Mailing Lists

Humble Abode

After you buy a mailing list from one of the online companies (melissaData or InfoUSA) do you own it? Can you then go out and sell it to another company? We just bought our first from Melissa Data and we didn't sign any contract saying we can't.

__________________
Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe. Kurt Vonnegut, (1922 - 2007) from the Novel 'Hocus Pocus'
The NAPP
Milwaukee Painting Contractor

Mike Finley

I would have to read the fine print, but I would doubt you could resell it.

Nathan

Unless you found some really unique company you cannot sell the mailing lists. They spell that out pretty clearly on the contracts I've seen.

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Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Humble Abode

I used Melissa Data and I never got a contract... I talked to the lady on the phone for about an hour then paid with a credit card. She e-mailed me the list the next day.

__________________
Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe. Kurt Vonnegut, (1922 - 2007) from the Novel 'Hocus Pocus'
The NAPP
Milwaukee Painting Contractor

Mike Finley

Did you notice an electronic contract that you had to ever hit an accept button on?

These companies are huge, they don't miss too much in the way of doing business correctly.

Humble Abode

No I didn't use their site. I did it all by phone

__________________
Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe. Kurt Vonnegut, (1922 - 2007) from the Novel 'Hocus Pocus'
The NAPP
Milwaukee Painting Contractor

easyrider241

I would like to know how that mailing list works out for you Humble Abode :Thumbs: I am thinking of trying some myself???

Humble Abode

I'll be sure to post the results of it. I can tell you this, if it works and we get more than 1/4% return rate, we will NEVER stop doing mailings, every 3-4 weeks all year long. We have been pussy footing around with our advertiseing up until now. We don't have the client base to be kept constantly busy with word of mouth yet. This and sucsesive mailings will be us finally buying our word of mouth.

__________________
Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe. Kurt Vonnegut, (1922 - 2007) from the Novel 'Hocus Pocus'
The NAPP
Milwaukee Painting Contractor

Mike Finley

So what was with the original question? Why do you want to sell the list?

747

Mike I know. To get the money back he originally paid for the list. This way any business would be a 100 percent profit. RITE.

Humble Abode

Yep. I got to wondering if I owned the list or if I was just borrowing it...

__________________
Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe. Kurt Vonnegut, (1922 - 2007) from the Novel 'Hocus Pocus'
The NAPP
Milwaukee Painting Contractor

Mike Finley

The last time I used their list I did ask them if I could use it more than once and they said yes to that, but I never asked them about selling it to someone else.

Humble Abode

Did you sign an electronic contract when you worked with them?
I did receive an invoice from them in the mail on friday, but I still havn't signed anything.

__________________
Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe. Kurt Vonnegut, (1922 - 2007) from the Novel 'Hocus Pocus'
The NAPP
Milwaukee Painting Contractor

Mike Finley

I believe I did the electronic contract by clicking on the accept button, I did everything online, but they either contacted me or I contacted them with questions and I did ask them about using the list more than once and they said it was okay.

carpenter 1st

many moons ago guys , i was a telemarketing sales manager, and most call/mailing lists aren't worth the paper they are printed on . usually when you buy a mailing list , you specify the criteria of the people you want to reach. usually the top criteria are a certain level of credit and income. the problem is alot of times these lists are misleading. just because your list claims these people meet your criteria does not mean they actually do. at the time the info was originally gathered they may have been accurate, but how long ago was that? 6 months ago john smith had a job making $60,000 a year, 4 credit cards, a morgage, and two car loans,excellent! only problem is 4 months ago john smith got downsized,divorced, renigged on said credit cards,morgage,and car loans. now not only is mr. smith unemployed,depressed and broke, the address you send mail to is now only a picture in the local realtor's ad.therefore,a wasted lead.probably 75-80% of the names on your list will resemble this scenario in one fashion or another.most of the other 20-25% will be: not interested, financed to the hilt and unable to afford you,moved/changed phone#,or dead. these lists are sold back and forth so often it's not funny.you're probably the 10th person with this list , and the people on it are tired of being bothered. do yourself a favor, if you are going to do mailings,etc.,just use the phone book. trust me ,it's more accurate AND effective.

