A brilliant copy approach might double response. The same for a new format or unusual design. But the identical letter mailed to the right mailing list can pull more than 10 times the response of that same sales letter mailed to the worst list.
For direct marketers who sell products and services directly from their mailings, the right lists are response lists.
WHAT IS A RESPONSE LIST?
Lists that are available commercially for sale or rent fall into two basic categories: compiled lists and response lists. Compiled lists are lists of people or business compiled from published sources, such as industry directories or telephone books. Response lists are lists of people who have bought products or services through direct-response offers. They are called response lists because the people on the list have responded to an ad, direct-mail piece, or television commercial and bought the product or service advertised. There are several categories of response lists.
Mail-Order Buyers
These are people who have bought a book, gadget, gift, or other item through the mail. If you're selling a book on transcendental mediation, for example, your best bet would be to send your mailing to a list of people who have bought books, herbs, crystals, and other New Age products through the mail.
Inquirers
A company with a list of mail-order buyers is likely to have a list of inquirers. These are people who requested more information on the product (such as a brochure or catalog) but did not buy - in other words, leads that did not convert to sales. When you rent a list, you can choose to rent buyers or inquirers or both. Buyer names almost always work best, are most desirable, and consequently cost more. Inquirer names, while less effective, are still sought after because these people have at least expressed some interest in the product.
House List
The house list is your own list of buyers (customers) and inquirers (sales leads). These are people who have either bought from you or at least requested more information on your product or service. House lists frequently pull double or more the response of even the best-performing outside response lists. Indeed, one of the main goals of your direct-mail program, aside from generating immediate revenue, may be to build a bigger house list of customers to whom you can sell related products and offers. Mailings to house lists are often highly profitable because the overall response is higher. Also, the cost of mailing is cheaper since you do not pay a list rental fee.
Attendee, Membership, and Seminar Lists
These are lists of people who belong to an association or professional society or have attended an industry event - a conference, seminar, or training program. Such lists can be considered response lists when the conference registration, group membership, or seminar attendance was solicited and paid for via a direct-mail promotion.
Subscription Lists
Magazine and newsletter subscription lists are considered response lists because the subscriptions are obtained through direct-mail letters or packages. There are two types of subscription lists: controlled-circulation lists and paid-circulation lists.
Controlled-circulation magazines are sent free to qualified people within an industry or profession. To get the controlled-circulation magazine, the subscriber must fill out a questionnaire (called a "qualification card") that gives the publisher a lot of information about the subscriber: job title, company, job responsibilities, purchasing authority, size of company, types of products purchased, and so on. This information enables the list user to select those portions of the list that are pertinent to his or her needs. For instance, a valve manufacturer renting the subscriber list of a chemical industry trade journal might be able to select only those people who buy or specify pumps.
A paid-circulation magazine is a publication the reader pays to receive. In a sense, the paid-circulation subscriber list is more purely a response list because everyone on the list has bought a product (the magazine) through the mail. On the negative side, paid-circulation lists usually have fewer demograpic selections available than controlled-circulation lists.
Donor Lists
A donor list is a list of people who have contributed money to a nonprofit organization, charity, or other worthy cause. These lists are used primarily by fund-raisers, although they may have other applications. For example, people who have contributed money to an animal shelter might be good prospects for pet-related products sold by mail.
Credit Card Holders
Credit card holder lists are highly desirable for several reasons. First, a large percentage are mail-order buyers. Second, credit card holders are somewhat upscale, as they earn enough money to qualify for a credit card. Third, credit card holders will often buy big-ticket items, while cash-only buyers tend to limit purchases to the amount of cash available. And finally, you can boost your response by including a toll-free number for credit card orders (prospects without a credit card can't order through your 800 line unless you accept bill-me's over the phone).
Merged Database Lists
These are master databases or lists of most or all prospects in a given category. They are created by merging a number of similar lists, then eliminating the duplicate names. An example is the IHS Publishing Group Database, a master list of 290,486 executives in manufacturing, wholesale, gov't, and service industries derived from highly selective qualified trade publication subscriber lists.
