Improve your direct mail acquisition with these tips taken from the “45 Ideas in 60 Minutes Panel” presented by Names in the News’ Jennifer Deerr at the DMA Nonprofit Federation Conference in Washington, DC in January 2010.

1. Test Expires

Don’t rule out testing deeper into a file – including testing expires. This is particularly true for small mailers that do not have a large core list universe. This is also true of testing Inquiries on catalog files instead of just Buyers.

2. Negotiate Caps on Select Fees

If you are taking several different selects on a rental file (recency, dollar amount, direct mail sold, geography) you may be able to negotiate a maximum charge cap on the select fee. This is particularly true if the list is outside your core market and therefore non-competitive (for example a health charity using a clothing catalog).

3. Consider a Zip Select

A zip model may help improve the results for marginally performing files even with the additional cost of building the model and the additional list select fees. There are several different companies that can help you build a zip model based on a representative group of the best donors on your housefile.

4. Match Web Donations Back to Direct Mail

By matching web donations back to direct mail acquisition and specific lists, several of my clients have changed the mix of lists they are mailing. We have found that several mailing lists respond mostly via the website and perform well above average. If we were only looking at traditional direct mail results, these lists would have been removed from the mailing when in fact they are great performers.

5. Negotiate Net Pricing

For rental orders over 50,000, list managers may agree to approve net pricing on your order. For example, if you can prove via computer verification/merge reports that you are only netting out 85% of the list in a random priority merge, the list manager may agree to charge you full price on only 85% of the quantity and running charges on the other 15%.

6. Identify and Remove Chronic Non-Responders

Using stored data from your last 4-6 merges (with list specific information removed), you can identify individuals who have received your mailing multiple times without responding and remove them from your current campaign. You will still pay to rent or exchange the names, but you will save on postage and printing for these prospects that are unlikely to respond.

7. Test Quantites

Make sure your list test quantities are large enough to yield statistically valid results. You can calculate what your minimum list order quantity should be by using a projected, conservative response rate. Keep in mind that you will need a minimum of 100 responses to create a statistically valid cell.