Outside List Optimization: Does it Pay?

The Best Economic Scenario

The “Cross Member Model” column makes the most sense economically. Here, only a 10-percent lift in response is needed to pay for the investment. A cross member model is when another member of a co-op, such as Abacus Alliance, allows its list to be optimized on a “net name” basis. An order still needs to be placed through the list broker. The cataloger requests a cross member model not knowing if this firm is a member of Abacus. Since Abacus is a “blind” cooperative database, it neither publishes a listing of its members nor reveals this information. So, the broker sends the order to the owner’s list manager and on to Abacus if approved. While the economics of this scenario make sense, several of the lists wanted for optimization would not be members of the Abacus Alliance, including publishers of compiled lists, such as Polk. However, this is the option I prefer and the one that makes the most economic and practical sense. Abacus claims this is a stronger model, too. It is more predictive because of the large amount of transitional data that comes into play, since all the files reside at Abacus.