B-to-B Prospecting: Dig Deeper for Better Names
The Value of Net/Net
Some mailers arrange net/net agreements with a variety of lists, especially from trade associations and magazine titles that cater to the same niche. These mailers go into their merges with the intention of identifying and mailing multibuyer prospects. The resulting lists may be small, but the multibuyer hit can help identify the likelihood of purchase.
Negotiating and managing multiple list agreements is easier said than done. “The simple solution is to use the Direct Media Data Warehouse or the MeritDirect database,” says Lowenthal, “though neither can give complete coverage of the available market.”
Mike Tuohy, vice president of Direct Media, explains the basic concept behind the list firm’s data warehouse. “Figure out all of your list agreements, your net/net arrangements, list sizes and merge work. All that’s done for you. Now you start.”
The marketer then can identify across a variety of lists by contact title, site penetration, SIC code and sales volume — potentially dozens of significant variables. “You can get up to your elbows with it,” Tuohy cautions.
Improving Results
List modeling techniques continue to improve. “You’re able to leverage the processing of a very sophisticated model,” says Pickering of MeritDirect. “It turns out that very innocuous pieces of information, when used together, can be very powerful.”
There are two added benefits of these models. You don’t have to let other mailers rent your names, and you don’t have to share your data — factors that concern some catalogers regarding Abacus (considered by many marketers as completing the trinity of major players in B-to-B catalog cooperative databases). So why would any cataloger participate in a so-called “black box” co-op? Lowenthal says it straight: “Abacus is working.”
For one B-to-B cataloger’s fall season, several Abacus segments consistently delivered results in the upper 10 percent of all its rented lists in terms of both response and average order value. These results aren’t unusual, says Abacus’ Vice President of Business-to-Business Stacey Hawes. “Transactional data for B-to-B works.”
A columnist for Retail Online Integration, George founded HAGUEdirect, a marketing agency. Previously he was a member of the Shawnee Mission, Kan.-based consulting and creative agency J. Schmid & Assoc. He has more than 10 years of experience in circulation, advertising, consulting and financial strategy in the catalog/retail industry. George's expertise includes circulation strategy, mailing execution, response analysis and financial planning. Before joining J. Schmid, George worked as catalog marketing director at Dynamic Resource Group, where he was responsible for marketing and merchandising for the Annie's Attic Needlecraft catalog, the Clotilde Sewing Notions catalog, the House of White Birches Quilter's catalog and three book clubs. George also worked on corporate acquisitions.
