Boron - Chapter 07

# Boron - Chapter 07

The Boron Letters - Chapter 7

Monday, 10:30 a.m.

June 18, 1984

Dear Bond,

Let's get right back into the subject of becoming a student of markets, especially mailing lists.

My last letter gave you a beginning insight into what makes a list more responsive. Let's review a few conclusions we came to based on the data in yesterday's letter. You will remember, of course, that I said that, as a general rule, any list of proven mail order buyers will out perform any list of non-buyers.

Now, as another general rule, there are three main guidelines you can rely on when you are picking lists to test.

These three guidelines are recency, frequency and unit of sale. A brief explanation follows:

Recency - The more recently a person has purchased (by mail) something similar to what you are selling, the more receptive he will be to your offer. Get 'em while they're hot! In fact, always check to see if the list you are interested in has "hotline buyers" and see if you can rent them before anybody else. Hotline buyers are the most recent buyers of all. Sometimes they will be 90-day hotline buyers or even 30-day hotline buyers. These names are extremely good prospects!

Frequency - The more often a person buys a particular item, the higher his desire for that type of production service. It just makes sense. If you are selling a book on skin diving and you can find a list of people who have purchased several other books on skin diving, then you know he is interested in the subject and will be a likely prospect to buy your book.