A good mailing list can go a long way in helping your yellow letter campaign to be successful. Sending a great letter to the wrong people may generate some responses, but not the responses you are looking for. That is why it’s so important to get the mailing list right. So, if I’m looking to build a good mailing list, what is the first thing I need to do?
My first consideration is the geographical area I want to target. This can be the city, county, or zip codes that appeal to me most. Keep in mind that the tighter I go with my mailing list filters geographically, the looser I will need to be with my mailing list filters for demographics. Also consider that motivation generally comes more from the demographic filters than from the geographical area I target.
For example, if I run two zip codes using the mailing list filters absentee owned properties with a purchase date of 2012 and earlier, I might have 100 records available. Now, instead of running just two zip codes, I run the entire city, and that city includes 50 zip codes. Since I am now using a larger area I might end up with 3,000 available records, still using the same mailing list filters of absentee owned properties with a purchase date of 2012 and earlier. If I have 3,000 records available, I can then be tighter with my mailing list filters for demographics. That means that instead of using a purchase date of the year 2012 and earlier, I can now go back to a purchase date of 2000 and earlier. That tightens up my target audience, and since I am using a larger area, I still have enough records available to run a campaign. I can also add other mailing list filters to help with motivation or property demographics such as the number of bedrooms for the property, the loan to value (equity), or market value.
Since I am targeting a larger area geographically there are more records available. And since there are more records available I can be tighter with my demographic mailing list filters for my yellow letter campaign or postcards. And that can help with the motivation of the individual who owns the property.
