Mailing lists can save business owners a lot of money in wasted advertising. Normally they use traditional advertising avenues such as ads in magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, or even billboard ads. The problem with most of these ads is that they are very hard to track in terms of money spent and sales made. By using direct marketing instead, a business can achieve great results via a mailing list and use the power of mailing lists to connect with their target market.

Mailing list brokers will provide you with as much or as little specific information as you care to pay for. One benefit of using mailing lists is the ability to use advanced targeting to drill down into your target markets specific traits. Mailing list brokers have systems in place to allow you to choose a wide range of demographics to target. The more you drill down into specifics, the higher your rate of success in your campaign.

List brokers are resellers of lists that are distributed by list owners.

There are two distinctive ways to purchase mailing lists. First there are lists offered for direct mail/postage campaigns and second there are email lists to target your prospects via email campaigns. Let’s look at the properties of each of these mailing lists:

Direct mail mailing/postage lists:

- Postal list typically include a minimum purchase (e.g.5,000 names)
- Cost of high filtered lists will increase the overall price
- Printing, design, and postal costs are not included in the cost of a direct mailing list
- Can be more expensive than an email list if extra costs are factored in
- Better response rate than with email lists, especially if highly targeted

Email lists:

- A consumer email list’s minimum size is usually around 5,000 names
- Business targeted lists packages are between 3,000 – 5,000 names
- Emails can only be sent via the list brokers own email system to prevent trouble with the law (Spam abuse)
- Sometimes list brokers don’t include the cost of transmission in the package cost. Therefore it helps to clarify this upfront.
- Costs of email lists are generally less than those of direct mailing lists.
- Email lists have a smaller response rate than direct mailing lists simply for the fact that many people don’t open their emails anymore, so higher numbers are needed to achieve results.

Either of these can be purchased from a list broker. Generally, the more target specific you want your list to be, the smaller the list size you can purchase. If however you don’t have any stipulations as to demographics like age, sex, income, type of car they drive, etc. you can purchase lists as big as you need them to achieve your mailing goals.

In the end, mailing lists are a great way for any business, big or small to make sales and gain new customers. It is done every day by thousands of business owners all across the country and most likely you have been targeted by mailing lists before.