1. Direct marketing mailing lists can help you promote your business.
2. You can buy different types of lists from mailing list companies.
3. Business owners can create their own mailing lists if they can't find any relevant mailing list providers.
   

Action Steps to Find a Great Direct Mailing List
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Use direct marketing lists to remind your prospects about who you are and what you do

The content that you send out to recipients on your mailing list should include information about your company and services it can offer prospects and customers. No matter how 'big' your company seems, don't take for granted that your prospects--or even your established customers--remember who you are. Include your business name, address, contact details and other pertinent on each piece of correspondence.

I recommend: USADATA offers specialty lists that help you target your audience. Hoover's offers many tools to help target your audience and interpret your audience's relation to your industry. Buy a mailing list from either of these sources to hit the ground running.

Get the word out about promotions or events using direct mailing lists

Mailing lists can be used as great promotional tools. As a business owner with a mailing list in hand, you have your audience at the tip of your fingers. Send promotional material or event notices to your prospects and customers to ensure that your business is getting all the marketing and advertising that it needs.

I recommend: BuyerZone helps you target your audience by asking you a series of questions about you and your intended market so that your promotions can go to the right people. 1000Lists offers a variety of lists segmented by industry, organization, profession and other factors.

Take your mailing list to the Internet

Your website is a great place to collect the email addresses of customers and prospects. One way to get email addresses is to ask for them in exchange for free information packets or newsletters. But if yours is a new business and collecting email addresses proves too difficult for you, consider contacting mailing list vendors and buying mailing lists for sale.

I recommend: InfoUSA is a leading provider of email mailing list services. Americant also offers targeted email lists and lists that are full of people who have opted into them.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Consider gathering as much information as you can about each person on your mailing list. Strive to get each person's physical and email addresses to keep them up-to-date about your business's happenings in every medium possible.

1. Prospects with a history of purchasing in response to direct marketing
2. A demographic match with your target customer
3. Information about prospects' recent and frequent purchasing activity

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get the lay of the land for marketing lists

Before you start shopping, get a sense of how the system works. DM News, the preeminent trade paper for the direct-marketing industry, provides a free primer on lists.

I recommend: Download the DM News Essential Guide to Lists, Database Marketing, and Data Services. Focus on pages 5 through 10, which describe the basics of mailing lists. A direct marketing consultant from Business.com's directory may also be the way to go for a beginner.

Find list brokers

Direct marketing mailing list brokers specialize in finding just the right lists for a company's needs. As the name 'broker' implies, they don't actually own the lists, but act as middlemen. Odds are, there are marketing lists that will satisfy whatever specs you seek.

I recommend: If you're selling to consumers, start with InfoUSA, with which you can find lists targeted by demographics and geography. If you sell to businesses, try Hoover's or Dun & Bradstreet's ZapData. For European lists, check out the Federation of European Direct Marketing. One particular subset of interest is magazine subscription lists, which you can find at MediaFinder. Or contact SRDS, a clearinghouse for mailing lists.

Go with a B2B specialist

Business-to-business marketing lists reach people at their office or workplace. Consumer lists reach people at home. If you sell B2B, you'll want mailing list companies in that area.

I recommend: GreatLists.com features complete complete details on thousands of B2B lists, both for USA and international audiences. These include virtually all of the standard lists used by the largest B2B mailers, plus thousands of highly targeted specialty lists for small, niche direct marketers. Owner and B2B list guru Phil Dismukes has been gathering lists for 25 years.

Contact a trade association or publication for marketing lists

An association or trade publication may have a direct marketing mailing list of its own, or may be able to refer you to specialized mailing list companies.

I recommend: You can find trade associations via Yahoo, DMOZ or other search engines.

Make sure you're in compliance with direct mailing list law

Direct marketing has come under a lot of legislative and regulatory scrutiny of late and you want to make sure that your direct-sales initiatives comply with federal regulations.