The advantage of merged databases is twofold. First, they allow list users to reach a large portion of a specific market without having to spend time on obscure, hard-to-find, or poorly managed lists. And second, they can be enhanced with "overlays" (we'll discuss this shortly) to add more information and selection factors than were available on the original lists. When considering a merged database for a mail-order offer, make sure the source lists are all 100% response lists. A mixture of compiled and response lists will lower your response.
WHY RESPONSE LISTS ARE SO VITAL FOR MAIL-ORDER OFFERS
In direct mail there are two basic selling methods: one-step and two-step. In the one-step method, the prospect orders the product directly from the ad, mailing, or catalog. This is what is traditionally known as "mail order."
Magazine subscriptions are a good example of a product sold this way. You get a package from a magazine publisher. The envelope contains a four-page letter, a brochure, some additional inserts, and an order form. You send a check or provide credit card information and they can begin your subscription. You can't "think about it" or "ask for more information" or speak to a salesperson. You either order the product or you don't. That's true one-step mail-order selling.
In the two-step method, which is generally used for higher-priced products and most services, the mailing package says, "Here's our product or service, here's why you should be interested, and if you'd like more information, mail back the reply card." The reply card typically has two boxes you can check: either "Send a free brochure" or "Have a salesperson call." They don't give you the price of the product or service, and you can't order it directly from the mailing. You can only get more information. This is the two-step method, commonly known as "lead generation."
For the two-step method, you can use either response or compiled lists. In fact, compiled lists are usually preferable for lead-generating mailings, because they are more likely to reach the bulk of your target market. For example, if you are offering accounting services to attorneys, you can rent a compiled list of all attorneys in your city or state. A response list is likely to contain only a small percent of these attorneys, because the majority of attorneys have not responded to mail offers.
On the other hand, for a one-step mail-order offer, response lists will generate the highest sales and profits virtually every time. The reason is simple: Not only do the people on the response lists have the right characteristics, they are proven mail-order buyers. And that's important. Research shows that approximately one-third of the people in the United States do not buy through the mail. Therefore, if you use a compiled list, you are automatically dooming yourself to sending one-third of your costly packages to people who will not respond to your offer, no matter how good it is, simply because they don't like to order by mail. With a response list, on the other hand, everyone on the list is a proven mail-order buyer. So they are much more likely to order your product or service through the mail.
Test after test confirms this. As one seller of audio cassette albums says, "Compiled lists of targeted market names don't buy. Only buyers buy. If you're selling books or tapes, mail to lists of proven mail-order book or tape buyers. It's the only thing that will work."
When selling via mail order, use response lists only.
FINDING AND RENTING RESPONSE LISTS
Where do you find response lists? The one place not to get them is in the opportunity-seeker and mail-order type magazines or from mailings from mail-order operators selling lists of opportunity seekers. These lists are generally worthless. How can you spot a phony? One sign is price. Today response list rental costs $80 per thousand names and up. Any ad or mailing offering 1000 names for $10 or $15 is suspect.
Legitimate response lists are generally available from list owners, list managers, and list brokers. A list owner is a mail-order entrepreneur, direct-response marketer, publisher, seminar sponsor, or other firm that makes their customer list available on the commercial list-rental marketplace. For instance, if you want to rent a book publisher's list of mail-order book buyers, you could contact the publisher directly. A list manager is an individual or firm that manages and markets the list owner's mailing list for a fee. If a list is handled by a list management firm, the owner would probably refer you to that firm. A list broker is a third-party agent who rents mailing lists. Unlike the list manager, who works primarily for the list owner, the broker works primarily for you, the list user.
Which source should you use? Approximately 80 percent of all list rentals are made through brokers. Brokers act as consultants to you, the list user, advising you on what response lists are available and which would most likely work for your product and offer. List managers, on the other hand, are more likely to recommend only the lists they manage, while list owners only know the lists they own.
Therefore, brokers have the broadest knowledge of the many lists that are available and will be the most candid and objective in their recommendations. Many mail-order marketing experts suggest getting list recommendations from at least three different brokers initially, until you find a broker you are comfortable with and whose advice has been proven to work for you.
Many list brokers and list managers advertise regularly in such publications as DM News, Direct and Target Marketing Magazine.
