Our marketing partner Frank J. Herberg, CPCU, AAM says agents often start to mount a new sales campaign without a prospect list in hand.  How come?  A quality prospect list is the most important element of a direct mail campaign.

“I used to be amazed to discover that agents had no prospect list when we sat down to talk about implementing a direct marketing program,” Frank says. “I no longer am.”

These days, he opens new business development discussions with: show me your prospect list. If there is no list or a rag-tag list, the discussion turns to “let’s find a good list for the markets you want to sell.”

The long-standing, much-tested rule for direct mail success is: Your list is most important followed by your offer, followed by the creative execution. 

If you don’t have a good prospect list, buy or rent one.  If you are going after new commercial lines business, know what classes your companies have an ppetite to underwrite.  You can cull the Yellow Pages and assemble your own list and enter it in your agency management system.  A simpler, and perhaps more cost-effective way, is to order your list through your marketing communications firm or direct from a list broker. Either way, order your list by SIC code. Consider employee size, telephone numbers and other available information as part of your order.

You can rent a list for one-time use or for one-year use.  For one-time use you may want to order the names affixed to labels.  For one-year repetitive use, it is best to order the names on CD and do your own addressing on labels or by ink-jetting.

An “oh, by the way”:  Maybe one of your CL companies co-op with you by offering target market list support.  Worth asking.

For a personal lines campaigns, prepare target neighborhood lists or use local community directories or work with the USPS direct mail services (go to their site www.usps.com).

Opt-in e-mail lists?  Different story.  More about that later!