To generate some interest in list rentals during a year of falling sales, some list management companies are offering tests as incentives for business.
Direct Media Inc., Greenwich, CT, has launched the Guaranteed Test Results Program and ALC of New York LLC is offering 30% broker commission on selected test orders. Millard has also jumped on the bandwagon with bargains for catalogers and specials on its Rodale files.
Direct Media’s program will run from July 1 through Aug. 31. Qualifying mailers must have rented 50,000 or more names from the firm in the past 12 months or have placed orders on five or more lists. If the test doesn’t work, there will be no charges incurred, said Ed Bocknik, executive vice president of Direct Media list management.
A test is defined as an order from a mailer who hasn’t rented the file in 24 months or an order on a substantially different segment from what the mailer is currently using, according to Direct Media. The maximum guaranteed test quantity is 10,000, although test volume can be greater. Database orders and e-mail test orders are excluded from the offer.
“With higher postal rates and an uncertain economy, this has been a pretty tough year for direct marketers,” Bocknik said. “We know this doesn’t solve all their problems, we’re just trying to help mailers continue to grow their businesses.”
In 1992 during the last recession, Direct Media offered free list tests to pump up business. Executives there said that the response started off slow, but by the last day orders were pouring in.
The offer at ALC of New York has already begun and runs through Sept. 1. The promotion includes 30% broker commission on test orders for selected lists and another 30% on continuation orders placed from those tests. The deal includes the following lists: Vacation magazine, Zoo Books, Travel 50 and Beyond, Photo Works, Scholarships.com, Where to Retire magazine and Smith & Hawken.
Millard Group Inc., Peterborough, NH, is running a year-long special on catalog rates–$60 per thousand names–for its publishing files. The lists included are: Ecompany Now, Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, Money, Mutual Funds, People Weekly, Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated for Kids and Women, Sunset Magazine, This Old House, Time, Time Canada and Time Inc. Home Entertainment.
Also at Millard Group, for every new test of a Rodale list, a second test on a different Rodale list comes free up to 10,000 names.
