SOHO Marketing -- Free Catalogs of Mailing Lists

Free Catalogs of Mailing Lists
By Jeffrey Dobkin

I wanted to know what’s available in compiled lists, so I dredged out a few of my direct marketing trade journals from under the mass of papers, old pizza boxes and the few
remains of previous lunches on my desk and called all the list vendors in each. Here’s what I found out: pizza is only good for three, maybe four days without refrigeration, but
the pepperoni still remains tasty for up to a week. Also:

Edith Roman (800-223-2194) publishes an excellent glossy 95 page catalog of both consumer and business response and compiled lists. Lists are alphabetically arranged, also shown by S.I.C. code and geographic breakouts, and counts are included for each list. You can easily find lists of almost any industry: 27,827 stone clay glass and concrete products manufacturers, or any niche: 2,822 ophthalmic goods wholesalers, 2,711 ventilating systems cleaners, 3,086 tattoo parlors. Their catalog is easy to use for both the experienced and others, with a logical layout and explanation of how to use each section. Perfect bound, 8-1/2” x 11”.

Dunhill International List Company (800-DUNHILL) publishes an easy to use 77 page 8-1/2” x 11” catalog on bleached newsprint. Dunhill offers specialty
lists shown in alphabetized sequence such as 25,921 foundations with officers, 811,000 health insurance agents, and 2,825 single parent organizations; as well as master files of, for example, 2,225,214 women investors, or 588,482 lawyers. They also break out lists by alpha and SIC. As expected, you can get businesses or business executives by state, income, title, type of firm; and attorneys or medical doctors by specialty.

American Business Information (800-555-5335, 402-592-9000), the firm that went about buying up almost every list company that would sell just a few years ago, offers 11 million businesses by yellow page heading, number of employees, SIC, Sales volume, phone number, credit rating code.. They also offer 195 million consumers by age, estimated income, home value, and other selects. Their 72 page, 8-1/2” x 11” catalog is easy to use and like some of the other catalogs offers a few specialty lists like 12 million executives by ethnic surname, 3 million fax numbers, 663,000 work-at-home businesses, 3 million businesses in affluent neighborhoods to name a few. They also offer lists by SIC, some pretty darn esoteric like 1,068 beverage dispensing equipment wholesalers and 403 bronze table manufacturers. They offer free counts if you call them. When I called and gave them my phone number, they gave me my mailing address and asked if it was still correct.

Acxiom/Direct Media (203-532-1000) had the most pages of advertising in the trade magazines, so I called them. But their 48 page spiral bound catalog paled by comparison to the ease of use of other list catalogs. Their book, mostly response lists, was separated into Business and Consumer sections, showing 30 lists to a page. Only the list name was
shown which was sometimes confusing (ie. “Extensis” or “Jasune,”) and sometimes not (“Eddie Bauer Baby Furniture”) along with the Acxiom customer service rep and sales
rep name and phone number. All lists shown in this 8-1/2” x 11” book were managed by Acxiom.

American List Council (800-403-1870) sent a 60 page, 8-1/2” x 11” catalog broken down into segments containing consumer lists, business lists, lists by S.I.C. and their proprietary response lists - which included some weird ones such as a master file of ailment sufferers, a few of which I wouldn’t want over my house: 537,458 gastritis sufferers, 404,990 bladder control/incontinence sufferers and 790,470 ladies with yeast infections, ouch - that’s just gotta hurt. As most of the other major list vendors, they also handle lists for some of the larger mail order houses: 1,337,167 L.L. Bean Buyers M.O.B., 2,695,137 Spiegel M.O.B., and 4,856,781 Victoria’s Secret M.O.B.; and some of the larger magazine subscription lists such as 925,243 PC Magazines Subscribers. The catalog is nicely presented and easy to use.

Hugo Dunhill Mailing Lists, Inc. (888-274-5735; www.hdml.com) puts together a well-designed and extremely information-intense catalog of lots and lots of lists. Arranged
alphabetically then referenced in S.I.C. order, the Hugo Dunhill catalog goes deep into some wells that are dry in other list house’s catalogs. Along with the traditional: 108,472 accounting firms, you can get tax preparers broken down by specialty: 144 associations, 4,305 attorneys, 558 bankers, 25,478 CPAs and so forth. You can also get some esoteric lists: 129 Daughters of the Nile; or a selection of Church Societies (women’s) selected by denomination: Methodist Women’s Church, Lutheran Church Women’s Clubs, or even 84,092 churches with video equipment. Pretty much if you can name it, you can get a list of all the people in it. If you can’t name it, call Hugo and speak to him like I did - he’s a lot of help in a short amount of time.

Dun and Bradstreet (973-605-6457) is one of the granddaddies of the list industry and they warehouse a master file of almost everything and on everybody. They
have a full resource file on your credit even if you don’t want them to have it. That credit information is available in a list, even if you don’t want your competitors to get it. You can also get a CD-ROM with 11 million businesses on it - so you can analyze and manipulate your own data, then pay for only the list of names or businesses you use. Their 48-page catalog is organized by S.I.C.

Compiled lists are a common source of names and records that have been gathered, collected, and entered into a database. Most commonly the names may have been acquired through public records such as vehicle owner registrations or high school teachers; or through directories, such as a directory of plant maintenance engineers. One of the most common sources of information for compiled lists are from yellow page headings: the names are gathered from all the phone books across the U.S. Examples would be all the luggage dealers in the United States, or all the plumbing supply dealers.

Compiled information - like fish - gets old rather quickly and doesn’t age particularly well.

Just a note in passing: on the other side of the list industry there are response lists. These are lists of names of people who have responded to offers, most likely inquired or
bought something from a catalog or space ad. Response lists are measured by different criteria: how RECENT the names are, how FREQUENTLY they purchase through the
mail, and how much MONEY they’ve spent on a purchase. Names and lists can also be targeted with others who may have made purchases of similar items or are responsive to
offers from certain industries. Logic applies: if you are selling a new type of fishing rod, buy a response list from a fishing catalog or a fishing magazine. Response lists are best
when they are available for your target market and you are making a direct-selling offer of retail products. Purchase compiled lists to reach your target market when response lists aren’t available.

Between response and compiled lists, you can get almost anything you’d like in a list. If you would like to mail to only the people who make the little tiny screws that fit in your
eyeglasses, there’s a list out there, somewhere, with just the names of those folks on it. It may be a short list, but it’s available.

The list catalogs mentioned - and the scores of list catalogs I didn’t mention - all have their own ease of use and level of service they provide to their customers. Between the
different list houses there are also significant differences in pricing, return policies, and freshness of lists and names. Some vendors clean their lists more frequently. Some offer
hot name files that are one month old; some offer hot name files that are 6 months old - you never know until you ask.

Different vendors offer different service levels, too. Some give good marketing advice, others, well… you know. Each list house has its own counts and numbers for different
selections, and each treats merged data in different ways. Most list houses have their own particular specialty - so it pays to shop around. My advice: call around and talk to each list house - see who you feel comfortable with. I’ll make you this guarantee: the more questions you ask up front, the more response you’ll get when you mail.

When you need a great mailing list, just dig. These catalogs - and this article - are just the tip of the iceberg.

Jeffrey Dobkin, author of the powerful marketing books How To Market A Product For Under $500! and Uncommon Marketing Techniques, is a direct response and web content writer and a marketing consultant. He can be reached at 610-642-1000 or www.dobkin.com.

Return To The Top