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Archive for December, 2008

Dow Jones Down/Direct Mail Up

December 12th, 2008

I’ve been getting asked daily about how the direct mail industry is doing, what’s working, what’s not working, and how this economy is affecting which industries more or less.  Though, on average, BB Direct is about 30% busier today (mid December 2008) than we were one year ago, there are some mail service providers who’ve slowed down considerably.  I believe this is partly because we haven’t put our eggs into one basket, but instead, we’ve aligned ourselves with clients who intelligently market to those segments of the business community that do well no matter how our economy is doing.  Yes, we’ve seen an evaporation of mortgage lender mailing opportunities and a big drop in the auto dealership marketing as of late.  But we’ve also experienced businesses which focus on the fix-income market do more mailing today than they’ve ever done before.

I would ask that anyone willing to share their good, their bad, and their ugly to please do so.  Please comment on what you’re business has been doing.  We are looking for mailers of any kind to share with us what you see in this market, what you forecast for 2009, and what changes you’ve been making to prepare for this difficult time.  What businesses are seeing a dip/drop in response?  Which mailers have disappeared?  And which mailers are going steady or excelling as a direct result of the recession we are experiencing?

Any information you can provide would be helpful.  In the mean time, I’ll be updating this blog with information about what I hear from our mail service provider clients.  I’ll keep be asking these questions of everyone, whether they are buying more or less mailing list data from BB Direct.  If there’s anything that we might all learn together, it will come from you.  So please submit your comment and let us know what you’ve been experiencing.

And as always, thank you in advance!

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Direct Mail 2009 Forecast

December 10th, 2008

Seems there’s a lot of finger pointing going on with who’s responsible for the mess on Wall Street and Main Street.  Yesterday I watched on CNN how the over site committee interrogated previous CEO’s of both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.  Given only 5 minutes per chairperson, there was little these gentlemen were able to accomplish other than ask sound bite questions and get sound bite answers.  Not to mention that these former CEO’s are frankly pretty sharp men.  With salaries in excess of $4 million per year, there’s little room for the duller, less fortunate….like some of those doing the interrogating.  Ultimately, the committee members resulted to asking them what must be done.  And in 5 minute sound bites, these former CEO’s each made their suggestions, all of which sounded frankly terrific.  So what exactly do these hearings accomplish anyway?  For me, it was little more than entertainment on a Tuesday evening.

I’ve yet to get a grasp of how bad this economic recession really is and I don’t expect anyone has a firm understanding of how long it will take to recover.  I poll clients daily on who their business is doing and get optimism from but not all.  It appears to me that currently, there are some Direct Mail related businesses more affected than others.  I talked with a marketing firm owner on Friday who said they had put all their focus on the mortgage industry and lost over 85% of their clients in the span of 3 months.  Others who’ve focused on the auto industry have simply disappeared off the face of the earth.  It’s a tragedy to hear these stories and to imagine this could happen to any of us is frightening.

I also hear stories of some guys gearing up for 2009.  They’ve secured contracts for great projects that will result in their highest revenue’s ever.  How is this possible?  The answer I believe is that while some rant on about how bad the economy has smacked them down, others are focusing on new business in area’s that haven’t been affected.  I guess I’m saying that we must strive to stay focused, strive to stay positive, and work to accomplish long-term objectives.  Like our own personal attitude, our businesses are just as nimble as we ourselves can be.  There are business opportunities all around us and there will be business opportunities out there in the future.  And they will remain out there until someone (possibly we) goes out there and pull them in.

Whether  you’re a mailing list provider or a printer, a direct agency or newspaper, or a business using direct mail marketing as a way to grow your business……think positive.  Like life, there’s no such thing as constant growth.  Ask not for a better economy, but ask for more skills to combat the recessionary years.

You can learn more by visiting direct mail in a down economy.

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Choosing a Mailing List Broker

December 10th, 2008

When considering a mailing list provider, you should consider many aspects of their ability.  Before your next direct mail campaign, consider reviewing a number of these important points while interviewing your potential mailing list broker.
First of all, consider your naivety in this process.  Have you prepared for a direct mail marketing campaign and carried it through from start to finish with success?  What kinds of experience can you yourself draw from?  Are there others you know that might could offer advise or insight to your mailing list provider selection process?

