The Rule of Lists

In other words, you can’t sell steaks to vegetarians.

This basic concept of “mailing to the right people” is easy for people to agree with at a cocktail party. But when you get back to your office and start trying to apply the general rule to your own cataloging reality, a lot of challenging details start showing up. It’s not easy to see how to turn the general principle of “mail the right lists” into a real-world plan for generating higher response rates.