Mailing List Hacks?

October 17, 2006 1:37 PM

Is there an simple/free way to list all of the residential mailing address surrounding a specific address or within a specific postal code area? (ie. What are all of the residential mailing addresses within a 1 mile radius of 123 Main St., Anytown USA?). I know that I can always purchase a mailing list, etc. but I was hoping someone knew of a clever way to find this information online. I do not need the residents name, just the mailing address. Any suggestions?
posted by randex8 to computers & internet (7 comments total)

I'm sure this is far short of what you really want, but I know you can look up an address on Zillow. Then you can start clicking on adjacent houses to not only lookup their value, but also their street address.
posted by jaimev at 2:31 PM on October 17, 2006

Using the Google Maps API and some recursive cleverness, this is probably something you could stick-and-gum together in no more than a couple hours of programming.

It is also the kind of thing a "direct marketer" (read: spammer) would simply love to have, and as such I suspect the prospects of finding a free version are probably pretty low.

On the other hand, there are lots of expensive enterprise software packages built for political consultants and direct marketers that are built to do exactly this sort of thing.
posted by ChasFile at 2:34 PM on October 17, 2006

Are you actually planning to mail things to them?
posted by smackfu at 3:09 PM on October 17, 2006

Probably what you want is the Criss Cross Directory, but it's not free. (I couldn't find a price online -- maybe it depends on which market you want it for.) My office uses them for fact-checking news articles and maps. We consider the Criss Cross street names to be more accurate than those found in the major street atlases.
posted by Airhen at 3:23 PM on October 17, 2006

If you look someone up on Infospace.com under White Pages, you'll then get an option labeled "Find Neighbors" which will list information for other people on that street. (Still not exactly what you're looking for, but it's close.)
posted by llamateur at 9:26 PM on October 17, 2006

smackfu: I am working with a pizza startup in Ohio. We would like to send a "hello - we are your new neighbor" letter (w/ coupons, etc.) to the 500 residences nearest our location.

Airhen: That Criss Cross Directory directory really looks interesting - unfortunately they don't currently cover the area we are interested in. If they expand into our area in the future, we will definitely look into this option.

llamateur mentioning the "find neighbors" function on infospace got me headed in a promising direction. Using the reverse address lookup function on whitepages.com, it looks like you can leave the address field blank and it will give you all of the residents on a given street. All we have to do is input all of the streets we want included and we should be in great shape.

Thanks for the suggestions, etc.!
posted by randex8 at 10:37 PM on October 17, 2006

If you're trying to save money, and it sounds like you are, make sure you read up on direct mail.

Also, around here the local restaurants flyer the apartment complexes the old fashioned way, by putting them under each door. Only costs your time.
posted by smackfu at 11:09 PM on October 17, 2006