Consider the following helpful tips to increase the likelihood you’ll find the right data for your campaign needs.

1. When it comes to providers, generally speaking, a mailing list broker will do a better job in representing you and your direct mail marketing needs over going directly to the source of data.  Consider a mailing list broker as a buyers again.  When you go directly to the compiler of data, you won’t find the compiler sales representative suggesting that you go elsewhere because they aren’t right for your request.  Since not all data is compiled the same, there are subtle differences in the quality of data and coverage of elemental information.  We tend to find that Compiler A is better at tracking and capturing senior age information than Compiler B.  Your broker should know these differences and be able to point them out to you.

2. Mailing list brokers tend to specialize in certain vertical markets.  While one mailing list broker focuses on the smaller end-user market, others will focus on the larger volume mailers who resell print and mailing services as well as the mailing list data you provide.  Ask yourself if the mailing list provider you are interviewing has the experience with your industry.  Ask for references and ask to provide several examples.  Many mailing list brokers are good sales people who can talk data, but asking for specific examples stops many inexperienced mailing list brokers from attempting make up stories.

3. Consider a mailing list provider who you feel good about when you talk with them.  These guys are people too and a lot can be said for your gut feeling.

4. Does the mailing list broker get involved with measurement of response rates or just sell you the list and collect your direct mail campaign money?  A good mailing list provider can set proper expectations on deliverability and accuracy.

5. Can your mailing list broker clearly explain where the mailing list data comes from and how it’s compiled?  Does he/she know when the last time the file was updated?  Look for a mailing list provider who’s well versed in the details of the mailing list you are seeking.  If your mailing list broker struggles with the source of the mailing list, he/she may be repackaging the database information from a source you’ve already tested wasting your time and precious campaign dollars.

6. Consider only those mailing list provider who can put details in writing.  Make sure they can provide you with a clear description of what how the mailing list was created.

7. A good mailing list broker should be able to provide references of direct mail marketers who they’ve worked with in the past.  Call on these references and have a heart to heart conversation with them about considering this person.

8. Can your mailing list broker explain the strengths and weaknesses of the mailing lists they are providing?  Compare their recommendation list with other mailing list brokers and refer to your gut feeling on who’s more qualified.

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Top 7 Mailing List Strategies

December 10th, 2008

1. Usage reports

When renting a mailing list that’s a managed property, you can request a usage report before ordering. The usage report is a list of direct mail marketers who’ve tested the mailing list you’re considering. The usage report will also list those direct mail marketers who’ve not only tested the mailing list but have come back and ordered the mailing list again because the initial test direct mail campaign performed well.

By reviewing the usage report a new direct mail marketer can get a glance of other direct mail marketers who’ve either had success or failure. Those direct mail marketers who you recognize to be similar in product/service and offering, and who’ve had continuation on the mailing list, could be signaling that you too may have success. The usage report is a tool that it a first glance but by no means is an exact measurement of how your campaign will do.

2. Data hygiene and update schedules

It’s important to understand the data hygiene and update schedule of the mailing list you’re considering. Ask the source mailing list manager how deliverable the mailing list is expected to be. Ask the source mailing list manager how often the mailing list is updated. Frequency of NCOA and updates to the mailing list will help you understand what to expect before you direct mail to the names and addresses on this mailing list.

3. Choose a good mailing list broker for guidance

Choosing a good mailing list broker is the primary key to success. A good mailing list broker can tell you from experience which particular mailing list has the greatest chances for a successful direct mail campaign. Choose your mailing list broker who have industry knowledge and experience you’re in and one who can speak from experience how the mailing lists are compiled or captured.

4. Profile your internal customer mailing list

A simple internal customer mailing list profile will go along way to deciding on what criteria would be when building your mailing list. To find “look-alike” type people as those on your internal customer mailing list, have your direct mail list broker enhance your internal mailing list with several demographic and psychographic elements of information. These elements will tell a simple story about what all your existing customers have in common. Knowing this will help you decide what you should be chosen when building your acquisition direct mail list.

5. Profile the market you’re attempting to penetrate

Some preplanning can also be helpful when building your acquisition direct mail list. A new business in a new market should always size up the population, what the people there look like in terms of age, income, home value, and so forth before they begin building their mailing list. Running counts within an area can help a business determine who their new market “ideal customer” will be. The typical resident in Kenosha County Wisconsin looks vastly different than one in Orange County California.

