What is a list broker?

A list broker acts on your behalf to source the most suitable list on the market for your requirements. 

What is the benefit of using a list broker?

There are hundreds of commercially available lists on the market thoughout Australia, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Knowing which list is most suited to your requirements requires thorough investigation. List brokers have vast experience using a wide variety of lists for a wide variety of clients meaning you receive an impartial and informed recommendation.

What is the difference between list rental and list purchase?  

Rental means you use the list once and then delete it. Anyone who becomes a client or agrees to future contact can be added to your database. Purchase means you can use the list on an ongoing basis unless anyone on the list requests you stop contacting them.

If I rent a list, how does the list owner know if it is re-used?

All list owners have monitored records (called seeds) which detect re-use. Penalties apply when re-use occurs.

How do I receive the list and in what format does it arrive?

List owners email the list within 24 to 48 hours after placing the order. Generally the file comes in Excel or as a text based file.

Do I need to provide a copy of what I am sending?  

Yes you will need to supply a copy of your mail piece, telemarketing script, fax message, email or SMS message. The list owner will then need to give their approval.

What is the difference with personalised and non-personalised lists?  

Personalised lists include a contact person's name. 

Where do lists come from?  

Lists come from a variety of different sources including surveys, complied from researching/calling companies, commercially available customer files, subscriptions lists (in particular email), and public domain information such as the internet and annual reports.

How often are the lists updated?   

Each list owner has their own updating procedures in place. As companies use lists, most send back incorrect records for updating. Some list owners also have staff continually working through the database to identify and correct errors. With people moving house every day, companies moving/closing, people switching jobs no list can be 100% accurate, the very best still contain errors. As a broker it is our job to know which lists are the most accurate.

What is the setup fee and do I pay it each time?  

Most list owners in Australia charge a setup fee (generally $250 to $350) each time an order is placed. 

What is in-house delivery and mail-house delivery of data? 

In-house delivery means the data is sent straight to you. Mail-house delivery sees the data sent to an independent mail-house.  Some list owners will not allow in-house delivery of data.

Do these lists comply with the Privacy legislation? 

Yes the available through Remington Direct are fully compliant. Please note your mail piece must contain an opt-out clause for the recipient of the letter (or email, fax, phone call). Once a request is made to be removed, you must record these internally to ensure that person is not re-contacted by your organisation.

What is an opt-out clause? 

A sentence stating the recipient can be excluded from future direct marketing contact by your company. i.e. 'Should you no longer wish to receive direct marketing material from Company XYZ, please contact us'.  All people making this request should be recorded and kept as a 'Suppression file' so that any future campaigns you undertake can exclude these individuals.

Can my current customers be excluded from these lists? 

Yes most list owners can have your existing customers excluded from the list you receive but extra charges do apply.

How does the deliverability guarantee work? 

If a list is guaranteed at 95% deliverability and you received 6% dead mail, you would be refunded for those records in excess of 5%.

What is the SPAM Act?

The SPAM Act relates to email and sms marketing. It means that unless you are exempt from the SPAM Act (Government organisation, charity, education provider, religious organisation, political party), the list you rent must be one where permission to receive emails from third parties has been given. It also requires that you identify your business and physical location, do not make false and misleading claims and provide the opportunity for recipients to opt-out.

How does the Do Not Call Register (DNCR) apply to my telemarketing campaign?

If you are renting a consumer phone list it must be washed against the DNCR and you then have 30 days to make the calls. If you don't complete all calls within 30 days the remaining records must be washed again.

As over 250,000 businesses have illegally registered their numbers on the DNCR, it is recommended that business phone lists are washed too. Technically it is an offense to call a business if they are registered on DNCR (albeit illegally).

What sort of response rate will I get? 

Over the years I have had clients who received little or no response and others with over 10%. The majority however would be experiencing around 0.5% to 2.5%. Those that have seen the best results have a common theme, they presented a relevant/strong offer which clearly articulated the benefits surrounding the use of their product or service.

Terminology

DM = Direct Marketing

ADMA = Australia Direct Marketing Association

ACMA = Australia Communications and Media Authority

Snail mail = Direct Mail

EDM = Email Direct Marketing. Essentially referring to the rental of an email list to send a commercial email message.

B2B = Business to Business

B2C = Business to Consumer

Opt-in = Permission has been given to receive direct marketing offers (most relevant with email and sms lists).

Opt-out = Someone requests to be excluded from your future direct marketing campaigns.

CPA = Cost per acquisition

CPM = Cost per thousand

CPL = Cost per lead

DNCR = Do Not Call Register

Wash = To remove records from one list using another list.

De-dupe = The process of removing multiple occurrences of the same record within the one list. Can also apply to removing multiple occurrences of the same record when merging more than one list.

Seed = This is the name for a monitored record placed within a list by the list owner. This is done to ensure the list isn't on-sold or disclosed to another party or used more than once.

Flagging = This is a process that specifies which records were part of your order. If you wish to exclude them from your next order flagging those records to be removed.

Net Names = This is where you only pay for records not already on your database.

Modeled data = This is specific to consumer lists where a list owner uses a variety of different sources to group people into socio-economic and lifestage groups.

Self reported data = This is specific to consumer lists where the individual on the list has disclosed their own details in relation to contact details, age, income, profession, composition of family, shopping habits, financial status, preferred charitable causes and interests.

Survey data = Where a list has been generated through people completing a consumer survey.

ANZSIC & SIC codes = Australian and New Zealand Standard Industry codes and Standard Industry Codes. These are two commonly used industry classification systems used by most business list owners.

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