Mailing Lists and Direct Mail Marketing Archives

Q: Why do lists have extra charges for targeted selections?

Again, we need to go back to the early days of the mailing list business. Computer service bureaus had to make a separate "pass" through every record on a file for each list select used. This required more computer and staff time, and those additional costs were passed along to list owners and mailers. Today, most lists can easily be produced according to many different selection criteria. Selection charges are now more a "value-added premium" to be paid for reaching only certain, more desirable groups of names from a list.

Q: Why are there minimum order charges for mailing lists?

The minimum order concept goes back to the "old days" of the mailing list business, when most lists were stored offline on large mainframe computers. To process a list order, the computer service bureau technician had to load a mag tape, install the list on the mainframe computer, and then process the list order. With a 1000 name list order, a service bureau may use 20-30 minutes of computer/staff time and only earn $ 5. To cover their true labor costs, a "minimum order" charge was instituted and passed along to list owners and marketers. Computer technology has since lowered the cost of list production; however, we unfortunately now have an entire generation of list owners, brokers and managers who often think "it's not worth their time" to accept list orders of less than 3000-5000 names.

Q: What does $/M mean on a list’s price description?

All mailing list prices are expressed as $/M, which is "dollars per thousand names". As an example, a list price of $ 80/M means that list will cost you $ 80 per thousand names, or $ 400 for 5000 names.