By Alan Sharpe

Do you need to reach wealthy prospects using direct mail? Then work on your list. Who you mail to (your list) is the single most important thing that determines your success.

There are two main ways to target affluent buyers: where they abide, and what they buy.

Where they abide

Every area of the country has places where the wealthy congregate. The affluent are concentrated in cities (London, New York, Toronto) neighborhoods (Knightsbridge, London, Manhattan, New York and Yorkville, Toronto) and streets (Cadogan Square, London, Park Lane, New York, Yorkville Avenue, Toronto. Reaching the wealthy by city is too expensive. Reaching them by neighborhood or street makes more sense.

One disadvantage of targeting the wealthy by neighborhood is that you do not know if people on your list want or need what you are selling. All that you have is a good hunch that they can afford it (because some people who live in wealthy neighborhoods only appear wealthy, and cannot actually afford to live their).

The best place to look for lists of wealthy neighborhoods is a list broker. List brokers will show you the breakdown of the wealthy neighborhoods you want to target. Affluent Austin, for example (www.affluentaustin.com), claims to have data on the top 50,000 most affluent homes in Greater Austin, Texas. Their data card lets you target your mailing by zip code, neighborhood name or number of households. It looks like this:

78610 Creedmoor 9
78613 Cedar Park 117
78734 Lakeway 2,643

So you could target the 78610 zip code and reach 9 homes. Or you could target the Cedar Park neighborhood and reach 117. Or you could ask the list broker to name the zip codes and neighborhoods that had the most households, and Lakeway, zip 78734, would be near the top of the list.

What they buy

Another way to reach affluent prospects with direct mail is to find lists of people who already buy what you are selling, or something like it.

Selling yachts? Rent a list of boat/yacht owners from the government department that issues boat licenses.

Selling yachts to people on Mercer Island, Washington State? Rent the mailing list of subscribers to Yacht Magazine and select only those readers who live on or near Mercer Island.

Selling yachts to newcomers to Mercer Island, Washington State? Rent the names of new home owners on the island or recent movers to the island.

About The Author
Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter. Sign up for free weekly tips like this at www.sharpecopy.com