Lists: Ten Things to Consider About Consumer Prospect Databases

Certainly all mailers want to improve their new customer acquisition performance. And in a session during the DM Days New York conference last week, Caryn Gray, Experian’s senior business & strategy consultant, outlined 10 key factors for mailers to consider when working with consumer prospect databases:

Specifically, a prospect database is a client-specific database comprising multi-sourced, agreed-use, non-proprietary consumer records, such as vertical response lists, that marketers use for planning, executing and tracking or measuring new customer acquisition efforts.

In setting the stage for her presentation, Gray noted that the key drivers for improved prospect databases include list fatigue, a lack of new names on the market, shortened lead times and timely campaign management, among others.

1. List sources: Consider how you manage your content, Gray said, be it with or without detail; updates; list types; list tests; number of sources, including continuations and deeper selects; and normalizing data to optimize coverage, including multi-sourced data elements and single-sourced elements.

2. Opt-in, opt-out and do-not-solicit (DNS): Consider the Direct Marketing Association’s DNS service and other industry regulations, she said. Also, consider list-specific opt-outs, such as suppress royalty, not name; audit/validate actions; and reporting and monitoring.

3. Decoys: Ask yourself: Does the list owner continue to monitor its license for unlimited use and triggers? Also consider third-party service providers who serve as middlemen to monitor your use of decoys.

4. House file match: Gray pointed out that list rentals now match to the whole house file instead of simply “house file selects.” She also pointed to the need to define “inactives” when determining whether to interact with inactive customers. Other factors to consider in house file matching include interaction with deEper select names on rentals and such data management variance considerations as who performs National Change of Address and other address updates.