Below is a list of the most frequently asked questions. Click on one of the questions to jump to it or scroll down the page.
#1. What price do you charge?
#2. How do you get your names?
#3. Why is there a minimum charge?
#4. Why is the $150 returnable deposit required?
#5. Why should we choose Computer-Assisted
Marketing?
#6. How should we best make use of the names &
addresses?
#7. What zip codes should we name?
#8. What guarantee do you provide?
#9. Why do list errors occur?
#10. What if I get a complaint about a list error?
#11. Is Bulk Rate Mail a good idea?
#12. What response rate should I expect?
#13. In what format does the monthly file come?
#14. Which member of the household does the address
name?
#15. Do you offer Exclusivity?
#16. Can I select a subset of the movers' names?
#17. When in the month will the names arrive by
email?
#18. How soon after their move do I get their names?
Please go to the page Pricing & Cost Justification.
Please go to "Sourcing" on the page Detailed Description.
We like to be able to serve even the smallest-volume client, for example a church in a very rural area with a dozen or so new residents a month - on whom the Pastor may call in person and with excellent effect. At the same time, we're here to make a profit, and fixed costs do require a $15 minimum.
Because we're extending substantial credit, and don't want to put you through the hassle and delay of pulling a credit report. This gives us reasonable protection against possible bad debts.
Five reasons:
1. You get the most names, soonest. Our sourcing method provides the most timely and comprehensive newcomer list available. This is far and away the most important factor in your choice of vendor.
2. We deliver by e-mail; there is no faster way. No waiting for the USPS to get around to it, while the new resident finds and chooses your competitor.
3. You deal with the boss. This is a family business owned by Jim Davies, and if any wrinkle arises I am only a phone call away (in Eastern business hours, anyway!)
4. We've been handling this list for 12 years. We know it rather well, warts and all. And we know the way you need to use it for best effect in your business, and are ready and eager to show you. Use us as consultants!
5. It's our main business, not an adjunct. For us, this list is not one among many; we're wholly dependent on it satisfying you, our client.
Please go to the Mailer Design page.
This relates to an item on the page Free Custom Proposal; and the answer is, those that YOU regard as your prime market area. If you have a list of existing customers, look what zip codes they come from - that's a good clue.
Our Proposal will show an estimate of volume (and so, cost) for each zip code; so it will be easy to refine the original set before making any commitment.
In general: don't be too timid, nor too extravagant. If your establishment serves mainly a city suburb, choose the nearest half dozen zips. It may be tempting to advertise to everyone arriving in a 2-million resident metropolis, but there's no way many of them are going to cross town to find you, absent a MOST powerful reason!
If in doubt about one, try it. It's easy enough to measure results of your mailings by zip code, and at short notice to us to drop those that are not effective.
We provide a 95% deliverability. Please refer to "Terms & Conditions #5" on the page Detailed Description. And please note, that holds good whatever the origin of the error; even if it came from the delivering Post Office! So if the USPS rejects any of your mailers, deduct 5% of the shipped volume from their number and claim credit for the rest.
Incidentally, we get very few claims; about 1 customer in 25. This is a very good list!
Because human beings help in its preparation! Some of them seem to come from errors made by the MOVER himself, which is hard to believe since it's his own address. But it happens.
First, turn a sow's ear into a silk purse! You are now on the phone with a real, live prospect! Deal with the complaint as courteously as you can, see below, and then turn attention to the good things you can offer the caller.
There's no need for you, our client, to take any heat at all. Some people complain at almost any imperfection, and seem to enjoy sounding off... so deflect them to us! That's one reason we are here. Give the complainer our phone #, or give me his or hers. I'll write or call to take responsibility.
Yes. You need a minimum mailing of 200 pieces, but the Post Office gives a large discount on the postage and, in a local area like yours, little or no delay occurs. But (in my view) do use a live pre-canceled stamp, not an indicia.
However, if you plan a whole series of mailings to the same people, remember that you don't get address corrections with Bulk Mail. So it may be worth doing the first with First Class, then use Bulk Rate for those subsequent.
That depends on (a) how good the list is (see Question 5, above), (b) how good your mailer is and (c) what business you're in. With C-AM you have the most comprehensive and timely list of new residents available, and for (b) above, go to the page Mailer Design. That leaves item (c).
Example 1:
If your business is one of two comparable food markets in a
well-defined area, you'll expect to pick up about 50% of
new-resident business without any targeted advertising at all. By
using our service with a good mailer, that may jump to 55%. The
real benefit is the extra 5%, not the whole 55% response. And
that's what gives you the edge!
Example 2:
Your business is a specialty store that only 10% of the
population ever uses anyway. Obviously, you have a much harder
"sell" and may have a hard time hitting the usual
rule-of-thumb direct-mail industry norm of 1%. But if your
business is viable (you presumably sell up-market products) even
that response will grow your business well.
A church may fall into that second category. Perhaps the rate of all churchgoing is 25%, and perhaps there are 5 churches in town. So response is not going to be huge; we're looking at modifying a 5% maximum! There too, however, the cost is very well rewarded.
BOTTOM LINE: Ensure the response is good financially for you.
Comma-delimited ASCII, tagged with a ".txt" suffix to make it easy for popular Internet Mail software to handle. Each field is separated from the next by a comma; each record ends with a line feed/carriage return.
The fields are Title, First Name & M.I., Last Name, Street Address 1, Street Address 2, City, State, Zip, Z+4.
All popular word processing software can handle this format, which saw the light of day with WordStar. Sometimes that software may need to translate or convert it first, but after a one-time learning process with help from its User Guide, the monthly procedure should be very simple.
The first which the sourcing method happens to encounter. So design your mailer to address the family or household, not the individual. It may be Mom, Dad, or even the newly- resident computer whiz-kid.
No. This would mean that we would not supply newcomer names to your trade competitors for the same zip code(s).
Several years ago we did, but found it was of very limited use. That's because whereas we do have the best newcomer list and attendant service that can be obtained, we don't have a monopoly - so a promise like "your competitor will not have these names" would not really be true. He'd not have them all, nor as soon after the move; but he'd be able to get quite a lot of them so "exclusivity" was a rather misleading term. So we don't offer it any longer.
Please see "OPTIONS" on the Detailed Description page.
The promise we give in Clause #1 of the Agreement (see T & C on the Detailed Description page) is "before the 18th of each month." In practice, it's almost always a lot earlier.
In the last 12 months, for example, the average shipment date was the 10th and in no month was it later than the 12th.
Because we deliver as above in the early part of each month those who moved (for the great part) in the previous calendar month, the answer in most cases is: a little under four weeks.
This is quite soon enough for most businesses. Exceptions are very few and would be such as home-oil merchants in the winter, who MUST contact the newcomer the very day they come. Nearly all other decisions are less urgent and are made during the following several weeks.
Having the names so soon after the move is a big advantage - you get your ad in front of the newcomer before your rival does. That means more customers, more business growth.
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