6. What’s worked before, and especially what’s not worked before?

The key to mailing list success is measurement. If you invest in a direct mail campaign, you’ll want to measure the response results and compare those results from your previous campaigns. Doing so will allow you to make better decision making when it comes to building your next mailing list.

7. Saturation Mailing vs Compiled data

Sometimes it’s better to perform a direct mail campaign using a saturation resident occupant mailing list than to pay the extra amount to build a mailing list from your compiled element choices. The cost of the mailing list and the savings on postage should be considered when making this decision. If your product or service is right for almost everyone, this should be considered. An upscale restaurant may cater to only the upscale residence within a mile from it’s location but everyone has to eat and even the less fortune will splurge to dine out upscale.

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Mailing List Acquisition Strategies

December 10th, 2008

1. Consider timing of your campaign
Your direct mail piece competes with the other mail pieces in the mailbox that day as well as the attention span of who you mailed the direct mail piece to.  In the summer months, the kids are out of school and families are busy with summer activities.  The weeks around December are filled with holiday activities that occupy a direct mail recipients attention that directly competes with the consideration of your mail piece.

2.  Consider the competition
How is your competition positioning themselves to the very audience you’re attempting to win business with?  What’s their offer, and is it similar to your offer?  Consider for a moment what the direct mail recipient considers when they receive your direct mail piece and your competitions direct mail piece.  Be sure your direct mail piece clearly defines your offer and that your offer is clearly different.  The offer doesn’t have to be better, but has to be different.

3.  Series mailings
Building brand is reinforced by mailing your direct mail audience multiple times throughout the year.  The message you’re sending to your audience should be consistent to be remembered.  By renting your mailing list for a multi-use, you’re able to direct mail the audience as many times as you’d like within a period of one year.

4.  Keep consistent with your message
There is a synergistic effect to consistently voicing the same message whether it is across multiple mediums of advertisement or multiple times through the use of direct mail.  Though direct mail marketing is one of the most measurable and controllable, your message should be consistent and clear to be heard and remembered by most.

5.  Setting expectations
If you’re a direct mail marketer representing a business who’s investing in direct mail, be sure to properly set the expectations of the direct mail campaign.  You should explain the possibility of undeliverable direct mail and what percentage.  You should also properly explain the potential response rates your customer should expect.  This should be done before the dollars invested are spent and in conjunction with the offering of a plan of action to take for various response rates.

6.  Business reply by mail
It cannot be said enough, response measurement is an important component to your direct mail campaign.  Including a response vehicle such as a Business Reply by Mail allows you to do just that.  Offering a catalog, order form, test product, free newsletter, etc…will help you decipher those you’ve direct mailed to that have a sincere interest in your product or service, from those who more likely don’t.

7.  Always be testing
No matter how successful your direct mail marketing campaigns are you should always be testing something.  Take a successful mailing list and attempt to learn something new from these direct mail responders.  Takes have of those initial responders and mail them twice as often as the others and see if the purchasing activity increases.  Append demographic elements to the entire mailing list of responders and see if there is any consistency or pattern with these responders.  You may find a cluster of responders from which you can test multiple versions on.

8.  Consider mailing to businesses for a consumer offer
Some offers typically direct mail marketed to a consumer mailing list could be direct mail marketed to a business mailing list.  After all, there are people who receive the mail at the business.  Those recipients aren’t used to receiving a personal offer so your direct mail piece may stand out from the rest.  This approach isn’t for every product/service but worthy of consideration for the simple fact that people creatures of habit.  Many affluent consumers are used to getting bombarded at home and many of the direct mail pieces get very little attention.  What they probably don’t see too often is a mail piece that’s completely unrelated to there employment arrive in the middle of their work day.  Still many people are in a different mode while at work, perhaps more relaxed, away from the children, fresh mind-set because it’s earlier in the day, and perhaps will are more able to offer your direct mail piece a bit more attention at their place of work.

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Mailing List data Hygiene

December 10th, 2008

Direct mail marketing businesses rely on accurate sales leads to grow their business.  Without accurate mailing list data, many businesses miss out on lost opportunity.  Overtime, the best mailing list can become stale.  People relocate and mailing list records change.  That is why it’s so vitally important to keep your mailing list updated and current, track these changes, and avoid missed opportunity.

