Companies looking to grow their business may want to find new customers using
direct mail and email marketing, but may be unsure about
obtaining the lists they need to reach him. Let's take a look at some of
the primary things you need to know in acquiring a marketing database.
You are almost ready to execute your marketing campaign for your new product
or service, which is targeted at a new market for your business. As a final
step, you need a database of contacts who will be interested in your product.
From the many contact databases available, how do you pick the right ones?
Database selection can have a huge effect on the performance of your marketing
campaign, and all databases are not created equal. Most important, you should
select a database that matches your communication campaign. While the focus
of our discussion here is targeted primarily for email communications
targeted to B-to-B prospects, you may find the information useful in developing
your B-to-C communications to contacts also.
Contact database selection is driven by how you develop and execute your
marketing campaign. These questions will help define the type of contact
database you need to support your campaign.
- How many times will I communicate with these people in this campaign?
For multiple communications, calculate the price of list rental vs. purchase based on the number of communications.
- Will I combine communication channels - email, direct mail, and telephone?
For multiple communications, make sure that you get access to the information
needed for all three communication channels - postal mail, telephone and
email, so you can execute contacts through every channel.
- Will I customize the communications statically, based on the company and contact selection criteria?
For static customization of B-to-B communications to each contact, make
sure you get access to all the company and contact data needed for static
customization - type of business, revenue, employees, contact title and
function. For customization to B-to-C contacts, you need age, gender
and zip code.
- Will I customize the communications dynamically, based on each contact's individual response pattern?
For dynamic customization - make sure you have access to the tracking
data needed for dynamic customization - bounces, unsubscribes, opens, click-throughs
and conversions.
- Do I want to measure the results and improve the response through
the entire communication process?
Same as above. You can't measure it if you don't get the data.
Finally, and most important:
- Do I want to build a long-term relationship with these people?
If you don't care about a long-term relationship, then one-time rental
may best fit your needs. To build long-term relationships you need long-term
communication plans and ownership of your contact data.
Based on your answers to the questions above, three evaluation criteria can
help you in selecting the contact database that will contribute considerably
to your success:
- Focus
- Quality
- Price - Rent vs. Own
Focus
If you are targeting senior executives at high-growth, privately held businesses,
then a database of public companies, no matter how complete, simply won't
include many of these companies, as they are likely too small and certainly
not public. If you are targeting Directors of IT at public biotech companies,
check that your database provider includes the information for you to make
this precise selection.
Quality
We routinely evaluate quality in terms of what is provided. For an outbound
email campaign, how many bounces did the last list generate? How many emails
are to free providers like Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL, vs. business URLs? However,
quality can include information that is not available. For an integrated
communication
campaign, does the database include direct telephone and local mailing address,
as well as email? Is this additional information included in the price? Are
measures of quality and performance (bounces, unsubscribes, opens) included
in the price?
Price
While price is always an important consideration, it is the last consideration.
If the database has the wrong focus or does not provide quality measures,
then it is too expensive at any price. Once the database meets the initial
criteria, then price considerations are appropriate. Rent or own? Rental
is definitely cheaper for a one-time use where performance and integration
are not factors. But, for long-term communication plans with multiple connections
by email, telephone, and direct mail, ownership has some significant benefits.
In future articles we will discuss more details about creating a marketing
campaign and how to evaluate its success. In the meantime, if you would like
to discuss how you can leverage your accounting and CRM applications in your
own marketing activities, feel free to contact
Laura Kasman at lkasman@kastechco.com or 215-702-8155
. We'd be happy to assist
you.
