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Free expert advice for every marketing professional: The list you order is never the list you receive. Income, ages, net worth and even home ownership are nearly all simply estimated (modeled) data.
Selecting the most accurate list source and understanding these models will help you minimize the disaster lurking within every list purchase.
1. Do not buy from a website. Nearly all offer out-of-date “wholesale” data which is updated monthly or quarterly using postal processes but are only “refreshed” by the compiler semi-annually. Lists change 15% to 20% per month because the sources feeding the files change. It is critical to only use current-month data!
2. Do not buy from a reseller unless they can prove they are providing current-month data.
3. The USPS reported 25% of direct mail is “undeliverable as addressed”. You can only obtain maximum deliverability by using current-month data and all of the appropriate selects.
4. Understand the “selects” you choose. Nearly all selects such as age, income, net worth, homeownership, and others are inaccurate “models” that vary tremendously from source to source.
Why does one source offer ten-times more records than a competitor using identical selects? It is because some only offer gathered data (factual and verifiable), where others model, and still others over-model many data elements.
The compilers often obtain less than 20% of a given data element/select from verified sources where 80+% is then “inferred” using (often questionable) models creating unbelievable (and obviously inaccurate) skews. Selects are already extraordinarily inaccurate and models and skews compound the inaccuracies.
5. Get FREE match reports of your purchased or in-house lists to other lists. Simply sending your data to various list compilers as a “suppression” file and asking for counts reveals both delivery problems (saving you $$), and whether “that source” says you are reaching your desired audience. ALL COMPILERS OFFER THIS AT NO CHARGE.
Are we really experts? We believe so. We’ve sold thousands and thousands of lists to the nation’s largest and most sophisticated mailers and (with their help) have learned to cull only the most accurate and appropriate records from nearly any data source. In many other instances we’ve forgone the sale if we found the data untrustworthy. We verify the source of every select, the coverage, skews, and trust very little modeled-data.
We’ve provided 33% of the nation’s 100 largest banks, financial planners, insurers, and other Fortune 500’s with current-month, “retail” data purchased directly from a compiler rep , saving one top 5-bank over $2,500,000.00 and providing over 500-lists to another top 5-bank. We also provide data to major list compilers and many of the largest list resellers.
Why wouldn’t everybody sell current-month data?
It is because they pay $20 per 1,000 for out-of-date, wholesale consumer data, which retails at $50 per 1,000, plus tax. They sell it at $30 to $40 per 1,000, which is the same price we charge for current-month, retail data.
Unless your source can prove they are obtaining your data directly from the compilers’ current-month files, we strongly suggest you obtain your data directly from the compiler. We recommend Epsilon for traditional consumer data, or let us obtain it for you.
It takes only a moment to email Sales@DRALists.com or to call 1 (800) 353-5475 for counts and quotes on current month, appropriately selected data.