MATCHING THE LIST TO THE MARKET
To successfully select the right response lists for your offer, you must come up with an accurate description or profile of your target market, then select lists of people who most closely fit this profile.
Most mail-order experts agree that the ideal response file is a list of people who have bought a product similar to the one you are selling, at a similar price. For instance, if you're selling a $49.95 cassette album on successful selling techniques, your best lists would be people who have bought books and cassette programs on sale, success, marketing, business, and similar topics.
Contrary to what common sense would indicate, a compiled list of professional salespeople would probably not prove profitable for this offer. The reason? Although the people on the compiled list qualify by occupation, they are not proven mail-order information buyers. Many don't buy by mail, and many are not interested in books, cassettes, or self-improvement information. Having the common characteristic of "salesperson" is not enough. You need a response list of the right people to succeed in mail-order selling.
Unfortunately, there are often not enough ideal response lists on the marketplace to make your business venture profitable. So you need to research and find other response lists that, while not a sure thing, may prove profitable and should be tested. This is why the expertise of a list broker is essential.
For instance, if you wanted to promote an expensive financial advisory service, you would want to mail to lists of wealthy people, right? But which lists would work best? A list of doctors is one obvious possibility. A list of corporate CEOs is another. But what about people who own power or sail boats 40 feet long or longer? Or how about people who own twin-engine private airplanes? Or people who subscribe to expensive stock market newsletters? It's not always obvious which list is right for your offer. Sometimes it takes creative, intuitive leaps - or knowledge based on years of experience - to make the connection between offer and list selection. Again, that's where choosing and using the right list broker can make the difference between success and failure.
Edith Roman offers a FREE package of computer-generated list recommendations for YOUR next mailing. This is not the usual bunch of data cards popped in an envelope but a customized computer-printed analysis based on your specific direct mail plans and containing detailed information on the lists chosen. To get your FREE package call toll-free 800-223-2194 (in New York State, 212-695-3836).
In addition, you can perform your own list search with the online version of Edith Roman's CALS® list search system containing over 30,000 mailing lists comprised of over 160,000 list segments. To access the Edith Roman List Search, visit Edith Roman Associates' world wide web site at http://www.edithroman.com.
RECENCY, FREQUENCY, AND AMOUNT
For response lists, three key factors determining success are recency, frequency, and amount. Recency refers to how recently the people on the list made their last mail-order purchase. The more recent the purchase, the better. This seems like common sense - to a point. After all, you can see where a list of mail-order buyers who bought within the last 12 months would be better than a list of people whose last purchase was 5 years ago. The people who bought within 12 months are likely to still have an interest in the type of product purchased (or at least the benefits it offers), while the people who bought 5 years ago may no longer be interested and probably don't even remember buying it.
But people often ask, "What about the prospect who just bought last month or last week or yesterday? He or she has just spent a lot of money on a product similar to mine, so isn't he or she less likely to buy?" This seems to make sense, but in practice, it isn't so. Testing confirms that there is virtually no limit to the dictum, "The more recent, the better." That is why, when you donate funds to a charity, you immediately get a follow-up letter (and often a second and third and fourth letter) asking for an additional donation. The fund-raisers know that the person who just made a donation is the one most likely to respond to a request for additional funds. And so it is with mail-order product selling. The person who just bought (whether from you or from your competitor) is the one most likely to respond to your current offer.
So look for lists of people who have recently purchased products by mail. In the list sales literature, the data card (a standard format for presenting list information) will frequently specify "last 12 months buyers" or "last 24 months buyers," indicating that everyone on the list bought within the specified time period.
Recency is so important that many list owners and managers rent separately the portion of their list containing buyers who have bought very recently, that is, within the past month, 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year. These names are called "hotline" names and generally are more expensive to rent than the list as a whole. Hotline names often generate substantially more profitable results for circulation and other mail-order promotions than regular response lists.
In addition to recency, frequency and amount are also important. Frequency refers to how often the prospect buys through the mail. Most experts agree that lists of "multibuyers" - people who have bought more than once - will usually out pull lists of one-time-only buyers. Many list owners and managers rent the multibuyers portion of their lists separately at a premium.