Mailing list data hygiene processes all you to keep your internal customer mailing list clean and healthy.  Like visiting your doctor for a regular check-up instead of just when problems occur, keeping your mailing list clean avoid potential problems from ever occurring.

This also holds true with regard to telemarketing record data.  As people relocate, their telephone number changes along with their mailing address.  If you have mailing list that’s clean and up-to-date, appending accurate phone information to this mailing list will allow you to stay in contact with the people you intend to stay in contact with.  Likewise, when an individual relocates and changes phone number, their old phone number goes back into the pool of available phone numbers and is reassigned to a completely different person.  To the unsuspecting direct mail marketer, when perform a direct mail campaign with a follow-up telemarketing campaign, they may see a higher and higher degree of inaccurate phone accuracy rate over time.

So the importance of keeping both your mailing list and telemarketing list updated and current cannot be stressed enough.  Not only will you cut cost by not spending on printing and postage to direct mail to non-existent people, but the loss of potential business opportunity increases over time because those people who’ve relocated will simply never receive your offer and thus, never respond.

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Mailing List Address Accuracy

December 10th, 2008

Customers new to the direct mailing industry may not understand common issues that occur in mailing list compilation and the direct mail delivery process. Following are some common questions and explanations.

It is important to note that mailing list accuracy is only one aspect of deliverability. Production processes and creative execution also impact mailing list deliverability rates.

What deliverability rate should I expect with my direct mail campaign? What is an acceptable direct mail deliverability rate?

The industry average typically quoted is 90%. Reasons for delivery errors are primarily due to the issues addressed below.

Why are there deceased individuals on my mailing list?

The main source for the Deceased Suppression file is the Social Security Administration (SSA). Vendors receive quarterly updates of the file and suppress deceased names as part of each compilation process. If an individual did not collect social security benefits through the SSA, they are not included on this deceased file. Most mailing list vendors consider individuals with no activity for 48 months “deceased” and remove them from their mailing list.

Why are single households receiving multiple mail pieces?

To avoid this, dedupe the mailing list on the address level not the household level. In vendor compilation procedures, a “duplicate” is defined as an individual containing the same name at the same address. Different surnames at the same address are NOT considered duplicates.  As an example, two individuals with different last names living at the same address are considered two separate households.

Why are there inaccurate addresses and/or names that do not match addresses on my mailing list?

Part of the vendor mailing list compilation process utilizes the United States Postal Service (USPS). Every month the USPS provides vendors with a Locatable Address Coding System (LACS) file. Most mailing list inaccuracies are the result of a local postmaster providing incomplete or inaccurate mailing list information. When vendors match against the LACS file there must be an EXACT name and address match. If postmasters submit a variation, this will lead to a non-match and a non-conversion of that address.

How are Change of Addresses (COA) filed?

When a person completes an NCOA (National Change of Address) request with the post office, they may file either as an “individual” or as a “household”. If a “household” move is marked, any same surnames in the household will be moved to the new address.

Why is age mailing list data sometimes listed as “estimated”?

A high percentage of vendor files are coded with exact age obtained from date of birth data. When “date of birth” does not exist, vendors apply various data points to “estimate” age. In most cases, the “estimated age” will fall within five years of the exact age. “Estimated” age data is not inaccurate. It is a reliable and accepted industry practice.

Why are there inaccuracies in income data?

In general, most “estimated household income” mailing list data is very accurate. Vendors use various methods to estimate or infer income; real estate, martial status, age, presence of children, sale price of home, summarized credit statistics, census demos, etc. When available, actual income data at the individual and household level may be used to validate “estimated income”. Errors are generally isolated and using estimated income when building your mailing list criteria mostly accurate.

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Good Business During a Recession

December 10th, 2008

While most industries are tightening their advertising budget during an economic downturn, some business segments prosper and even excel during these times by using direct mail.  While most businesses are bringing in less revenue and tightening their budget, some business industries are earning record profits to recessionary periods.  Marketing and related services like Direct Agencies, Specialized Marketing Firms, Direct Mail Printers, Direct Mail Letter-shops, Mailing List Brokers, and Newspapers can all benefit by focusing on these vertical business segments during recessionary times.  The more direct mail marketers understand these markets, their needs, and the appropriate mailing list audiences to be used, the better they will exceed through the economic cycle.

