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Using Media Lists Effectively to
Market & Grow Your Business
By Angelo Biasi, General Manager of
SMART Marketing Solutions, LLC
([email protected], 239.963.9396)
Data All Around Us
I recently had the great fortune to tour the data warehouse facilities of InfoGroup
(formerly InfoUSA) in Omaha, Nebraska. InfoGroup is one of the largest list
management and marketing services companies in the world. Their competition includes
other large global companies such as Experion, Equifax, Acxiom, and Dunn and
Bradstreet, to name a few. Being a self-proclaimed marketing “nerd”, I couldn’t help but
get excited walking the halls and learning where the information comes from, how it’s
organized and consolidated, entered and scrubbed for accuracy, and, lastly, how it’s
sold to marketers of all sizes looking to grow their business and/or communicate with
customers. I have to admit, having used several list managers, brokers and compilers to
support various integrated marketing efforts for myself and clients throughout my
marketing career, I now have a new found respect for this data and its value-impact on
quality marketing campaigns.
I was surprised to learn that over two billion records on 14 million businesses and 210
million consumers come from a hundreds of varied sources including—you guessed it—
the yellow and white pages. Believe it or not, the old-fashioned yellow and white pages
still produce credible contact information used as a starting point for most marketing data
and solutions companies. The data is aggregated and entered into a large secure
database via an electronic and manual process (yes, I said manual process—I
witnessed several associates inputting data into the database one character at a time
from various sources further illustrating how important each record is) with minimal
tolerance for error. Regarding consumer data, various demographic selects such as
household income, male/female, address, phone, email and other more general
information are married to lifestyle and other data based on purchases and information
gathered from credible sources such as public records, tax filings, credit sources, etc.
Business data such as number of employees, key personnel, and other info is carefully
inputted using various sources as well. Telemarketers then follow up to verify and further
support accuracy. You may have received a call from one of their associates on
occasion. As you may know, InfoGroup provides all of the business data used by Google
and other large internet service providers so having verified, current contact information
in their system makes good business sense as it allows customers the ability to find you.
I hope you didn’t think their call was intrusive in any way…. All of the data is organized
into clusters and then presented to marketers for various campaigns and marketing
initiatives. Campaigns may include a number of objectives including customer
acquisition or appends. Appending data includes taking an existing customer database
and adding records onto those customer records for improved marketing value. As data
is always changing; people move, businesses start and end, and key employees change
jobs, for example, there is always a need for the most up-to-date, current and freshest
information. Therefore, a list used just six months ago could have a great percentage of
unusable records.
Marketing data and solutions companies take great pride in the quantity and quality of
their lists. What that means to you, the small-large sized business marketer is that you
have the opportunity to target, aggregate and reach very specific customer segments to
market to and/or acquire new customers at any time and by using various forms of
media (i.e. direct mail, email, phone, mobile phone, etc.). Without credible lists of your
target customers you would not have many ways to reach them. More importantly having
as much information on your existing customers is also highly valuable.
Implementing Media Research
Once you have decided that you want to market to a specific customer audience you first
need to find out how your target customers are available and accessible. For example, if
I’m a ski resort, I may want to reach head-of-household consumers within a 60 mile
(driving) radius of my resort, who have a household income of $60K+, have been selfselected as skiers or snowboarders and have at least one child over age 11. Once I’ve
identified how this audience is available and how many are accessible via the various
contact information quantities received I can make intelligent decisions on what media I
will want to reach out to them with. It could include one or multiple tactics (i.e. email +
direct mail + phone + mobile).
It’s wise to document your detailed target customer profile in a media brief, or a
document that specifies your target market selects. Keep in mind the more granular you
are with your data, the higher chance you have for precise targeting and increased
response. However, increased granularity also adversely affects available quantities. In
other words the more precise you are with who you want to reach the fewer records
there you will have to choose from yet the chance of response will be greater.
Here are some of the more popular selects to include in your media brief (a document
that specifies your audience in great detail):
- Geography
- Demographic Profile (sex, age, education level, married/not married, household
income)
- Home ownership/mortgage information
- Lifestyle and purchase behavior
For B2B lists you may consider:
- Industry (or SIC code)
- Employee size or Sales
- Title/Function of decision maker
- Years doing business
I like to include psychographic information, or how customers make decisions, in my
media briefs, just in case there is any lifestyle data that matches up with available
records. It’s also important to include strategy and specific guidelines such as reports
you require, currency of names, etc. so there is little room for error in ordering a
quality list and marketing to those prospect customers. Direct mail lists usually run
about $75 - $150 Cost per Thousand (CPM) whereas email lists can be anywhere
from $250 - $550 CPM. Usage of lists is usually one-time only so it’s important that
you get it right. In the case of most email lists, the marketer or agency supplies the
list manager with the copy and creative and they execute the transmission. This
maintains the list’s integrity for future sales and usage.
Getting Started
Executing your own media research is not easy and time consuming. Following are a
few suggestions on how to get started:
1. Develop a media brief: write down your target selects, strategy, guideless for
success and interested media (i.e. email, direct mail, telephone or some
combination of a few or all of these). Be granular with your selects as it’s always
easier to open them up if you need more records (i.e. going from a 60 to a 120
mile geographic radius) vs. having to minimize a large quantity of names from a
wide net of prospect customers.
2. Shop various list managers, brokers and compilers of quality data:
InfoGroup, Experion, Acxiom, Equifax and several others provide similar services
and pricing to best meet your needs. As a matter of fact, InfoGroup has an easyto-use website (infousa.com) that allows you to enter in selects manually and, in
real-time, see what records meet your criteria for marketing. This gives a great
idea on how available and accessible your audience is and what form of media
you may want to test. You may decide to work with individual list managers,
brokers and compilers in which case sending them a “list bid” or request for
quantities that meet your selects based on your media brief, is in order.
3. Test, Test, Test Your LIsts!: If there are 60,000 names within your target
prospect audience, for example, it’s recommended that you test some quantity of
that list for success. If and when you lock into a “marketing groove” with your
media, message and audience, and achieve your desired response, it is quite
exciting and then warranted to replicate your efforts to larger quantities.
4. Carefully choose your tactic(s) in advance: It’s true that multi-touch marketing
to a single source lifts response. Therefore a customer that receives an email
and direct mail offer from you, for example, has a greater chance of responding
than one that just gets email or direct mail. Some marketing tactics are less
expensive than others yet have lower response rates. Ask your list manager
representative what you might expect from a list if you decide to go with them. As
most budgets are finite, choose your marketing weapon(s) wisely and be sure
your message is on target as well!
5. Understand and track media success: Understand what success will be in
advance of developing your media brief and ultimately, your marketing campaign.
Don’t expect to send out 3,000 direct mail pieces and the phone to ring instantly.
There are no guarantees in marketing, however, you can minimize your risk if
you are realistic in your expectations and forthright in your efforts.
Choosing the right lists can yield significant results if executed properly. By using
credible sources and intelligent execution you will minimize your marketing risk and
optimize your chances for response.
About the Author
Angelo Biasi is General Manager of SMART Marketing Solutions, LLC, a leading fullservice integrated marketing company in Naples, FL since 2001. He has helped create
and execute marketing plans and integrated marketing solutions for companies such as
Playtex, Bic, Rogaine, Tauck, and over 35 colleges and universities, to name a few.
Angelo has an MBA in Marketing from the University of Connecticut and has taught
Marketing at New York University for over five years. For more information or to learn
more, email him at [email protected], visit www.smartmarketingllc.com or
call 239.963.9396.