More and more businesses, both large and small, are realizing the importance of targeted mailing lists in their marketing campaigns.
It’s crucial to the company’s survival to be able to create niche marketing materials but more importantly, to be able to get those materials in the right hands.
If you’re looking to maximize the return on your investment, knowing the different types of mailing lists can make certain that your efforts in content and quality materials won’t go to waste.
Here are four main types of mailing lists to consider when beginning a targeted direct mail campaign:
Consumer Mailing List
If you’re looking to sell your product and/or services directly to specific individuals and families, a consumer mailing list can pinpoint your ideal consumer or buyer persona.
By using economic, demographic, and psychographic information, this list will provide the profiles you need to maximize your ROI.
When creating a consumer mailing list, you’ll be able to filter the data by choosing:

- Gender
- Age
- Ethnicity
- Marital Status
- Home Value

- Estimated Household Income
- Children Present
- Single or multiple family homes
- Hobbies and Interests

The cost of purchasing a consumer mailing list tends to be one of the more expensive options, since it does have the capability to filter down to an individual person.
However, the cost is certainly justified as it gives you the ability to remove those recipients that do not match the audience your trying to target.
This list would be best for mailings like brochures, multi-page letters, or postcards that are high-quality.
Business Mailing List
If you’re a B2B business, there’s a list for you too!
A business mailing list can be created to target only small or large businesses.
The data you can select from are usually categories such as:

- Business Type
- Number of Employees
- Executive Names
- Owner Gender
- Geographic Location

- Annual Sales
- Phone Numbers
- Years in Business
- Credit Rating
- Public vs. Private


Neighborhood Mailing List
A less specific but most cost-effective mailing list is a neighborhood mailing list.
If you’re a local small business that would like to target to the individuals and families within a specific radius of your location, this list would collate the addresses within a geographical location or a particular zip code.
A neighborhood mailing list would also be beneficial for business that want to obtain new clientele.
As opposed to limiting your reach to specific psychographic or demographic categories, you could obtain a broader reach by targeting a less defined region.
Direct mail such as small postcards, coupons, or simple brochures are most commonly associated with neighborhood mailing lists.
Specialty Mailing List
So let’s say you don’t want to target a specific demographic or region, but something, well, special.
Specialty mailing lists give you the opportunity to target a special category of consumers.
These categories include:

- New Parents
- New Movers
- New Homeowners
- Health Conscious
- Green Consumers
- Consumers by Hobby

- High-income Homeowners
- Renters
- Investors
- Sports Enthusiasts
- Voters (by political party)
- Seniors

No matter what niche you’re looking to target, there is an effective mailing list for it.
Combine highly targeted mailing lists with your marketing materials to gain sales and keep a competitive edge.