This site highlights those business segments which sensibly do well in a down market.  If you’re in the direct mail marketing business helping businesses advertise their products and services via direct mail, consider versioning your core service message to speak to these industries.

Most companies attempt to be all things to all people, but by augmenting your website, print collateral, and direct mail marketing promotions, in a way that speaks directly to particular business vertical, you’ll get more positive attention and increase your sales leads.

The industries you will want to consider your most focus and attention on are; budget travel, business to business, gambling casino’s, products and services that offer “peace of mind”, businesses that focus on the budget conscience buyer, real estate investors, mortgage refinance, staple (can’t do without products and services), businesses that export American goods and services, the ultra affluent, and alternatives to upgrading.

In upcoming posts, you’ll find detailed insights into all of these industries, how and why they work well in a down market, and the types of mailing lists available for each of these campaign categories.

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Industries that Thrive Using Direct Mail in a Down Market

December 10th, 2008

Below are the categories and industries that, in effect, weather better than businesses in other industries.  These industry types are not all weather proof but more weather resistant than others.  The categories below give you a feel for the logical reasoning of how businesses are affected by our ever changing economy.

Upgrades Can Wait

Products and Services
*  Auto Parts stores
* Uses car dealerships
* Auto repair service
*  Do-it-yourself home improvement

Considerations
Why buy new when you can repair or trade for used and save thousands.  With the current home values so low, it’s virtually impossible to sell without bring cash to closing.  Homeowners stay put if they can, make repairs if they are need, and remodel to breath new life into their aging home.

Consider a homeowners mailing list and filter those homeowners with home equity.  This is easily done by looking at length of residence as one of your filters.  Also consider a New Homeowners mailing list.  New Homeowners typically get busy with repair jobs and need products for those home repair projects.

Budget Pinch

Products and Services
* Discounted Product providers such as Wal-Mart and Dollar Store
* Furniture Liquidators
* Non-branded household necessities such as Publix brand vs. the more expensive brand
* Consignment stores

Considerations
It’s time to cut the credit cards and attempt to save what little money might be going around.  Painful but necessary, those who can do without, do without. Clipping coupons, and shopping more wisely in the party line in a down market.

Direct mail marketers should consider targeting a variety of demographics that suit the furniture offers in the store.  Most consumer mailing lists will include income, age, homeowner, marital status, child present, and age of child.  These mailing list selects will help to pinpoint the direct mail audience as well as allow you to version your message more appropriately.  With furniture liquidation sales, it’s better to expand your geographic radius to find the ideal shopper than it is to waste money attempting to convince the more local residence that will simply not part for new furniture.

Budget Travel

Considerations
Businesses decisions are generally black and white.  For the most part, businesses will do whatever they can legally do to stay afloat.  If they have to spend their last dime on advertisement, they simply must do it.  With wages needing to be paid, cash-flow must come in or the business simply closes.  And cutting expenses where they can is also a decision of economics.  Most all businesses need office equipment but if they can save a few bucks in hard times, they’ll look to buy used.  They can also use the help of a lease negotiator to help them renegotiate their existing lease or relocate to a more favorable arrangement.  They business mailing lists this market is pretty straight forward, you’ll can filter by SIC code that helps identify the type of businesses you want to direct mail to.  The business mailing list can also be filtered by sales volume, employee size, or reach only mom and pop type businesses.  The business mailing list can include the contact name of the primary decision maker at that mailing address location and a phone number for a follow up call.

Entertainment

As you can imagine, entertainment is one of the first expenses to be cut in a down market.  Consumers throughout the US begin tightening their belts, staying indoors, and enjoying activities that last longer, cost less or nothing at all.  Many families look will rent movies from Blockbuster than go the theater, they’ll make pizza at home rather than go out to the restaurant, and they’ll work to shift any money they can to paying the bills and staying afloat.  There are some times of entertainment that do continue to prosper.  Below are those considered recession-resistant.

