Direct mail lists went stale on us, so I rebuilt one by hand

We spent 2 years paying for a list service in Chicago that kept sending mail to businesses that closed months ago. I sat down with Google Maps and local business records, built a fresh list of 400 names over a weekend, and our response rate doubled last quarter. Anyone else given up on paid lists and gone back to building their own?

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dylan_brown301mo ago

Wait, is this actually a big deal or did you just get lucky once? I mean, 400 names over a weekend sounds like a lot of work for maybe a small bump that could just be seasonal. The last time I tried rebuilding a list myself, I spent a whole Saturday on it and ended up with a bunch of wrong numbers anyway, so I'm not exactly sold on this being the magic fix. Sure, paid lists can be garbage, but hand building one sounds like a recipe for burnout if you're doing it every quarter. Unless you've got some system for keeping it fresh, I'd watch how much time you're really saving in the long run.

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