Using Alternative Media to Build a List

For Stopka, that strategy involved scoring the inquiries through Abacus to score them for mail-order propensity.

“Abacus, in my opinion, is the next step after space ads for niche marketers,” he says. “They were able to find other niches and good universes for us.”

With a total of 1.3 million inquiries, Stopka says, “At this point, it would be very difficult to mail a name from 1991, 1992, 1993 without the scoring. Let’s say there’s 150,000 names from 1990 to 1992. With Abacus scores, you identify the top 20 percent. I can mail those names three times a year and still make money using a discount strategy.”