Products and Services
* Gambling
* Bowling
* Soft-ball leagues and the like

Considerations
Call it habit forming but the gaming industry performs relatively well compared to other businesses in entertainment industry.  Direct mail marketers should consider self-reported survey driven data that identifies various types of gambles.  Casino resorts can also use their internal customer mailing list to profile.  Profiling their customer mailing list allows the direct mail marketer to better understand what their existing customers look like, and to also find new “like” customers.  Direct mail piece versioning is very useful with casino resorts as they typically offer so much more than just slot machines and table gaming.  Direct mail marketers should consider mailing lists that identify travelers who might fit the profile of other products and services the resort offers…..to then lure them into the casino floor.
Bowling and softball are an example of inexpensive outdoor activities that many participate during hard times.  They are the type of business that continues on whether the economy is booming or busting.

Peace of Mind

During recessionary times, many people are desperate and some take risks to make ends meet.  During these times, a few people buy hand guns, suffer from road rage, drink more, and pick-up drug habits.  The rest of us worry about these dangerous few, install home security, add pad-locks, and keep a watchful eye on the neighbors.  Peace of mind is a rare commodity, but if it can be bought, there are more buyers during recessionary times.

Products and Services
* Home security services
* Pawnshops

Considerations
There seems to be a direct correlation with recession and crime.  When the market goes down, the crime rate goes up.  Home security service providers like ADT see spikes in new business in neighborhoods with reported burglaries.

Consider building a mailing list of homeowners in your market territory that fit the income potential required for this service.  Also consider targeting single women, single mothers, young families, and the elderly.  Version your message appropriately for each of these target groups to increase your response rates.

Real Estate and Mortgage Choices

Products and Services
* Credit repair companies

Considerations
Though the current lending industry is a mess, for those who’ve maintained good credit, credit options are available and usually needed.  The rates are expected to continue to decline leading to ideal refinance options for those who qualify.  Direct mail is a great way to reach this audience because the property mortgage mailing list pinpoints the ideal audience so carefully.  Whether you want to help someone refinance their mortgage or buy investment homes, there’s a mailing list available for you.  Looking to help people repair their credit?  Using direct mail reaches these people because it’s a private matter and direct mail satisfies the sensitivity issue. Talk with your mailing list broker about some of the mailing lists available for this audience.

The Dollar vs. the Euro

Products and Services
* American made goods and services sold
* Stateside travel destination catering to Canada and Europe

Considerations
When the value of the U.S. dollar goes down, the value of other county currency goes up.  This does two things to the buying power of our U.S. dollar.  First, it makes the cost of imports to America go up, and second it makes the cost of American goods sold overseas go down.  So your businesses that cater to overseas buyers, such as Disney World in Orlando looking for European travelers, make an attractive offer.  For responsive individual’s sensitive products “Made in America”, direct mail marketers should consider mailing to a mailing list of Republican voters who are generally more aware of and troubled by those products manufactured overseas.  International mailing lists are also available to reach vacation travelers that may want to take advantage of a more cost effective American destination.

Ultra-Affluent Direct Mail Marketing

Considerations
For most consumers, disposable income disappears in a recession.  But for the ultra-affluent, a recession is a great time to get out of and spend some of that extra money.  Chances are their disposable income buys them more than it ever did.  For the ultra-rich, an economic down turn doesn’t affect their ability to live the best life money can buy.

Consider targeting the ultra-affluent by using direct mail to reach this incredibly wealthy audience.  Available to the direct mail marketer is a mailing list of millionaires, multi-millionaires, and billionaires.  This mailing list is very niche but consider that they’re used to being wined and dined at every turn so to grab their attention, your direct mail piece must be extremely high end.  To truly reach those who truly enjoy the best life money can buy; your direct mail piece must be more like a media kit than a post card.  This audience doesn’t respond to savings but is ever searching for the ultimate new sensation that they’ve not experienced before.

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Ethnic Direct Mail Marketing

December 10th, 2008

According to the USPS, 72% of Hispanics receive almost all of their direct mail in English. But 36% would prefer to receive their direct mail in Spanish. These percentages are pretty telling when you think of how much direct mail campaign costs are wasted. The direct mail marketer can now expect to increase their response rates by utilizing mailing list data designed to separate ethnic surname from language spoken in the household. Combining a better, more sophisticated, mailing list with proper direct mail piece copy will enhance the mail moment and attract more attention from its recipient, thus producing more and better sales leads.

