When you choose to purchase a data list, your goal is often to do marketing outreach, branding, lead generation, campaigning, or more.
The challenge is that every data list touts to have the most recent, accurate data. Our robotic handwritten card company has purchased data lists from many of the popular data vendors, and I can tell you from my experience that there have been no remarkable differences between them.
So, you may be wondering where we get our data lists? What are the best data list sources out there?
Best Data Lists for Residential B2C Direct Mail
This is where buying a list from a data vendor makes sense. Most of their info is pulled from government, regularly recalibrated government data. Some spot-checking may be involved, but you can trust the accuracy of these data lists.
One nice perk we offer for our handwritten card campaigns is the option for our clients to use informal naming. For instance, every “Michael” is turned into a Mike. This may not always be right, but if the goal is lead generation, you’ll have better luck labeling it by the most likely nickname this person goes by because it will appear as if it’s from an acquaintance.
Best Data Lists for Business or B2B Direct Mail
This is where it gets tricky when buying a direct mail data list. Some of this information is overly formalized, such as “Business Name Co., LLC,” which can look like it was purchased from a data list. Other times, the business name might be too long-winded, such as “Cam’s Lawn Care & Landscaping Services,” which is more commonly known as “Cam’s Landscaping.”
You can start by purchasing a list; however, we always recommend cleaning up some data so the information looks more natural.
Conversely, you can start from scratch and manually do Google searches or cross references on LinkedIn. I recommend using a virtual assistant and giving this person clear instructions on the data list cleanup requirements.
Summary
An effective direct mail campaign is good, but ignoring your data list source and cleanup could be counterproductive. It’s like a good BBQ restaurant. The best ones have good BBQ and sides, whereas most BBQ joints consider sides an afterthought.
The best handwritten direct mail companies will incorporate effective design and messaging (including message length) and consider the details in sourcing the data list.
If you’ve been looking for a robotic handwritten card company that’s slightly obsessed with quality over quantity, you’ve found it. Give us a shout at hello@ghosthandwriter or feel free to book your very own Zoom call.