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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.