The third key factor in evaluating response lists is amount. Amount refers to how much money the prospect on the list has spent on a mail-order purchase. Many data cards provide a dollar amount figure for "average order," representing the average dollar amount spent by people on the list per purchase. Ideally, you want a response list of people who have spent an amount similar to the price you are charging for your product. For example, if you want people to attend a $495 two-day business seminar, people who have paid only $20 or $30 for a subscription to a business magazine have not demonstrated that they are willing to part with a far greater amount of money through the mail, even though they might have a proven interest in your topic. You would be better off renting response lists of people who have registered by mail for seminars on similar topics, for comparable registration fees.
ENHANCING RESPONSE LIST INFORMATION AND SELECTIVITY
Years ago, the information available on response lists was the recency, frequency, and amount discussed above. Yet there may be other factors you want to know about your target audience. Do they have a credit card? Are they parents? How old are they? How much money do they make?
Through a technique called overlays, this information is become available on many large response lists. In an overlay, a response list is run on the computer and matched with a larger master list of people; the larger list contains a fuller demographic and descriptive profile of each person. For each person on the response list, the information is taken from the large master list and added to the response list. As a result, you now know a lot more about the people on the response list and can even select portions of the list according to various demographic criteria gained as a result of this overlay of information.
On a consumer response list, these selection criteria can include marital status, sex, age, type of dwelling, religion, ethnic background, number of people in the household, ages of children in the household, credit card status, lifestyle, income, catalog buyers (whether the person orders from mail-order catalogs and what products they buy), sweepstakes participants (so you know whether they're likely to respond to a sweepstakes offer), and many others. An example is the INSIGHT DIRECT COMPUTER CATALOG BUYERS MASTERFILE, a list of 934,047 buyers enhanced with age, income, mail order purchases, presence of children, donor and credit cards information.
On a business response list, data that can be added through an overlay include number and sex of employees in the firm, sales volume, job function or title of the prospect, industry, Standard Industrial Code (SIC), and phone numbers. Selections by specific characteristics are relatively inexpensive (usually $5 per selection per thousand) and, in our experience, usually pay off in terms of higher response.
SELECTING THE RIGHT RESPONSE LIST
In addition to the factors already discussed, there are some other important criteria for selecting response list.
Product Purchased
Try to select response lists of mail buyers who have bought products similar to yours. For instance, if you're selling collectibles, you want lists of people who have bought collectibles by mail. If you can't get a list of people who have bought similar products, you at least want a list of people who have bought related products or services. For instance, someone who is on the Value-Rent-a-Car list and is therefore a proven traveler would likely respond well to offers for travel and entertainment products and services, financial and insurance offers, consumer publications, vacation packages, leisure activities, general consumer mail order, resorts, and other offers that appeal to response, creditworthy people who travel.
Location
Most mailing lists can be segmented by state and zip code. However, geography is usually not a big concern when selecting response lists because, unlike retailers and service firms, most mail-order firms serve a nationwide market. If you sell fruitcakes by mail, you can just as easily sell a fruitcake to someone in New Jersey as you can to a buyer in California.
Geography becomes more of a factor with some offers, such as regional publications, seminars, and conferences. You might then select only that portion of the response list within a certain radius of your location. For instance, New Jersey-based firm offering public seminars in "How to Publish Your Writing" regularly rents the New Jersey portion only of the Writer's Digest magazine subscription list.
Demographics
As discussed previously, many response lists and databases have been overlayed with a wide range of demographic information, including age, sex, income level, ethnic background, interests, and family status. Although not as important as actual buying behavior (recency, frequency, and amount), there are still useful selection criteria for many mailers.
Psychographics
This term refers to the psychological makeup of the prospects on the list. For instance, one psychographic characteristic might be "people with an interest in writing." But aside from subscription lists to writer's magazines, how do you select a list with this characteristic? "An interest in writing" will not be found as a selection criteria on response list data cards. Here's where creativity come in. You must ask, "What type of person is likely to be interested in writing?" You might decide, for example, to test the membership list of the AARP (American Association for Retired Persons) on the theory that many people may want to write but only retirees have the leisure time to pursue it.
