Matching The List To The Offer,

Offer and list must match. That is, the person receiving your mailing must be a logical perspective buyer. Most people in the direct mail business view this as a one way street: they search for lists that match, in demographics and psychographics, their ideal buyers. This is safe, it's within the parameters of good merchandising, and it's unassailable. But every competitor is doing the same thing. That exception can be powerful, since you and your competitors can saturate a list, especially when the list owner sets no limits on the number of times he allows his list to be circularized. So look for an inversion to the match up rule: match the offer to the list. If you're matching the list to your offer, you decide what you're selling and how you're going to sell it. Then look for possible buyers under those terms. If you're matching your offer to the list, you decide what you're selling and to whom. Then you decide how to appeal to those buyers.