I recommend: Check out the “Do Not Call” rules at the web site for the Federal Trade Commission and read the Direct Marketing Association's ethical guidelines. Use list cleaners or "Do Not Call" compliance software from Business.com's directory to stay within the rules.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Ask brokers of marketing lists if they work with the market you're interested in. Some brokers concentrate on specific niches.
• •  Before you buy, mailing list companies should tell you about other companies like yours they have worked with in the past.
• •  Ask how often they update and clean their marketing lists, as well as where they get their names from.

1. Direct marketing lists can be an invaluable tool in helping you get to know your customers and prospects.
2. Business mailing lists can be used for more than just getting your company name and address out to the public.
3. Direct marketing mailing lists can help you market other things besides your company and its street address.
   

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Do target market research with your mailing lists

Having mailing lists gives you an opportunity to learn more about your prospects and customers. Send out surveys, polls and questionnaires to find out what your target market likes to see in products, what they find valuable in yours and how you can improve your services.

I recommend: The inetGiant website allows you to pick a country in which you'd prefer your recipients to be located and also lets you choose a subset of interest categories. Get Response Email Marketing promises high-quality leads that aren't resold and are unique. This increases your chances of finding willing participants for your research.

Send out valuable content using your direct mailing lists

Prospects and customers will quickly tire of your correspondence if they find that it contains the same things over and over again. To ensure that you get and retain as many readers as possible, try offering discounts in newsletters or referral cards or educate them on a subject that interests them. Announcing new products and publishing press releases is fine, but it's likely that you'll find more readers if you offer something to readers that is as worthwhile to them as it is to you.

I recommend: Mailing List Factory offers custom lead mailing lists. Examples are those that separate opportunity-seekers from professionals. Responsivelists offer wholesale, targeted mailing lists.

Find mailing lists for sale that will help you market within a marketing tool

If you can buy a mailing list for every niche in your target market, you're already well on your way to increased sales. Mailing list providers that offer these types of specially targeted lists can help you further your marketing by providing you the opportunity to make money by advertising other businesses within the correspondence. In addition, you can also do things like include your company's website address on a paper newsletter to generate website traffic and increase your web page's ranking on the Internet.

I recommend: WebWiseMedia offers to compile a highly targeted email mailing list for you by requiring that all the people on the list confirm their interest in your emails. They can also help you increase your website's ranking by using natural SEO. Hoover's specializes in targeting, profiling and segmenting. You can build your own list on their website using location or industry or ask for their assistance.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  What the people on your mailing list consider 'valuable' content will vary. It may be worth your while to poll them about what they want to read. Every once in awhile, keep your mailings lighthearted by including a joke or a fun puzzle or game.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Mailing list

A mailing list is a group of contact names and addresses, comprised of customers or potential customers. When you have promotions, newsletters and other marketing materials to send out, this is the list you use to distribute your materials.

I recommend: Accelerated Marketing Group has a detailed definition of mailing lists and an explanation of how small businesses can benefit from these lists.

Announcement list

An announcement list, as the name implies, is a list of names or contacts to whom you will send news of new products, services or other interesting items.

I recommend: Mommy Revenue has a definition of announcement list that is geared specifically to small businesses.

Email mailing list

An email mailing list is a list of email addresses of potential customers or current customers. It works just like a traditional mailing list, but can be less expensive and faster. When you want to send an email to current or potential customers, you can simply use your email mailing list.

I recommend: Sylogics offers a concise definition of the email mailing list.

Mailing list broker

A mailing list broker is a company or service that finds leads you can add to your mailing list. In many cases, a broker can sell you a list of contacts within a specific demographic, so that you can target your advertising.

I recommend: wiseGEEK offers a detailed explanation of the mailing list broker, including an explanation of what traits to look for in a broker.

Spam

Spam, at its simplest, is unwanted email. There are regulations and laws against spam, which is why you must include an 'unsubscribe' option in your email advertising and ensure that you only send email communication to people who might want it.

I recommend: Bizbrim.com offers a guide explaining spam and its implication for small businesses that advertise through email.

List hygiene

List hygiene refers to the practice of updating mailing lists to account for changes of address, typos and other errors that can prevent direct mail from reaching its target recipient.

I recommend: Return Path outlines not only what list hygiene is, but the methods used to keep lists clean.