List Size
Response lists range in size from under 10,000 names to 1 million names or more. The traditional approach in mail-order direct mail is to select a number of lists for testing, invest in a test mailing, and then, based on the results, mail to the rest of the names on those lists that proved profitable.
If you test 5000 names, and the list has only 10,000 names, there's limited potential because of the small size. For this reason, many mail-order marketers whose products have broad appeal prefer to test larger lists only. Their reasoning: If the test is successful, then they have a large lucrative market to tap into.
However, mail-order marketers with products that appeal to specialized audiences and narrow vertical markets may find that the only lists available are small lists. Before you launch a mail-order venture, you should make sure the total number of names available is large enough to make the effort worthwhile. For instance, successful newsletter publishers generally capture 5 percent of the total market as subscribers. Therefore, if the response list contains 10,000 names, you must determine whether selling 500 subscriptions at your annual subscription rate will generate enough revenue to pay your costs and make a profit.
Cost per Thousand
List rental typically represents 20 to 25 percent of the total cost per thousand of the mailing. While compiled lists typically rent for $50 per thousand, the price of response lists ranges from $80 to $100 per thousand. It generally costs $5 per thousand to select portions of lists by specific characteristics: sex, age, multibuyers, hotlines, etc.
As discussed earlier, beware of firms offering "bargain" lists renting for $5 or $10 per thousand; often they are worthless. One firm, for example, compiles its so-called mail-order buyer lists by writing to mail-order companies and paying 25 cents for the discarded envelopes in which these mail-order operators receive checks and orders. This list is nearly worthless since you have no idea who the people on the list are, what they bought, or what they spent.
List Description
Ask mailing-list brokers to send you a data card on each list they recommend. Data cards contain the basic information on each list, including price, number of names on the list, multibuyers' behavior, selections of buyers versus inquirers, average dollar amount of sale, state counts, minimum order, and so on.
Most data cards contain a few paragraphs of narrative describing the list. Read this carefully. It gives you a good idea of who the people on the list are and whether they fit the profile of your target prospect. Data cards will often suggest types of offers the list is good for, but you should ask brokers whether they think the list will work for you.
List Usage Report
One of the most important facts about a response list is who else has used it. Specifically, have marketers with offers similar to yours tested the list, and if so, were the results favorable or negative? Although confidentiality may prevent the broker from revealing the names of the actual firms using the list, a good broker can tell you whether the list has proved successful for products and offers similar to yours. If it has been successful for them, then there's a good chance it will work for you, too.
Cleanliness
When list users ask "How clean is the list?" they mean "How current are the names, and how frequently is the list updated?" Some list owners, such as controlled-circulation publications, regularly update and clean their lists annually. On the other hand, many smaller mail-order firms never do so. A list that is handled by a professional list manager is likely to be clean.
Making sure the names are current and that the list is frequently updated is important. One out of five Americans moves every year, so lists that are not updated regularly become dated quickly. Names that are not current should be removed at least once a year.
Many list brokers and managers guarantee their lists to be reasonably clean and will refund a portion of the mailing costs if the nondeliverable mailing pieces (called "nixies") returned to you by the post office exceed a certain percentage. For instance, a mailing-list broker that guarantees "93 percent deliverability" will pay you some set amount (typically 25 cents or so) for each nondeliverable piece in excess of 7 percent returns.
Format
Most mailers prefer to get their mailing lists on cheshire or gummed labels. Pressure sensitive labels are selected when the labels are to be affixed by hand; cheshire labels are used when labels are to be affixed using automated equipment available in most modern letter shops (a letter shop is a company that specializes in assembling, stuffing, collating, and preparing mailing pieces for the post office).
However, if you want to personalize your mailing, you need to get your list in computerized form - typically on magnetic tape or a floppy disk. Check with your broker to make sure these formats are available. If you want to follow up your mailing with a phone call, ask if a duplicate of the list, including phone numbers, can be provided on cards or in a computer printout form.
TESTING RESPONSE LIST
If you find a good list of 100,000 potential buyers for your product, it would be foolish to immediately send your direct-mail package to all 100,000 - for two reasons.
