Trusted by 1000+ Customers
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a mailing list?
A mailing list is a collection of names and postal addresses used to send direct mail to a specific audience. With PostGrid, you build a targeted list from filters: for a consumer (B2C) list, you can filter by location, age, income, gender, education, occupation, home value, and number of children; for a business (B2B) list, you can filter by ZIP code, industry, NAICS code, company type, employee count, and founding year.
How does a mailing list work?
A mailing list works by gathering contact data filtered by location and specific demographic or firmographic criteria, allowing you to target a specific audience and send direct mail campaigns to verified recipients.
What are the benefits of getting mailing lists?
Getting a mailing list allows you to reach a highly targeted audience by filtering contacts using specific geographic, demographic, or firmographic criteria. This focused approach improves campaign ROI and conversion rates by eliminating wasted spend on uninterested audiences while saving time by removing the need to manually source and verify customer data. Additionally, mailing lists enable personalized marketing tailored to specific customer segments and help ensure higher deliverability through verified recipient records.
What are the different types of mailing lists?
Both consumer (B2C) and business (B2B) lists across hundreds of audience types — homeowners, new movers, high-income households, and seniors on the consumer side, and industry lists such as dentist, attorney, physician, real estate agent, CPA, and contractor on the business side. Browse the full list directory above.
What is the difference between Mailing List & Email Lists?
The main difference between a mailing list and an email list lies in the channel and format of delivery. A mailing list consists of physical street addresses used to send tangible marketing materials delivered by postal services. In contrast, an email list contains digital email addresses used to deliver electronic messages, such as newsletters, automated campaign sequences, and product updates, directly to recipients' inboxes. While physical mailing lists typically involve higher costs per contact due to printing and postage, they often achieve higher engagement and open rates. Email lists feature near-zero marginal sending costs and instant delivery with real-time digital tracking, though they require careful management to avoid spam filters.
HOW IT WORKS
Build Your B2C Consumer Mailing List in Four Steps
From filters to a mailed campaign: build the list and send the mail in one platform.
Filter to B2C Consumer
Start a targeted list and select B2C consumer contacts, set an address or ZIP code with a radius, and refine by household income to match your target demographic.
Review the Quote
PostGrid returns the number of matching B2C consumer contacts and the price per contact, with masked preview records to check the list.
Confirm & Build
Fine-tune the filters to hit your target count, then confirm. PostGrid builds the B2C consumer list and adds it to your account.
Send Direct Mail
Mail the list right away via letters or postcards to every contact through PostGrid's print & mail API or dashboard.
USE CASES
Who Uses a B2C Consumer Mailing List?
Any business that sells to, recruits, or serves B2C consumer contacts — reaching them with targeted direct mail.
SECURITY & COMPLIANCE
Enterprise-Grade Security & Compliance
Your list and campaign data are handled under the strictest certifications in the industry.
HIPAA Compliant
PHI-safe handling for healthcare mail, with BAAs available.
SOC 2 Type 2
Independently audited security, availability & confidentiality controls.
PCI DSS
Payment-data-safe processing for mail containing financial information.
PIPEDA
Compliant with Canada's federal personal information protection law.
PHIPA
Ontario health-privacy compliant for cross-border healthcare mail.
Integrates with Your Favorite Tech Stack & Tools
Easily Improve your workflow and automate print & mail through seamless integration capabilities.
TRUST SIGNALS
Our Customers Say It Best
Hear from the teams that run their direct mail and data on PostGrid.
”"Building a targeted list by state and audience age and mailing it the same day without a separate broker cut our campaign cycle in half."
Director of MarketingConsumer Goods Retailer”"Seeing the count and price before we buy means no surprises. We target the ZIP codes with the right household income levels and the postcards go out from the same platform."
VP of GrowthD2C Subscription Brand”"The API lets us build and mail demographic filtering lists programmatically, and the compliance posture made our data team comfortable immediately."
Managing PartnerFundraising Agency
FAQ
B2C Consumer Mailing List: Frequently Asked Questions
Straight answers for teams building a B2C consumer mailing list.
How to use a mailing list?
To use a mailing list, start by identifying your target audience and acquiring or generating your verified list through a list provider or building tool and uploading it into your direct mail or marketing platform. Finally, design tailored promotional materials or messages, schedule your dispatch, and track campaign performance metrics like delivery rates and customer responses to optimize future outreach.
How to build a mailing list?
Choose filters for a US consumer or US business audience, and PostGrid generates a quote with the number of matching contacts and the price per contact, plus masked preview records to sanity-check the list. Adjust the filters to refine the count, then confirm the build. Once built, the list is ready to mail directly through PostGrid.
How much does a mailing list cost?
Lists are priced per contact and deducted from your account credits, which are displayed in your quote before you confirm. Request a demo for volume pricing. Targeted list building is a beta feature that must be enabled on your account.
How to send direct mail to a mailing list?
A list you build becomes a PostGrid mailing list you can use immediately to send letters and postcards through PostGrid's print and mail API or dashboard. Unlike a data broker that only sells you a file, PostGrid builds the list and mails it in one platform.
How to send personalized direct mail to a big mailing list?
To send personalized direct mail to a large mailing list, start by organizing your recipient database into a clean file (like a CSV) with dedicated columns for personalized fields such as names, addresses, purchase history, or custom offers. Next, integrate your list with an automated print and mail platform or direct mail API, such as PostGrid, that supports variable data printing (VDP) to dynamically swap text, imagery, or QR codes for each individual recipient. Finally, create a standardized HTML or design template featuring variable tags (like {{first_name}} or {{custom_offer}}), preview a sample batch to verify data alignment, and launch the campaign for automated printing, sorting, and delivery.
Related Lists
Related General & Business Lists Mailing Lists
Building lists for adjacent audiences? These related mailing lists are built the same way.
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