Individuals who have made a recent purchase are considered hotline names. List owners charge an additional fee for hotline names.
Hotline names are of considerable interest to most marketers, since there is a greater chance that someone who has bought recently will buy again. Hotline names are also fresh. They’ve just been added to a list and have probably not been as heavily used as the other names on the list. And they’re generally a bit more deliverable than older names because their addresses are more current.
“Hotline” can have many different definitions. For example, in a list of annual directory buyers, hotline names might be those who have purchased in the last year, while in a weekly magazine subscriber list, hotline names could be those who have subscribed in the previous month. Most hotline list segments are defined by the time period they cover.
Hotline names should be carefully considered whenever they are available. When testing hotline names, be sure to key code and track their responses separately from non-hotline names from the same list.