Mike Finley

Carpenter 1st - some of what you say is very relevant, but you are painting all lists the same, which they aren't. I don't have any experience with demographic based lists, not do I have an desire to use them since I don't see them as more effective then some of the other list types that are out there, also they are the most expensive you can buy. Other types of lists are much more effective in my opinion for what I want to do and they are so simple that the list company would have to be basically committing fraud and making them up if they were inacurate, because they are that simple.

There also are ways to check the accuracy of your lists, a simple bulk mail trick here and there will get your mail back to you if the name on the list is not accurate. You can expect a certain percentage to come back anyways, but it will be obvious if there is a problem with the list.

Personally I don't know how anybody who could use the phone book to do mailings with, #1 the time involved would be incredible and quite tedius, and #2 it would be one of the worst mailings you could ever do, unless for somereason your product appealed to a group of people with their last name starting with the same letter. #3 the listings in the phone book are incomplete in regard to addresses and zip codes.

carpenter 1st

if you don't get a demographic based list,how do you target your mailings? by the way have you heard of value vision tv or dish network? they've used purchased lists and as their former employee, trust me , phone books work better . even where you live. denver and surrounding areas(including Littleton) were part of my territory. also , as to incomplete info in the phone book, it USED to be in yours. still is in mine here. hey, not trying to be an a**, just a bit opinionated and loud early in the morning.(no coffee yet.)

Humble Abode

I've compiled lists using the phone book before and let me tell you, it sucked. And I was only doing about 300-400 address' at a time. With this mailing I am doing 5100, there is no way I would want to personally sort through 5100 names and address'.

Mellissa Data claims their lists are updated by hand every 1-2 months, even if this is a slight exaderation it's worth the extra money to not have to spend 6-10 hours of my valuable time comiling the list myself.

__________________
Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe. Kurt Vonnegut, (1922 - 2007) from the Novel 'Hocus Pocus'
The NAPP
Milwaukee Painting Contractor

carpenter 1st

good lord !! what % sales do you normally get? actually with them you COULD do worse. if i had to use one i'd maybe ,possibly consider them. sometimes what i do is take an unskilled grunt that i don't need somewhere else and have him do it. around here grunts go for $6.00-$7.00/hr. to start , DOE. i have him go through local phone books looking specifically for addresses in the nicer areas and/or last names known locally for money or reputation. occasionally we look for addresses in places we know are expanding. when we send out mailers, usually 500-600 at a time, we advertise that anyone referred to us by a mailer recipient gets a 10% discount. also, anyone who refers someone to us gets a 10% discount on any work we might do for them. it does very well here. i generally get 150 to 300 initial responses per mailing.

Mike Finley

Carp - like I said there is a lot of relevancy to what you said, but it isn't relevant to my experiences.

There are a LOT of really AWESOME techniques using lists, but they don't involve the standard stuff that most people think of. I'm getting to the point that I don't like to give away the farm on here anymore, because I'm afraid somebody might actually start listening to me and put some of my tips to work in my area, making my life harder!

Here is just the tip of the ice berg-

Carrier route mailings - saturate the sh#t out of a town, a zip code or just a neighborhood for dirt cheap, I mean DIRT CHEAP!

New homeowners lists - need I say more? Get the stats on what new homeowners spend on their homes in the 1st 2 years compared to everybody else and get ready to crap your pants!

Neighbor next door lists - give these services an address of a house you are working on and they will send out your mailer to a concentric circle as big or as small as you want - automatically! You got a sign in the yard? How dangerous of a marketing machine are you when the neighbor down the street has stuff he wants done, but wasn't sure if you did it, and keeps putting off calling that number on your sign, then he gets something put right into his hot little hands and the bell goes on that this is the same guy working down the street I was about to call!!!!!!!!!!! - DOH! (making cash register sound now- cha -ching!)

Home Value lists - much simpler and MUCH MORE effective then income based lists because they don't lie and nothing changes, unless somebody picks up the house and moves it. - You like working for people who live in $500,000 homes, then just send your mailer to them!

There's lots more, tons of sophisticated stuff you can do but I'm done giving it all away.