1st Direct Mail Campaign (the calm before the storm)

[Noel Lumbo]

My initial list search was very general and yieleded 1k+ people. I then added specifc equity parameters and that narrowed the list down to around 200+ people. That is a SIGNIFICANT decrease. I know that it's a numbers game so the more people I target the more leads I am likely to generate.

So here's my first question...
Would I be better off just going with the bigger (general) list with no specifics? Basically taking a lot of shots in the dark.

Or

Should I go with the smaller more specific list?

I am aware that consistency is essential to running a successful direct mail campaign. So, this brings about another issue. I'm going to be coming across some extra $$ soon which is why I'm even contemplating going with a bigger list. I'd hate to start a huge campaign and not be able to keep up with it as consistent as I would like. On the flipside if I start off with a smaller campaign the plan would be to eventually expand it targetting more people.

For those of you running direct mail campaigns how often do you send out mail?

Do you break your lists down, mailing to them at different times? Or do you just send all your mail out at the same time?

Do you have specfics that you use to filter your list results?

How did you start your campaign? Was it with a large list... did you use different mail pieces? etc? Any success?