by Mark Bradley

People in direct-marketing business, know that there is a mailing list for every section of people in our society, and few for you never knew were there.

So as you struggle with trying to decide exactly who you’ll target with your next postcard mailing searching for good homes in which to invest, why not turn to a direct mail broker? He can provide you with a list of “seriously motivated sellers.” Now doesn’t that sound like a list you want to use?

Mailing list brokers make their living “renting” direct-marketers just like you names and addresses of people who are in certain demographic segments of society. If you were a nutritional health company, you may be searching for those individuals who are known to have bought dietary supplements in the past.

Sure, there is a fee charged for this rental- and it’s indeed just a “rental”. The fee charged usually is about $135 per 1,000 names, and you need to rent a minimum amount of names. That particular number differs from broker to broker. If you want to jump in this, be sure about the minimum amount you want to rent- and your total cost incurred.

Aside from giving you a more targeted list of prospects, these data brokers can refine the list to people whose purchases reached a specified amount.

You also need to realize that this is merely a rental of the names. This means you’re contracting with the brokerage company to use the name once – and only once. Many times, you also must specific the day – or at least an estimated date – of when you plan to use these names.

If you are interested in using the same names for a second time, then you will need to rent them again. If your mailing dates vary, you have to check it with your broker the very instant.

As these brokers earn on renting names, they want to make sure that the names provided to you, gives you utmost benefit. That’s the reason many of them, especially when it’s about real estate market, update their lists in 3 months. So that you can get new names to use.

Lastly, when you use a list broker in your real estate direct marketing campaign you are guaranteed that your lists are updated at least every quarter. You also save time and money because you do not need to do your own research or hire people to maintain the data.

How do you find list brokers? If you live in a large enough city, you may have one or two listed in your yellow pages. You can start here. If not, just fire up that trusty computer and type “mailing list brokers real estate” into your favorite search engine. Before you know it you’ll have several from which to choose. When you do this, you’ll be adding power to your next postcard mailing. Guaranteed!

About the Author: