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Best Way to Build List for Direct Mail Piece to Local Pet Owners

by Summertime Dress
4 replies
This is a 2 part question:

Part I. If you are targeting local households with pets -- within a small geographical area -- by direct mail...What is the BEST (quality) way to obtain the mailing list?

Here are some things I've considered:

1. Purchase an online SRDS membership and find lists for pet magazines, pet mail order products, etc. Not sure if I will be able to limit by specific city or state?

2. Hire a list broker who can get pet owner lists for my particular geographic area (found one at 1000lists.com)...

3. Approach local pet businesses with a win-win for them to send out a mailing to their clients/customer list with my offer...


4. Any other suggestions?


Part II. I've researched how many mailings to test before you expand to other areas. Seen 1000 - 5000 as a good range. How many will make the mailing worth the initial cost?

Appreciate some thoughts...
#build #direct #list #local #mail #owners #pet #piece
  • Profile picture of the author TopKat22
    In my offline business, I've found that by just targetting the higher income zip codes, I did well even without any other criteria regardless of what I was selling.

    However, I also found that it takes multiple mailings to the same people over a period of time to make any difference.

    If you can only afford a single mailing, then just don't do it. It would be better to send a smaller mailing, 3 times than one big mailing just once.

    People have to see something multiple times before deciding to do anything.

    If you just target zip codes, there are lots of inexpensive lists you can buy online.

    If you don't want to do that, I'd say number 2 and 3 of your list are the best options.
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  • Profile picture of the author Top Dog Marketer
    You can take your SRDS list and talk to your broker and have it broken down by zip codes, credit card orders, etc.

    Also the JV idea about working with local pet store owners is perfect.

    All of this varies though and depends on what exactly you are selling.

    If you are selling a high end service you might want to look into sending DVD or audio CD packages to sell your service. If it's something simple or cheap like $10 pet grooming then I'd go straight to smaller local pet stores with existing customers and do a JV with them.
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  • Profile picture of the author RentItNow
    I dont see the reason to go to that expense. Send a piece to any area and you are likely to reach 56% of pet owners according to this link: Market research statistics - U.S. pet ownership I even noticed a calculator to figure out how many cats, dogs, horses, etc are in a given population size. Why pay a list broker anything?
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    I have no agenda but to help those in the same situation. This I feel will pay the bills.
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