The Rule of Lists

3. Response lists. These are other catalogers’ recent buyers. It isn’t intuitive or obvious that response lists should work well—but most catalogers find that well-selected response lists produce stronger results than any other lists except their own buyer and requester files.

What’s a “well-selected” response list? Basically, it’s a list that includes people very similar to your buyers. One of the main reasons that understanding your audience is important is because it can help you distinguish between response lists that contain people very much like your buyers, and response lists that don’t.