The Mailing List

But not all mailing lists targeting ethnicity are the same. Some mailing list sources attempt to predict the ethnicity of a home or its primary language solely on the spelling of the last name. Today’s technology allows you to build a mailing list that’s multi-dimensional in creation. In addition to using the spelling the last name when compiling an ethnic mailing list, with over 75,000 first names common to more than one ethnicity and another 75,000 first names unique to a given ethnicity, both first and last names can be used in building an ethnic mailing list.

Ethnic groups can then be created for proper ethnic identification. Creating these ethnic groups goes a long way to targeting and versioning your direct mail message for greater impact response.

Ethnic Group Creation

Some ethnic groups are more easily identifiable than others, but simple techniques help cure the ethnic group identification process. For instance, many approaches offer Asian categories such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.  But how can these offerings assure you that names that properly belong in other ethnic groups are not mixed in with the major groups they do offer?  An example of this might well be Myanmar (Burmese) mixed in with Chinese.  Names such as Ma Ne Tun, Ba Thaung, or Maung Khaing are Burmese names, not Chinese.  They do not speak or think in Chinese, and are probably not receptive to offerings geared specifically to Chinese people.  For names that are common to 2 or more ethnic groups the method we use is to look at the middle names to be used as a tie breaker.  An example of this would be Peter Yu, he could be either Korean or Chinese and there the middle name comes into play.  Peter Mei Yu would be coded as Chinese and Peter Hak Yu as Korean.  John Smith could be English or African American depending on geographic location but John Big Eagle Smith, from his middle name would be coded as Native American regardless of his geographic location.  Middle names are also used to define different religions within a group, for example Sikh or Hindu.  Other examples include “Russian”, where competitive approaches seem to have lumped all “Soviets” together under that term, “Yugoslavian”, where one might well find Croats Serbs, Slovenes, and a number of other ethnicities, “Czechoslovakian” where Czechs, Slovaks, and a smattering of Magyar, Polish, Estonian, and other groups might be found, and most specifically, “African American”, a specialty deserving its own explanation as an advantage. By incorporating name research and geographic locators we can determine Hispanic Country of Origin from twenty-one countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela. This incorporation of both name research and geographic locators go along way to helping create an accurate ethnic mailing list.

The Direct Mail Piece and Message

The direct mail marketer should consider a number of inclusions to their direct mail piece that will help in the development of your internal customer/prospect mailing list.

*  Bi-lingual language is very important for the first direct mail piece to your acquisition mailing list. Though you are using the best known ethnic mailing list available that’s targeting by ethnic back-ground, you’ll not want to assume that all direct mail recipients can speak and read their native tongue. By providing both English and their native language, say Spanish, the direct mail recipient will not only appreciate the effort made to respectfully communicate to them, but you’re also assured you’re not missing out of those who wouldn’t understand your offer.

* This first direct mail piece should of course have a response vehicle with in it. The response vehicle could be a phone number to return call to set an appointment, or maybe a Business Reply by Mail. If you’ve left a phone, be sure the direct mail responder has two options on the phone that are measurable. At the very least, two phone numbers; one for English, and one in their native tongue. This again respectfully accommodates their potential need and allows you to track the language preference.

*       Going forward, you should have developed an internal prospect/customer mailing list with essentially to clusters within it. One of the clusters within your mailing list would be those who’s preference is, say, Spanish, and the other would be those preference is English. All future correspondence with this prospect/customer should be in the language of their choice.

As your internal customer mailing list becomes sizable enough, you should consider splintering your entire direct mail marketing efforts to version not only the language on your direct mail campaigns, but also any special interests of this audience. Your direct mail newsletter might not only be provided in two language versions, but the native language one should also include subject matter that’s conducive to the interest of that ethnicity.

It’s important to ask what your various ethnic clusters might want to see from you as a business. At each direct mail communication thread, be sure to include questions that will heighten your awareness of the ethnic cluster and compare the responses with those of the English cluster. Look for responses that differ most between the two languages and work to develop changes within your organization that better address the needs of different people. You may not see much difference between these two cluster groupings but it’s important to continually ask questions of everyone on your internal customer mailing list to stay abreast of your customers ever changing needs.

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