Re-examine Your Call-Center Practices, Part 2
Presented With a Dilemma …
If you had the opportunity to mail a catalog or some other mailer “blindly,” assuming the caller wanted some sort of information you could provide he or she with, thereby creating the opportunity for a sale, would you?
If you answered yes to the above question, there are many data vendors who can take this ANI record and reverse append an address to a phone number, thus giving you the snail mail contact info of the caller. Match rates for reverse append are between 40 percent and 60 percent (although I’ve had vendors quote me in the 30 percent range). Anyone calling from a cell phone likely won’t match, for obvious reasons.
If you choose to try this approach, test it first. As you add this to your circulation plans, assume response or revenue per book will fall somewhere between a cold list rental and a catalog request.
And as you test, make sure to test your timing. Do you want these callers to receive their catalogs right away or have some time pass so it seems more coincidental? Make a gut-check decision. This program may not fit everyone. (Even though I don’t personally believe it’s unethical, as long as it’s not personalized in a way that references their calls.)
If you deem the initial test a success, set aside some catalogs and try mailing within a few days. Another option is to add the names to your catalog request fulfillment program.
Jim Gilbert is president of Gilbert Direct Marketing Inc., a full-service catalog and direct marketing agency. His LinkedIn profile can be viewed at www.linkedin.com/in/jimwgilbert or you can e-mail him at jimdirect@aol.com.
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Jim Gilbert has had a storied career in direct and digital marketing resulting in a burning desire to tell stories that educate, inform, and inspire marketers to new heights of success.
After years of marketing consulting, Jim decided it was time to “put his money where his mouth was" and build his own e-commerce company, Premo Natural Products, with its flagship product, Premo Guard Bed Bug & Mite Sprays. Premo in its second year is poised to eclipse 100 percent growth.
Jim has been writing for Target Marketing Group since 2006, first on the pages of Catalog Success Magazine, then as the first blogger for its online division. Jim continues to write for Total Retail.
Along the way, Jim has led the Florida Direct Marketing Association as their Marketing Chair and then three-term President, been an Adjunct Professor of Direct and Digital marketing for Miami International University, and created a lecture series, “The 9 Immutable Laws of Social Media Marketing,” which he has presented across the country at conferences and universities.
