Many small or independent publishers, entrepreneurs, home-based and small business owners are in the dark about mailing list rental  -- how to order targeted, direct mailing lists, what to look for, what to beware of and often make a few expensive mistakes. These free tips and trade secrets will help you avoid these mistakes and help you make better decisions when you seek out mailing list services.

First of all generally you rent, not buy or purchase mailing lists. They remain the ownership of the mailing list company.

Many business owners rent lists BUT don’t use them right away.  Most lists change considerably in just 30 days or less. Some lists, like mailing lists of public libraries, prisons, hospitals, hospital gift shops, elementary schools and high schools, colleges and universities, daily newspapers, TV stations and radio stations will have very few changes.  They are stationary so not likely to move. Lists like bookstores, new age bookstores, organizations, specialty lists, MLM lists and small businesses may have a high rate of return. To avoid a lot of returns, rent the selected lists just prior to making your mailing.

Be careful about renting any mailing list that goes to individuals – consumers, seniors, residential, new homeowners and opportunity seekers mailing lists.  With 20% of the population moving every year you may get significant returns.

But do expect some returns. As often as we mail to lists, we always get returns (called ‘nixies’ in the trade) from the post office. People move, forwarding orders expire, people expire, post office boxes close, and businesses close their doors.

List management and upkeep is expensive. It takes a lot of time and labor for companies to compile, add to, clean and mail to their lists and other necessary maintenance.  They also use expensive mailing list software which can have bugs of its own.

Before you make order your mailing lists, ask when you can expect the order to arrive.  This can vary considerably from company to company.  Some companies can take up to two weeks or more.  This will help you plan ahead.

Mailing lists can usually be ordered in at least three formats - peel and stick (pressure-sensitive) labels or Cheshire (18 pound spreadsheet-size computer paper--less common these days) and on a floppy disk (less used these days) or CD.  You would order peel and stick labels if they are going to be affixed to your mailing piece by hand. Or if you know how to import the lists you can get them on CD.  If your mailing house is going to do it they will probably prefer the floppy disk or CD (check with them on this).  Mailing list houses used to require the Cheshire format instead of peel and stick before the advent of computer technology and CD ROM.  They have machines that cut the printed sheets into labels and glue them to the envelopes.  When ordering lists on CD, specify the format you want to use for conversion, usually ASCII comma-delimited. You must know how to import it when you get the disk, though. The lists will always be for one-time use only even if on disk. And some companies offer email instant downloads of lists.

Always send any nixies back to your mailing list company for credit, which is almost always offered, even if there aren't enough for a credit. This is a good practice especially if you plan to mail again to the same list soon.  They usually have a time limit as to when they can accept the nixies for credit because your lists will continually become outdated.

If a mailing house is going to do your mailing, they may want the labels to be merged if there is more than one list, or bar-coded, which will save considerably on postage. If you can’t answer their technical questions have your mailing house call your mailing list company to work out the final details.

Years ago, we rented a large list of 4000 bookstores from a mailing list company and received 588 returns. As a rule, big mailing list companies do not mail to their own lists to clean them.  They depend on the return of nixies from customers to do that.  We couldn't get full credit because the mailing list company had a 90% deliverability guarantee (10%=400).  So we were only able to get credit for 188 of them. We didn't realize the consequences until we received the returns. We had to pay 18.3¢ going out bulk rate (third class) mail, and an additional 32¢ coming in from the post office, for each of the 588 returns.

Consider the cost to mail out your mailing piece. You might want to test a small number on the list first if you have an expensive or heavy package.

When you do mailings First Class, you will get returns from the post office at no additional charge.  If you mail Third Class (bulk mail), you won't get returns. They will be tossed out by the post office, UNLESS you have printed  “Return Service Requested” on the envelope and then each return (nixie) will cost additional postage (based on first class), or “Change Service Requested” (cost based on piece regardless of weight.)  Make sure to check current costs with the post office because they change their rates AND rules periodically.

We’ve often had requests for lists in niche markets. For example, we received a request for a list of bookstores that carry Japanese books.  We found many Japanese bookstores listed in our foreign language bookstore list.  The entire list was only $25. So it made sense for the customer to order the entire list and pull off the Japanese bookstores.  If the title is market-specific as it was in this case, you could sell quite a few books or products to a small targeted list, as this company did. 

When you contract to rent a list, some mailing list companies may require a sample mailing piece. This is so the company can determine if you are mailing a competitive or objectionable piece.

The business of mailing list rentals is based on the honor system to a degree, but this honor system also has a built-in alarm: owners protect their data by planting decoy names (seeds) in the mailing lists they rent.  If a renter contracts to use a list on a one-time basis and uses it a second time, the decoy will receive the unauthorized mailing and report the misuse to the list owner.  The decoys are often friends or relatives of the staff of the companies.  Also, many mailing list companies employ companies that specialize in tracking or monitoring mailings to detect any misuse.  Since decoys are different for each list order, the renter who abuses a contract is easy to trace.

Mailing lists are protected by copyright and trade secret law. Any violation of a list agreement is strictly upheld by the courts.  Once a list rental contract has been broken, the list owner has legal recourse to sue for compensatory and punitive damages.  Punitive damages could amount to as much as three times the value of the list and more.

All list owners have good reason to be so protective of their data.  List rental and exchange is a multibillion-dollar business.  There are literally thousands of lists available for rental in the United States alone. 

If all else fails, you can enlist the help of a mail list broker.  Brokers usually collect their fees form the mailing list company. Check this out first.

These tips and trade secrets should help small or independent publishers, entrepreneurs, small and home based and work-at-home business owners make better decisions when working with mailing lists, mailing list rentals and mailing list companies.

CopyrightÓ2006  Helen Hecker  all rights reserved