Wolf Mailing and Marketing Services, Inc. - Library - Narrowing the List refining your list quantity to meet your budget

Too many names? You have different ways you can decrease your count to achieve the quantity you have budgeted. This article presumes your overall objective to reach a certain audience was met with your initial count request. This article only addresses options to modify your quantity and is not intended to determine which are the best prospects for you. When one of the options below is chosen to limit your list, you typically maintain all the other selection criteria. This article is designed to help you arrive at the right quantity after you are satisfied with all other selection criteria. Using two variables can create numerous possibilities, therefore, you would typically pick one of the below after you are satisfied with latest counts provided.

These are the three ways to increase or decrease your counts from the initial request. Space and time will not permit me to cover this in full detail - but you can contact Wolf Mailing and Marketing Services for more information. Let's presume you want to mail 20,000 pieces to several zip codes in one city and your present selection is made up of :

7 zip codes and a
Combined household income of $35,000 or more with an
Age range for head of household of 35-45 years.

Here are three options to help you decrease the list count:

GEO selection - ( pronounced jee-oh ). Your mailing can be increased or decreased based on the geographical location of your prospects. If there is a correlation between proximity and likeliness of you doing business with your prospects, the geographical selection will clearly play a major role. In the retail business, a good rule of thumb, 80% of your business comes from a 3-5 mile radius. We can narrow your geographical selection by state, county, first 3 digits of a zip code, 5 digit zip code, carrier routes and radius from a specific site. Often times there are additional charges when selecting by carrier routes or a radius. Contact your representative at Wolf Mailing and Marketing Services for pricing.
Nth Select - random selection where you want a random selection across a predetermined group. If you are satisfied with the geographic selection and the demographic selection, this is the best choice to arrive at your desired quantity. If your count is 80,000 names and you wanted to mail 20,000 then your Nth select would be every 4th name ( N = 4, or every 4th name).
Top drawer - this selection is to help you reduce your count down to a desired quantity based on one of your existing selections like income. Use this selection when there is a correlation with income and probability to respond to your mailing. Top Drawer means everyone in the originally selected group is placed temporarily in order by income, and then the higher income is calculated by the computer based on the desired quantity. Let's say you originally used an income selection of $35,000 plus and you have 40,000 names but you really only wanted 10,000 names....then choose Top Drawer and a "stop count" of 10,000. Therefore, your 40,000 will be narrowed down to 10,000 beginning with the highest income and working down until the 10,000 names are reached.

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