Mailing List Providers

[mickeyma]

Which data list providers to trust? Previous posts on the forum have stated they all get their info from 3 sources. So, the quantity should be similar.

I just ran a count using the exact same criteria in the same zip codes and received the following # of records:

629 Experian
1,239 Epsilon/Equifax
1,785 InfoUSA
2,767 Acxiom
2,804 USAData

The zip codes have a population of 105,223. The criteria was ages 50-75 with income under $15,000.

It's a big waste of $ to mail 2,804 records if 629 is the real #.

I called Acculeads, which is where I logged into to get these counts for Experian, Epsilon & Acxiom. They did their counts and verified the figures. I was told that the discrepency is due to the # of sources used. Epsilon uses 5 sourches and Acxiom only uses 1 source.

OK. Let's hear from the forum members. Which source would you use and why? Thanks for the input.

 

[Josh]

There are a number of reasons why there could be discrepancies, but one key thing to realize is that you're going after a tricky demographic. By default many systems will drop folks into the 0-$14,999 group so if it doesn't have info, that's what it can default to. There is no publicly available source that specifically gives exact income info on each person individually, so they go by responder/indicator data. Experian and Equifax are both credit bureaus so they have a unique perspective they bring to the table (which is why we use the Experian data set as an overlay on our file to add the credit scoring).

One thing you may want to consider is using other indicators to hit your demographic such as renter status, property value, and zip code. Acxiom is generally pretty accurate. InfoUSA and USAData tend to be less accurate (I can't find the source of the study, but Acxiom paid an "objective" third party to compare the quality and InfoUSA was towards the bottom).

Hope this helps.

 

[mickeyma]

Thanks, Josh. Which count would you go with?

 

[Josh]

Thanks, Josh. Which count would you go with?

Since I own affordablemarketinglists.com and offer great lists, I would use mine. If you want to send me the specifics I can run a few counts and give you some options.

 

[fearsback]

Try all marketing options available. Only seeing 1% is not fun when you spend that much money.

 

[IrishAF]

Hello Mickey, I know this post is old, but have you come to a conclusion on the discrepancies? I'm in the exact same position as far as sources providing different numbers, and they seem low when I run a quote with Experian. Curious to see if they're missing something or are they more accurate?