Global Mailing Lists for Membership Marketing

A second challenge to global membership marketing, in addition to postage, especially when it comes to acquisition is finding prospect lists.

The direct mail list industry in the United States is highly developed. Thousands of lists are available with very detailed selects. And since the market is fairly competitive, many lists, especially compiled files are priced for as little as $.04 per name. The market is also rapidly developing for email lists.

This is not the case for lists outside the US. Selectability is limited and mailing lists are priced at two to three times the cost of comparable US lists.

So what is the best way to get started?

The best source for reaching out to prospective global members starts with your own database. Anyone who has purchased a book, attended a meeting, or formerly been a member is a good prospect. These prospects know who you are and there is not cost for use of the list.

The second source is to look for non-US names on the mailing lists that you currently use for your US membership acquisition efforts. Many periodicals, associations, and product providers also serve customers globally and rent their records as they do US customers. If a list produces good returns on US mailings, it is a good bet to perform well outside the US.

For example, if you are interested in the medical, 1,253 of the members of the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery from outside the US and available for rental as a select from the membership file.

A third source for obtaining global mailing lists is through a list broker. Brokers have subscriptions to costly to databases and resources like SRDS Directnet® which provides data on “over 60,000 list rental opportunities across 230 business and consumer market categories, including sources, selects, counts and costs.” So they can be a big help in targeting your market provided they have clear direction from you of who you are trying to reach.

Brokers also work on a commission basis from the list owner. So there should be no additional expense for you to use their services.

If you are focused on a specific country or region of the world, you also may want to look for an in country broker. For example, List Marketing Australasia (LMA) provides direct marketing list services for Australia and New Zealand. Please note that privacy laws vary across the world. So be sure to work with reputable mailing list providers that follow local regulations.

There are additional issues in global membership marketing that I will be posting on shortly. These include language, response vehicles, and response rates.

In the meantime, feel free to share your experiences in the area.