How to Grow Your House File

Illustration showing how businesses grow a direct mail house file through new customers and repeat marketing. — A growing house file helps businesses strengthen customer relationships and improve future direct mail campaigns.

Key Takeaways

House files are lists of customers, prospective customers, and other individuals who already have a relationship with your business that you have grown over time from previous mailing campaigns.
House files and rented mailing lists complement each other by helping you retain existing customers, while also reaching newer prospects.

Introduction

As you do business, you’re naturally going to attract a customer base that has bought from you and your company. Due to this, you’re going to want to advertise to them again and again, as customers are more likely to purchase from the same company if the customer had a positive experience with them in the past. Over time, these customers can grow to become one of your company’s most valuable marketing assets, a house file.

House files are groups of these individuals who already have a relationship with your business, including previous customers, newsletter subscribers, prospective customers, or individuals who have requested information from your company in the past. These lists can be used to advertise to these customers, who will most likely provide a higher engagement rate when compared to cold mailing a mailing list.

What Are the Benefits of Using House Files?

There are several benefits of using house files when doing mail marketing. As mentioned, these are customers that are already familiar with your business. People who already know your business are going to generally more likely to respond to your offer than someone who is just hearing about your company for the first time. Due to house files consisting of people who already know about you and your business, they are going to be more ideal for announcing new products, promotions, loyalty programs and perks, or seasonal offers. Maintaining regular contact with these customers can help strengthen customer relationships over time.

Another benefit is that house files do not cost anything to use. As these are customers that are familiar with your business based on prior interactions, your company already has these individuals’ data and information, which saves money on needing to rent a mailing list. Finally, testing new offers on house files can be a low-risk method of gauging the quality of a mail piece or offer, as you can reuse house files as much as you want, since most mailing lists are limited use.

How Can I Grow My House File?

The simplest way to grow your house file is by acquiring new customers from rented mailing lists. When you rent a new mailing list, the names on the list are usually new potential customers. If you send out the mail piece and get a response from a new customer, that’s a new name that you’re able to place on your house file. Every successful direct mail campaign should ideally leave you with a larger house file than what you had before.

Another way to grow your house file is by adding prospective clients in. For example, if someone inquires on your website regarding a product or service. If you have their address based on that, you could add them to your house file. You can follow the same concept for in-person events, like trade shows or expos, where addresses are able to be obtained organically. As your house file grows, it becomes a valuable long-term asset of yours that you can continue to use as you communicate with customers and prospects.

FAQ

Q: Can I completely replace renting mailing lists when I have a house file?
- A: No, a house file can’t completely replace other mailing lists, rented or otherwise. Customers aren’t going to stay customers forever, with a customer that purchased a product three months ago being more likely to purchase again than someone who last purchased 18 months ago. By using your house file with traditional rented mailing list, they can work in tandem to be a solid customer base.
Q: Can I use data that I obtained from a rented mailing list to fill my house file?
- A: Yes, if somebody responds to your mail piece and becomes a customer of your business, requests information, or establishes a relationship with your business in any other manner, they generally become a part of your house file. However, just renting a mailing list does not give you ownership of every name on that list. If you have any questions regarding your rental agreement, contact your list broker or list manager.

Conclusion

As with many aspects of direct mailing, understanding how house files work can help attain a dedicated customer base. While there is not a total replacement for other types of mailing lists, house files can work in cooperation with them to help retain and grow your customer base. Due to customers being more likely to purchase from businesses that they’ve previously purchased from, being knowledgeable about how a well-maintained house file can become one of your business’ most valuable assets, as it helps you build a strong customer relationship while improving your future direct mailing campaigns.