The Difference Between a Good and Great List Brokerage

While social media sites have been garnering much of the marketing and advertising attention over the past few years, it’s important to remember that direct mail marketing reaches the largest segment of the population, providing businesses with the best return on their investment.

For example, did you know that only 45% of seniors have Internet access? And that the figure for available e-mails is roughly 20% of postal addresses? That means businesses that fail to incorporate direct mail campaigns into their marketing budgets are missing out on 80% of the population—which may be the vast majority of your potential prospect audience!

While deciding to use direct mail to advertise your brand is a no-brainer, deciding which list broker should be in charge of your company’s reputation requires a lot more attention.

Choosing the right list broker to help promote your brand can make the difference between success and failure, as selecting the right mailing list means connecting with your most valuable prospects. Direct mail pieces are also, in many cases, the first impression a company makes on a consumer and is a reflection of the brand.

That’s why it’s crucial that businesses get their direct mailing list from a reputable company.  Direct mail campaigns are an excellent marketing tool when done effectively, while choosing the wrong direct mail list broker can damage a brand’s reputation and bottom line.

You can send a direct mail campaign out to hundreds of thousands of people, but if it doesn’t get into the right hands, you just wasted a lot of time and money. To have a successful direct mail campaign, brands need to make sure their marketing materials get to high-quality, prospected prospects.

That’s why it’s imperative that brands spend time researching which direct mail is best suited to meet their marketing and business needs. Not only will an experienced list broker have access to a large segment of the population, but it will also have an innumerable number of prospected mailing lists and the knowledge to help you reach your prospect audience and increase your response rate.

Because every business has different needs, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to list buying. That said; here are some basic fundamentals that every brand should look for when it comes to working with a great list broker:

1. Reach – At North American Media, we have over 70,000 lists. Our residential mailing lists reach every household in the United States; our consumer mailing lists allow you to prospect by age, income, presence of children, and more; and our business mailing lists reach every business in your geographic area and can be segmented by size of the company, home business, contact name, and more.
2. Customer-centric – List brokerages are only as successful as their clients. To help ours develop a successful direct mail campaign, North American Media listens to, sources, and delivers up-to-date data that meets your requirements.
3. Objective – A great list broker works for you, drawing from thousands of prospected lists and finding the ones that will help you succeed. A great list broker like North American Media is objective and not tied to an in-house list or any particular list owner, saving you time and money.
4. Advice– Experienced list brokers know what makes the economy tick. A great list broker like North American Media offers free advice and guidance and helps you find the perfect direct mailing list.
5. E-Procedures – You might swear by direct mail, but you should also have the option to expand and develop your marketing efforts. Make sure your list broker is just as familiar with direct e-mail mailing list strategies as they are with traditional direct (snail) mail ones.
6. Reputation – Again, list brokers are only as successful as their clients. Great brokers get repeat business—it’s that simple. North American Media has more than 300 consumer and business-to-business clients in the US, Canada, and internationally.

Whether you’re looking for direct marketing options or new multimedia business solutions, North American Media has the right information, staff, and tools to help your business in whatever capacity it needs. For more information, contact us at (845) 230-6300, e-mail us at contact@namericanmedia.com, or check out our website at namericanmedia.com.