Should You Rent Your List?

Some catalogers promise their customers they won’t rent their names to other companies. But often those same catalogers will rent other outside lists in order to grow their own businesses. This strikes me as strange. Unless there’s a privacy aspect to your offer (i.e., a breach of a brand promise), then I don’t see a reason to withhold your list from the market. To meet The Direct Marketing Association’s guidelines, you must disclose to your customers that you’ll rent their names, and you must give them the opportunity to opt out of this.