Purchasing mailing lists?

[the nightfly]

Have any of you, as part of marketing your photographic work, purchased a mailing list of potential buyers from any of the companies that provide that service? If so...

...which service did you use?

...how much did it cost?

...did you feel the results were worth it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[afghanjohn]

Have any of you, as part of marketing your photographic work, purchased a mailing list of potential buyers from any of the companies that provide that service? If so...

...which service did you use?

...how much did it cost?

...did you feel the results were worth it?

Thanks in advance.

I just did some research on this very topic and purchased a list too. Here are the details.

I'm marketing our content to both video producers and graphics designers, as half our content is video footage the other half is photographs.

First I did some research based on the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes for businesses. You can learn about the SIC codes online from various sources but I found the best source of information for my purposes was the The Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration:

http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/sicsearch.html

Next I checked out a number of online sources for buying lists based on the SIC code. I decided on Info USA:

http://www.infousa.com

With Info USA I had some problems building the list I wanted on their site, but when I called them their sales person was able to put together the list I wanted based on the SIC code numbers I gave.

I'm testing a list and making phone calls to see who's interested in our stock photographs and video footage. I'll know in early January if the test results are good enough to try again with a larger list.

I hope this helps. Let me know what you are trying to do, maybe I can give some more specific advice for your particular needs.