How to Choose a GOOD BROKER

With the correct approach, direct marketing has proven to be one of the most successful and cost effective types of marketing available. The success of any direct marketing campaign - the type of campaign that can significantly improve your company's bottom line - is the quality of your mailing list.

A properly targeted mailing list is often the difference between a run of the mill promotion and an outrageously successful promotional campaign. Finding the right mailing list with the best names can be a challenge because there may be tens of thousands of potential lists you can choose from.

That's why most companies hire a professional list broker to take care of this aspect of their direct marketing campaigns. List brokers are specialists that research and then recommend lists that are specific to your company's wants and needs. Your list broker will also manage all of the paperwork and take care of all the details when you rent your list.

Here are some of the things that experienced list brokers will do for you:
1) Help you to find new lists
2) Identify segments that are potentially very profitable on unlikely lists
3) Negotiate the best price for renting your list from the list owner
4) Recommend various media that you should test
5) Help you to analyze your results
6) Help you to assess your response rate
7) Help you to test your results against other mailing lists

You can expect a competent list broker to ask you to provide some information that will help them see how they can help you to attain your marketing goals. One of the first questions they'll probably ask is how you would describe your company or organization, including what you do and who your target market is.

They'll also ask you to describe your ideal customer.

Your response could be something like "female, 37 years old, single, owns home, $125,000 household income, cares about (fill in the blanks), lives in the US, and bought a product from a competitor as a result of a direct mail marketing promotion".
Once you've found a broker you want to hire, you'll then email that list broker a sample of the direct mail piece you intend to promote to the list you want to rent. Your broker will forward this PDF to the list owner.

After the list owner has reviewed and approved the package you've sent your list broker will ask you to provide more details necessary for him or her to move on to the next step in the process.