When you create and deploy a sales or marketing message of any kind, address it to the people who work at those companies, not to the companies themselves. Ultimately, a person makes the decision to buy; “the company” doesn’t.

When you deploy an offer to a company, the least favorable way to address your solicitation is: Dear Acme Company. Who gets it? The janitor? The president?

A somewhat better approach is to address your marketing message to: Dear Purchasing Agent. You are getting warmer. At least you’re directing the mail to the right corner of the building.

Naturally, the best approach is to address it by name: Clark Kent, Purchasing Agent. There is no doubt that you’ll reach the real Superman in the company — the one who will be making the buying decision.

The purchasing agent may need to get approval from others, but it’s other individuals he confers with, not “the company.”

As you develop your strategy and write your copy, picture your prospects. Imagine them sitting neatly in a row on top of your computer screen. Glance up every now and then. Call them by name; get to know them.

By the way, mailing to a household is very different. After all, the family is a very different assembly of people from a business or organization. Family members set priorities. They talk and compromise. The family ultimately does make decisions together.

It’s always best to walk first, then run — especially when a financial investment is at stake. This is particularly true when it comes to acquiring new marketing lists. Before you purchase or rent the entire list and market to every prospect, acquire a representative sampling of the list, and put it to the test.

The larger the sampling, the greater your level of confidence about the response you’ll achieve across the board.

Mail or email your solicitation and evaluate response. If response is less than you typically receive from your current, active list, you have learned a valuable lesson. While it may make sense to test again, you now have a mandate to move to the next list and the next test. If response is greater than you typically receive from your current list, you have just found a gold mine. Acquire the rest of the list and put it to work.

It is easy to test two or more lists simultaneously. Simply tag the various lists you acquire and merge them together. As responses — either inquiries or orders — come in, ask the prospect or client for the code printed on the mailer, and tabulate the results.

Naturally, the offer you make in your solicitation influences response.

So, in this testing phase, you may wish to mail to your test group at the same time you mail to your current list. In this way, you will have a direct comparison of the effectiveness of the new lists against the current list.

The better able you are to define your target client, the better your chances of developing a list or database that will help you reach them.

For consumer lists, you want to be alert to all the details pertaining to geography, household income, age, gender, number of children, profession, hobbies, and special interests.

For business lists, determine the appropriate industries you want to reach. Wherever you can, narrow the target to a specific segment within a given industry. Based on your current client data – including the size of the business, annual sales, number of employees, number of branch locations, and so on – you can come close to creating a description of “the ideal client.”

Dig into the information you have. Look at job titles. For example, refine engineers into civil, chemical, or mechanical. Narrow physicians into groups of dermatologists, pediatricians, or oral surgeons.

With your criteria settled, you are in a better position to know what you are looking for when evaluating the potential of a new list and purchasing it. You have a benchmark. Now, give your criteria to a professional list broker and ask them to search through the myriad private lists that are available. Here’s what they’re looking for – and what you should look for as well.

First, look for recent purchasing trends. There’s probably no better way to ascertain the value of a list than by looking at recent trends and activity. When you look to see just how recently purchases were made in a business category similar to yours, you can learn a lot about the viability of the list’s potential performance.

Second, look at frequency of purchases by the people and companies on the list. Of course, many purchases are always a good thing.

Third, determine how much, on average, clients spend on their purchases. If your product or service is priced high, be sure to substantiate that there is a track record of “big spenders” on the list.

Fourth, you want a list that is fresh — one that has been updated frequently so that it is as accurate as possible.

Fifth, always look for a combination of both old and new names. It is not usually advisable to request a selection of only the names that have recently been added to the list. Often, names that have been on a list for a long time, the ones representing steady buyers, can actually be the hottest names.

Sixth, consider this: How often have other marketers used the list? If it’s been used often, it may suggest that response is strong. It could also mean that it’s been overworked.

Finally, remember that the size of the list does not always matter. You want to choose the most targeted list — and the one that best fits your criteria — not necessarily the one with the most names on it.

Be willing to make the investment. A higher price may likely be there for a good reason: it’s a great list!

Now test the list.

Marketing lists can contain hundreds of thousands of names — even millions. So before you spend money on trying to reach the entire list, test a small percentage to determine how well it will perform for you. It’s always a prudent idea to test a new list against one that you know works for you already. Using codes on mailers, order forms, and shopping carts can help you track and compare the results.

Here’s an interesting corollary when it comes to mailing lists and databases: “A good list has the potential to generate a good response with an ‘average’ sales message. But a bad list won’t yield the response you need, regardless of how spectacular your sales message may be.”

In the world of lists and databases, you better believe that there are good names on not-so-good lists and bad names on some great lists. So, what makes a list “good” or “bad?”

Essentially, a bad list is one that’s simply not targeted. The more “random” or broad the list is, the less value it has — unless, of course, you have a product or service you can sell to everyone at every address in America.

Marketing to large numbers of people, hoping that some will respond, isn’t proper list selection and deployment. This is called “guessing.” And guessing who may buy — along with hoping that many will buy — probably won’t generate many responses.

A good list, on the other hand, is one that is targeted. A good list is the one that matches your offer with people who are likely to be interested in what you are selling.

A smaller, more targeted list is of greater value, response wise, than a larger list that isn’t targeted. Although keeping names on a list for “old times sake” may make you feel good, it does not add to the value of your list.

Good lists include people who have made themselves known to you as being interested in what you have to offer. When someone requests information, they are saying, “Tell me more. I’m interested and willing.”

Good lists include people who match a certain profile. In its simplest form, this profile can include age, income, and education. It can also include incredibly specific information such as yacht ownership, number of vehicles in the household, hobbies, and travel.

Good lists are those you can use again and again. When you look at your list and determine that there is both short-term and long-term potential in the names, this is a sure sign that your list has value. When your list performs admirably three or four times in a row, you know you are on the right track.

Good lists are dynamic. They never stand still.