Do you need to reach wealthy prospects using direct
mail? Then work on your list. Who you mail to (your
list) is the single most important thing that
determines your success.
There are two main ways to target affluent buyers:
where they abide, and what they buy.
Where they abide
Every area of the country has places where the
wealthy congregate. The affluent are concentrated
in cities (London, New York, Toronto) neighbourhoods
(Knightsbridge, London, Manhattan, New York and
Yorkville, Toronto) and streets (Cadogan Square,
London, Park Lane, New York, Yorkville Avenue,
Toronto. Reaching the wealthy by city is too
expensive. Reaching them by neighbourhood or street
makes more sense.
One disadvantage of targeting the wealthy by
neighbourhood is that you do not know if people on
your list want or need what you are selling. All that
you have is a good hunch that they can afford it
(because some people who live in wealthy
neighbourhoods only appear wealthy, and cannot
actually afford to live their).
The best place to look for lists of wealthy
neighbourhoods is a list broker. List brokers will show
you the breakdown of the wealthy neighbourhoods
you want to target. Affluent Austin, for example
(www.affluentaustin.com), claims to
have data on the top 50,000 most affluent homes in
Greater Austin, Texas. Their data card lets you
target your mailing by zip code, neighbourhood name
or number of households. It looks like this:
78610 Creedmoor 9
78613 Cedar Park 117
78734 Lakeway 2,643
So you could target the 78610 zip code and reach 9
homes. Or you could target the Cedar Park
neighbourhood and reach 117. Or you could ask the
list broker to name the zip codes and neighbourhoods
that had the most households, and Lakeway, zip
78734, would be near the top of the list.
If you are needing to reach wealthy buyers in the
United States, try these top list brokers:
Dun & Bradstreet www.dnb.com
Experian www.experian.com
InfoUSA www.infousa.com
What they buy
Another way to reach affluent prospects with direct
mail is to find lists of people who already buy what
you are selling, or something like it.
Selling yachts? Rent a list of boat/yacht owners from
the government department that issues boat licenses.
Selling yachts to people on Mercer Island,
Washington State? Rent the mailing list of
subscribers to Yacht Magazine and select only those
readers who live on or near Mercer Island.
Selling yachts to newcomers to Mercer Island,
Washington State? Rent the names of new home
owners on the island or recent movers to the island.
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About the author
Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter and lead generation specialist who helps business owners and marketing managers generate leads, close sales and retain customers using business-to-business direct mail marketing. Learn more about his creative direct mail writing services and sign up for free weekly tips like this at http://www.sharpecopy.com.