The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-31
MAILING CIRCULARS AN ART.
It Is No Longer Done on Hit or Miss
 Methods.


 that of advertising by circulars, letters and pamphlets through the mails. Last year. it has been estimated more than 80 900, 900 was spent for postage on such | communications and an advertising au- thority familiar with this field, asserts | that every other letter carried by Uncle Sam is an advertisement
 | Formerly mall advertising was carried on more or less in the dark. The adVer- tiser simply got a city directory or blue book or telephone directory, copied | the names on envelopes, stuck in his circulars and let them go, hitting old | and young, men and women, rich and poore, learned and unlettered alike. Today that sort of advertising would be regarded | as crminally wasteful.
 The city directory is now an advertisers | last resort, used only when the whole population of a city is to be reached with some great proposition. Even the | blue book and telephone directory, while | regarded with more favor, are clumsy 1 in comparison with newer ways of getting names and addresses.
 | An advertising letter nowadays must 1 hit the recipient on some special interest. l It often echoes what one has in mind l with certainty that smacks of sooth- saying on the advertisers part. | For. if you live in a small western town | al you to receive a circular advertising stove repairs, mentioning the make and number | of your stove. Or such a missive way call attention to the fact that your piano l of such and such a make and age, IS | getting rather out of tone, and ought to | be replaced with another or helped out with piano player.
 Or perhaps you live in a city and have | lately taken a flyer in stocks or pur- | oba fau investment. | investment propositions will come to you | by mail anda the advertiser who sends them mentions your recent operations.
 How are advertising letters made to strike home so accurately? In ways all together simple and logical when you | know them.
 To make his advertisement hit cleanly the advertiser begins with your name | and address. That is the key to his whole system-getting you on his mailing list In | your proper classification
 The business of securing names and ad- l dresses is now carried on separately by l large concerns, that furnish to advertisers lists of any sort desired, from one ln- cluding 25O0O0 farmers west of the Misss- sinpi river to another enumerating 1000 persons in given state who have au- tomobles
 Do YOU wish to advertise baby car riages to families with babies? The adver- Using list concern will sell you the names and addresses of 10000 families in cer- tain city who have children under yt ITS of age and incomes over s5O0O.
 Are you a maker of artdlcial llmps Every day he will furnish you list Of persons throughout the country who have lost arms or legs
 Are you in the musical line? iou can have lists of persons anywhere who play any sort of instrument, from the gently
 ,t.-atn hn CG drum.
 Such lists are obtained in various ways. To get 250.0O0 farmers in a certain terri tory the address specialists usually go to the county tax lists. where names and addresses are accurate and complete. At such a source it is also possible to grade the names according to income estimates being made by the amount or property on which each person pays taxes
 Among lists of this character you can purchase the names and address of I-oOOo retail grocers, 121 900 physicians, 2oWO flour mills. or any other general classih- cation desired.
 Names and addresses of families with children are secured by a systematic pri- vate census, made by the list specialists own enumerators. All homes in city are visited and the number of children their aces etc. obtained. either from house. holders or the neighbors. Janitors are a good source for information of this sort.
 familys probable income is easily determined from the neighborhood One of the railroads running out of New York city. for example, wishes to advertise its suburban towns little monthly maga- zine is mailed for the purpose to names taken from the mail boxes of apartment houses in neighborhoods where the rents denote incomes ranging from between s2500 and 5000
 Advertisers are regular readers of cer- tain information In newspapers. such as deaths births marriages. accidents. Ev- cry birth means a cent or two to the list concern which awards 1t to a baby food manufacturer.
 Five cents Is paid by manufacturer of artificial eyes for every report or the loss of an eye Even deaths are matter of traffic for families bereaved are can vassed by makers of memorial cards. Some advertisers put names of thix char acter, away for a year. until the expenses attendant upon a death have been met by the family, and then approach the survivors with a proposition to erect a monument
 It is easier to get lists of persons who own pianos, stoves, organs, etc, or who nlav certain musical instruments. The advertisers employ children during school vacations paying them for filling out blanks with correct names and addresses of families in their own towns, giving | name of piano. make of stove and num- her musical inclinations, number and ages of children. etc.
 Since the telephone became a factor in farm life the local telephone directories , are in great request with compilers of | advertising names. 1t Is reasoned that | the telephone directory of a given com munity conatins the cream of it's resi- dents.
 Some of the queer lists for sale are | the names of thirty-three dynamite ma kers, twenty-two sandpaper manufactur- CTS, nine lead pencil factories and the like Such lists are often sold for a | dollar A name, being used by advertisers who sell machinery and supplies in large quantities.
 One list that has peculiar fascination | for the advertisers it is said contains the names of 300 millionaires. It is used again and again though the address specialts frankly considers it one of the least prom ising he has.
 | How do the address men know about | your recent investments or speculation? |? simple enough They purchase, and pay | good prices for collections of telegrams | from stock exchange board of trade | brokers each message being buying or selling order Such names are more often secured from bucketshops than from legit- innate brokers, however.
 | If YOU are mailing a charitable appeal | or a request for funds to carry on some | public work, list can be secured by talk ing the names of all owners of secur- ties in given city or all partners in