First, you don't know that this list will work. Just because you think the people on this list will buy your product doesn't ensure that they will. So it makes sense to mail to a small portion of the list as a test. If the test is successful, you can mail to a larger portion of the list knowing, with relative certainty, that your mailing will work.
Second, you cannot be certain that the list you think is best will generate the greatest response. As we said at the beginning of this chapter, the worst list can pull less than one-tenth the response of the best list. If you have the budget to mail 25,000 pieces, it's better to mail 5000 to five lists and find out which works best rather than mail all 25,000 to one list and discover that you picked the wrong one.
How many lists should you test? We recommend you test between five and eight different lists initially. The biggest mistake mailers make is to test too few lists - or to not test lists at all. Remember, the list is the factor that can make the greatest increase or decrease in response. So it's foolish not to test it.
How many names should you test? Table 9-1 can be used to determine how many pieces you must mail to get a statistically valid test result. There are two factors to consider: percent decline and confidence level. The numbers in the other columns show the number of replies you must get back (not the number of pieces you must mail) to achieve the desired confidence level and percent decline.
Let's say you want to design your test so that when you "roll out" (mail to a larger portion of the list after a successful test), you know with an 85 percent confidence level that the response to your mailing won't decline by more than 25 percent (roll-outs typically have lower response rates than tests).
According to Table 9-1, we must get back 14 replies for the test to give us that confidence level. If we anticipate a 1 percent response rate, we must mail a test quantity of approximately 1400 pieces per list being tested. Therefore, if we mail 1400 pieces, and get back 14 replies, we can be 85 percent certain that the roll-out on that list will generate a minimum response of 0.75 percent, that is, no more than 25 percent decline from the test result of 1 percent.
(Note an electronic version of this caculator may be accessed on the Edith Roman Associates world wide web site at http://www.edithroman.com.)
Table 1
| 50% | 25% | 12.50% | 6.50% | |
| 75% | 1.8 | 7.3 | 29.2 | 116.8 |
| 85% | 3.5 | 14 | 56 | |
| 90% | 6.6 | 26.2 | 104.8 | |
| 95% | 11 | 42.8 | ||
| 99% | 21.7 | 86.9 | ||
How do you know which replies came from which response lists? First, describe your test plans to your list broker. The broker will key each mailing label with a special code identifying which list the label came from (the cost of key coding is only $1 or so per thousand names).
Second, design your mailing so that the label comes back to you when the prospect responds by mail. For instance, you can affix a cheshire label directly to the order form and have the label show through a window on the envelope. For phone orders, ask callers to read you the identifying code number from their labels.
How many names can you roll out to if your test is successful? Our rule of thumb is that the maximum roll-out quantity should be no more than 10 times the test quantity. Therefore, if you test 2000 names, you can roll out safely to 20,000 names. If you get a good result from mailing to the 20,000 you can roll out to 200,000. And if the results are good from the mailing to 200,000 pieces, you can roll out to 2 million.
MERGE-PURGE
Merge-purge is a computerized process through which duplicate names on the various lists you are mailing to are eliminated. For example, if "Steve Roberts" appears on three lists, the merge-purge process eliminates two of the duplicate labels; as a result, you mailSteve Roberts one package, not three.
Since the duplication factor on response lists can be high, doing a merge-purge can save you a lot of money on printing, letter shop, andpostage costs. However, the list broker or computer service bureau charges a substantial fee for this service. Generally, merge-purge pays off on mailings of 30,000 to 50,000 pieces or more; on tests of 30,000 or less, it may not make sense.
COMPARING THE PERFORMANCE OF RESPONSE LISTS
Many novice mail-order operators measure the success of a mailing by percentage response, say, 2 percent of 2.4 percent. But that's a mistake. The true measure of which response list is best is the cost per order. For instance, list X may pull a slightly greater number oforders but may be much more costly to rent than list Y. Therefore, list Y generates orders for you at a lower cost per order and is overall more profitable.
To determine and compare the results of testing lists, you can use the following 12-step formula (the results of these calculations are displayed in Table 9-2).
