2010 Trends in List Marketing

The success of any direct marketing campaign is directly related to the quality of the list being used. There are two major trends in direct marketing specific to the mailing lists that are expected to grow in 2010.

Increased Detail in List Content
Companies are looking for data beyond gender, age, and contact information. New data fields such as marital status, hobbies, past purchases, and ethnic information are now being included.1

Using Detailed Lists to Produce Customized Mailings
Companies are taking the increased detail found in marketing lists and using the data to create more targeted messages. Targeted campaigns focus on specific data and demographics, rather than mailing the same generic message to everyone on the list. Compared to these generic messages, customized marketing campaigns have been posting strong results in recent years. This has been accomplished with the use of variable data and personalized URLs added to direct mail pieces.

As targeted campaigns using Variable Data Printing and Integrated Marketing Solutions become more prevalent, this type of data will become more and more important to companies looking to increase response rates.
1 http://www.dmnews.com/online-data-will-explode-due-to-robust-targeting/article/160777/