How I Became An Expert Mailing List Broker
A few days ago a prospective client asked me, "What's your expertise regarding mailing lists based on?"
The simple answer is experience. And lots of it. I've worked with hundreds of clients who market to dozens of different industries and job functions. The best part of being a list broker is that I get to become an active part of the marketing staff for so many different types of companies.
In his book "Outliers: The Story of Success", Malcolm Gladwell states that a person needs to work 10,000 hours at something to become truly expert.
Since 1986 I've been part of nearly 40,000 mailing list and email list orders. I passed the 10,000 hour mark as a list broker more than a decade ago. And two of my key colleagues at Hippo Direct have a combined 24 years experience working with mailing lists.
With increased experience comes increased specialization. Currently half of our work with clients focuses on postal and email lists in 3 market segments:
1. College Professors and Administrators
2. Dentists and Dental Professionals
3. Top Executives at Nonprofit Organizations
The learning never stops. Especially regarding achieving better results from email lists -- and finding new sources of postal lists. When something works well for one client, we can apply that knowledge to other clients.