Table 2
| List A | $ 256.30 | 3,007 | $ 85.23 | 489 | 6.15 | $ 524.13 | $ 365.34 | 30 | $12.18 | 6.13% |
| List B | $ 493.05 | 4,938 | $ 99.85 | 458 | 10.78 | $1,076.52 | $ 595.18 | 61 | $ 9.76 | 13.32% |
| List C | $ 117.34 | 675 | $ 173.84 | 454 | 1.49 | $ 258.47 | $ 218.58 | 24 | $ 9.11 | 5.29% |
| List D | $ 177.66 | 2,047 | $ 86.79 | 348 | 5.88 | $ 510.51 | $ 255.26 | 29 | $ 8.80 | 8.33% |
| List E | $ 554.27 | 6,397 | $ 86.65 | 1,104 | 5.79 | $ 502.05 | $ 800.45 | 110 | $ 7.28 | 9.96% |
| List F | $ 266.60 | 3,674 | $ 72.56 | 1,551 | 2.37 | $ 171.89 | $ 612.46 | 87 | $ 7.04 | 5.61% |
| List G | $ 55.52 | 530 | $ 104.76 | 128 | 4.14 | $ 433.75 | $ 84.06 | 12 | $ 7.01 | 9.38% |
| List H | $ 20.03 | 271 | $ 73.91 | 153 | 1.77 | $ 130.91 | $ 54.15 | 8 | $ 6.77 | 5.23% |
| List I | $1,700.53 | 18,172 | $ 93.58 | 8,580 | 2.12 | $ 198.20 | $3,613.78 | 535 | $ 6.75 | 6.24% |
| List J | $ 460.54 | 6,679 | $ 68.95 | 1,502 | 4.45 | $ 306.62 | $ 795.47 | 118 | $ 6.74 | 7.86% |
| List K | $ 263.20 | 3,615 | $ 72.81 | 2,098 | 1.72 | $ 125.45 | $ 731.03 | 109 | $ 6.71 | 5.20% |
| List L | $ 183.92 | 1,700 | $ 108.19 | 761 | 2.23 | $ 241.68 | $ 353.61 | 53 | $ 6.67 | 6.96% |
| List M | $ 8.52 | 495 | $ 17.22 | 187 | 2.65 | $ 45.59 | $ 50.22 | 8 | $ 6.28 | 4.28% |
| List N | $ 386.13 | 3,751 | $ 102.94 | 1,841 | 2.04 | $ 209.74 | $ 796.65 | 129 | $ 6.18 | 7.01% |
| List O | $ 227.76 | 2,480 | $ 91.84 | 1,570 | 1.58 | $ 145.07 | $ 577.86 | 94 | $ 6.15 | 5.99% |
| List P | $ 209.09 | 1,944 | $ 107.55 | 1,029 | 1.89 | $ 203.19 | $ 438.54 | 72 | $ 6.09 | 7.00% |
| List Q | $ 231.07 | 2,615 | $ 88.36 | 711 | 3.68 | $ 324.99 | $ 389.61 | 65 | $ 5.99 | 9.14% |
| List R | $ 244.49 | 2,355 | $ 103.82 | 1,144 | 2.06 | $ 213.71 | $ 499.59 | 84 | $ 5.95 | 7.34% |
| List S | $ 118.51 | 1,952 | $ 60.71 | 542 | 3.60 | $ 218.65 | $ 239.37 | 43 | $ 5.57 | 7.93% |
This is the key factor that many mail-order marketers do not take into account in evaluating list performance. Yet, failure to factor in merge-purge duplicate elimination when evaluating list tests can result in inaccurate analysis of a list's ability to generate orders cost effectively.
These calculations can be performed manually with calculator and pencil. Software programs that automate the 10-step procedure described above are also available. Lists can be ranked according to cost per order, from highest to lowest, or by adjusted list cost per thousand, quantity mailed, percentage response, list adjustment factor, number of responses, and source (list broker). Contact Edith Roman Associates at 800-223-2194, (in NY State 212-695-3836), or e-mail us at info@edithroman.com and ask for the Edith Roman Circulation Efficiency Model.