri

Covenant House

Hanna Boys Center

Mercy Home for Boys and Girls

Omaha Home For Boys

Grand Total

CRS AMERICANS HELPING AMERICANS IN APPALACHIA 4

EASTER SEALS DIRECT MAIL DONOR MASTERFILE 4

FOOD FOR THE POOR CATHOLIC DONORS 4

NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS MEMORIAL FUND 4

ST JOSEPHS INDIAN SCHOOL DONORS 4

ALZHEIMERS ASSOCIATION DONORS 3

CHILDRENS HUNGER RELIEF FUND 3

FOOD FOR THE POOR DONORS 3

HELP HOSPITALIZED VETERANS DONORS 3

LIGUORIAN CATHOLIC DATABASE 3

NATIONAL CHILDRENS CANCER SOCIETY 3

NATL COMM TO PRES SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE 3

OBLATE MISSIONS DONOR FILE 3

OMAHA HOME FOR BOYS DONORS 3

OUR LADY OF VICTORY HOMES OF CHARITY DONORS 3

PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA PREMIUM DONOR MASTERFILE 3

SALESIAN MISSIONS 3

ST ANTHONY MESSENGER ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS 3

ST LABRE INDIAN SCHOOL 3

AARP MEMBERS 2

AMERICAN DIABETES ASSOCIATION DONORS 2

ARTISTIC DIRECT CORPORATE MASTERFILE 2

ASIAN RELIEF ACTIVE DONORS 2

CATHOLIC DIGEST MAGAZINE SUBSCRIBERS 2

CHECKS UNLIMITED 2

CHILDRENS WISH FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL 2

Mailing ScheduleTypically, we start with your mail date and back up our mail

schedule from there.

•Develop List Recommendations (including segmented list counts & forecasted costs) Normal Turnaround Time: 2-3 business days

•Process List OrdersNormal Turnaround Time: 3-5 business days

•Coordinate Merge PurgeNormal Turnaround Time: 2-3 days

•Analysis ReportsNormal Turnaround Time: Provided weekly until campaign final

Mail Plan

•Mail planning incorporates all your historical data and uses that knowledge to predict the most successful mailing for you going forward.

•Standard reports offer literally hundreds of mailing, response, and financial variables, sorting on any data item, flexible and dynamic sub-totaling and indexing, and actual vs. plan comparisons.

•Projections for next-time-out list performance, seasonality and package adjustments can all be studied.

Mail Plan

Complete Mail Planning

•We develop complete mail plans for clients using our statistical analysis tools

•Analyze past campaigns

•Develop comprehensive mail plans based on past results

•Evaluate list and package tests

•Budget – explore “What If” scenarios

Mail Plan

•Your response data is imported from Excel into our response analysis tool.

•Once your historical data is imported, list names and selects are standardized

•List CPM’s, merge purge % and total list costs are transferred for use on future mail plans.

• Update information including response rate, average order or donation & package costs are updated for future mail planning

•Index-Based projections adjust for seasonality

•Weighted Results – based on recency and volume – for better predictions of future results

Brokerage Process

Analyzing current and prospective markets to determine list sources to be used

Developing strategies for most effective use of available lists (exchange, rental, or appropriate mix to achieve specific goals)

Researching new lists to test – SRDS/Nextmark, email promos, conferences

Maintaining a History of Performance which includes results and package information.

Negotiating with list managers for profitable list selections on rentals and exchanges.

Brokerage Process

Obtaining appropriate clearances and developing list plan

Reviewing of the finalized campaign by the list director (to ensure accuracy & assess strategy - taking into account seasonality and packages being mailed) and the client.

Ordering the lists and maintaining contact and correspondence from inception of order to the delivery of names

Coordinating with computer service bureaus all pertinent information to ensure correct application and understanding of merge/purge, personalization or carrier presort systems.

Evaluating responses to determine results of campaign objectives and ascertain future plans

Brokerage Process

OBSTACLES: You can’t always get what you WANT!

• Some mailers do not make their list available. (St Judes, Salvation

Army)

• Denied because they don’t like our sample.

• Their cause is too similar

• Exchange balance is too high

• List is available on Exchange only and they aren’t interested in using

your list. YOUR list doesn’t work for them!

• They are already booked; 1st come-1st serve

• Calendar not available

• Your list manager denied them previously

• No response or no reason given for denial

Brokerage Tips

List Strategy Discussion- Meet with client and/or agency at least once annually to discuss acquisition strategy and discuss mail plan.

Start reserving your core lists (your best names) up to 6 to 9 months in advance (sample mail piece needed)

Test! Test! Test! – BUT Never roll out to entire list after only one test

Re-mail multis

Brokerage Tips

Analyze each list based on net income per donor, response rate %, average gift and mail volume

Keep in mind that response rate % and average gift work in opposite directions. Typically, a list with a high average gift has a lower average response rate as few individuals are willing to give more.