Case Study: A Leading Direct Mail Marketer achieves multi‑million‑dollar savings and a 24% campaign performance lift with Merkle's List Sourcing Optimizer

Leading Direct Mail Marketer - Customer Case Study

A Leading Direct Mail Marketer engaged Merkle to optimize its primary direct-mail acquisition channel, which relied on a fragmented data universe of more than 1,000 compiled, response, co‑op and house‑file lists. The client lacked internal tools to assess overlap and true list performance and targeted multi‑million‑dollar savings over 12 months; Merkle deployed its Content Lab and the List Sourcing Optimizer (LSO) to develop a data‑sourcing and optimization strategy.

Merkle performed detailed list‑level analysis, applied advanced analytics and business rules to remove duplication, created unbiased response attribution scorecards, and shifted volume toward the client’s lower‑cost house file. Using Merkle’s LSO, the program reduced list usage without shrinking the marketable universe, achieved 40% of the 12‑month savings goal within four months, and put the client on track for multi‑million‑dollar savings and a projected 24% improvement in campaign performance.