Mailing List Mortgage

Joy Gendusa asked:


The right direct mailing list targets people who want your product or service.

The direct mail mailing list is a key factor in a successful direct mail marketing campaign and a major point to consider in small business marketing strategies where marketing ROI (Return On Investment) is a key concern.

What really makes your direct mail marketing and advertising campaign successful?

The biggest single factor in the success of your direct mail marketing strategy is who you send your mailings to.

A. You need a list.

This can be:

1) a list of existing customers or prospects who have inquired as a result of any of your marketing efforts or

2) a list which you purchase or in some cases obtain for free.

B. The mailing list must contain the names of people who are likely to be interested in the benefits of your products or services.

Don’t try and sell beer to the Temperance Society or real estate to people who cannot afford it. You have to target your direct mail marketing efforts.

What kinds of lists are available?

C. The three basic kinds of lists that you can use are (you can use all three):



Your own list of prospects and customers. This is a list that you collected with your own personal marketing efforts. This is known as a house list. These people are most likely to respond to your offers, because they have responded in the past.



A response list is a list of people that have actually done something. They have either purchased something from the people who put together the list or inquired in response to some offer or asked to be on the list. They have some level of interest in the topic or purpose of the list.



These people have not previously responded to you, but they have responded to someone in a related area (if you have purchased a correctly targeted list) so you know they are at least warm. This is a direct mail mailing list you can purchase from the owner of the list (such as a magazine or company) or a list broker.

A compiled list is a list of people who were selected to be on the list because they possess the characteristics that you asked the list broker to screen for.

Examples of characteristics used to target correctly may include age, sex, geographic location, income level, etc. These are more fixed characteristics than response list characteristics, which are behavioral characteristics.

Case study: California based Sun Pacific Mortgage’s Forest Tardibuono found a great way to get the right direct mail mailing list for his company which has a very successful direct mail marketing strategy based on postcards and direct mail mailing lists.

“The title companies give us the mailing labels free. I’ll tell them we want all the homeowners in 95401 which is a zip we get most of our business from. So they’ll give us the mailing labels of anyone who is a homeowner from that lists. It saves money on labels and mailing lists. They’ll even limit searches to specific categories such as all homeowners from that zip who got a loan from certain companies and they’ll do the search according to that so I can really target the public so that the mailing will be more effective.” Mailing lists, correctly targeted, can make the difference in a mediocre promotional campaign to a wildly successful promotional campaign. It really just depends on what you are willing to have - success or mediocrity. So which is it?

Doug Sauerhaft asked:


This is an article about direct mailing lists, it isn’t an article on how to capitalize on others misfortunes…er…not really.  Honest.

Lets face facts here folks, the economy is down the tubes—almost every day we hear of another financial icon going belly-up—housing sales are non-existent, mortgage lending is impossible.  And I’m an optimist!  No wonder record numbers of individuals are filing for Bankruptcy protection, even as the restrictions for such actions become tougher to qualify for.

So, for the people who find themselves helplessly upside-down, Bankruptcy moves from an option to reality.  Once it is reality, what are they to do?  Are they to disappear, of course not, they need to live and they hopefully will be working toward remedying the life/lifestyle circumstances that put them inexorably behind the proverbial eight-ball in the first place.

Isn’t this about Marketing?

 Ok, so as a Marketer, don’t I want to avoid these folks like the plague…especially in today’s tenuous economic environment?  Depends.  Depends upon what you do, and who you offer it to.

 But before I go into this in more depth, let me tell you about the two types of Bankruptcy mailing lists that are available.

 Types of Bankruptcy Mailing Lists

Bankruptcy Fresh Filers  - Consumers who have just filed for Bankruptcy protection (Chapter 7,11,12 or 13).  This type of file can be selected by Filing Date as well as the aforementioned Chapter type.  These people seek a “fresh start” to begin the road back to fiscal responsibility. This type of list is updated Monthly.

Bankruptcy Discharged Filers  -   Consumers who have just met the requirements of their Bankruptcy filing and had their case successfully discharged.  Discharged date and Chapter type (7, 11, 12, or 13) are also selectable and this file is also updated Monthly.

In both cases above, lists like these should be selectable by a host of demographic (Age, Income, Education, Gender, Marital Status, etc…) overlay data to enable you to target a specific type of prospect.

 The Plight of a Discharged Bankruptcy Filer

Once a person or persons is discharged, they have to re-establish a positive credit history before they can apply for a credit card or a loan. Marketers offering “secure” credit and other forms of payment options will be of benefit to these individuals until the person re-establishes his or her credit.  Discharged bankruptcy filers have to find financial institutions, banks or merchants who are willing to give credit cards or financing alternatives.

Bankruptcy filings continue to increase.  From a marketing perspective, this means that these types of Consumers will continue to provide a significant quantity of prospects to market to.  So if you are one of the above, or are a creative marketer, then using Bankruptcy lists is something you should add to your marketing mix. 

If you are interested in finding out more information on Bankruptcy lists, or other mailing or email lists, visit www.GreatMailingLists.com, and for more Marketing Tips, check out the Blog “What About the Mailbox with No Spam In It?”.