Mailing to Credit Score Lists

The credit score list had become a relic around here until about a month ago. As lenders begin to (slightly) loosen up so does the subprime market. However, credit score lists don't have to be the only way to target these people, here are a few other ideas.

Credit Score Lists

Expense: $$$

Pros: targeting specific scores, weeding out too low scores, ability to make a firm offer of credit on the mailer

Cons: expense, reliability of data (lists are always 2-4 wks old by the time mail hits the home), disclaimer hell-legal fine print required with this list can sometimes take up half the mailer

Income Lists

Expense: $$

Pros: ability to target income ranges for credit purposes, more mail for your dollar, fewer legal hoops with disclaimers and piece restrictions

Cons: data is self reported so is not always highly reliable

Saturation List with Average Income

Expense: $

Pros: very inexpensive/a lot more mail for your money, the typical mail responder is in the credit bracket most dealers would target, you could get in the occasional prime customer as well,

can still address most customers by name (instead of "current resident"), no legal restrictions or disclaimers regarding the list needed

Cons: income information is an average by neighborhood (could be large variances)

In most cases I recommend sticking with the targeted saturation lists. The difference in price can be staggering and the traffic that comes in can be "filtered" by the content of the mailer. That being said, list selection is very unique to each campaign, dealership & market. Please discuss what's best for your specific mailer with your mail specialists (...and yes, the Diva is accepting new clients).

Happy Friday!

Guest Blog from Marketing Expert Katy Peat

This is the first installment of guest blogging by Katy Peat. Katy has been with Tri-Auto since early 2006. Many of you know her, and already know in the past three years she's picked up an amazing amount of knowledge on the tacticle side of marketing. Below she shares a few common questions or situations she helps dealers with. Katy Peat, Senior Marketing Coordinator Who is this person & what can she do for ME? You may be asking yourself, why Stephanie isn’t writing today’s blog? You may also think, “Who is this person and what can she do for me?” Well, my name is Katy and I have been working as Stephanie’s Marketing Coordinator since I started at Tri-Auto. I want to give you a snapshot of what I can do for you. Targeting your List I will work with you to narrow down your list to reach the right demographic. We can experiment with different income and home values to narrow a Saturation list to recipients who are more likely to respond. If you’ve been lucky enough to use Marketvision we can use that data to help target the list even more. In addition, it’s my job to pay close attention to how far we are mailing out and be sure to stay close enough to gain a better response. On-Time Mail Delivery One big question I deal with a lot is when to drop mail. There are many items that factor into mail drops; region, quantity of mail, sale start date, sale length, and the always dreaded postal holiday. I will not only assist you in picking out what I consider to be the best drop for your mail, but I will also walk you through reading our MailPlus reports. These reports have extremely valuable information about where you mail is. Our MailPlus team calls the sorting facility and the local post office to track mail from a loading dock all the way into the hands of the postal carrier and in to homes. I will make sure you don’t get lost in all the acronyms – SCF, DDU, IHD – but that you understand where your mail is and what we are doing to get it there on time. If you have any specific questions on the topics above, or would like to run another question by Katy, feel free to email her directly at: kpeat@triauto.com