If you’re looking to broaden your prospecting universe, don’t forget to test lists from other industries when creating your mail plans, says Mike Grant, president of Scarsdale, NY-based consultancy Michael Grant Direct.
“As a cataloger, your initial lists should almost always be lists of catalog buyers,” Grant says. But you should also consider compiled lists, subscriber files, and credit-card and continuity lists, many of which are quite sizable and offer a variety of selects.
Adding another cooperative database to your mix can also be worthwhile, Grant says, as each co-op has a different approach to selecting names for you. Finally, you can increase your universe with your best lists by mailing to older buyers and qualifying them with other selects such as frequency, monetary, gender, and product variables.