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The Wired-Up guide to online list building
It is now relatively easy to build a list for marketing purposes. But if your marketing is to be effective list building is not simply a question of gathering data. You need to:
• ensure you reach appropriate prospects
• attain permission to market to them
• collect exactly the right information for your marketing purposes
Download the Wired-Up guide to online list-building techniques which covers:
- On-site Registration
- Banner ads and pop-ups
- Viral campaigns
- Competitions
- Give-aways
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Telephone list-building strategies
Wired-Up talks telephone list-building strategies with Lisa Armstrong, Sales Director at Corpdata, the list owner and telemarketing agency.
Wired-Up: After 10 years in the business Corpdata must have seen some changes
LA:
Probably the most fundamental change and the one that is most interesting to Wired-Up readers is the email address as a route to market. But because there is no clear regulation or legislation that covers their collection and use in terms of list building and list management self-governance rules. What this means is less ethical practitioners spam huge volumes to the detriment of those of us with an opt-in policy.
Another important change is the diversification of job titles. Compared to ten years ago there are so many more multi-tasking individuals within an organisation. Which means a job title alone is no longer an adequate description of what a person really does, so if you're building a list of 'marketing decision makers', don't expect them all to have 'marketing' in their job title.
Wired-Up: What else should Wired-Up readers consider when building a list?
LA: A common misconception is company size. A marketer may assume high-value prospects will only be found by tele-researching companies with 100 plus employees. But the value of prospects varies more by sector than it does by company size. It is better to make the distinction between white and blue-collar workers. For example someone seeking to promote IT networking services would be better off marketing to the IT department of an accountancy firm of 40 staff rather than a manufacturing firm with 250 employees as the computer to person ratio will be considerably higher.
Also, the size of the list should not take precedence over the quality of its content. Often we are given a brief to find 10,000 prospects that meet particular job, sector and regional criteria. But in the process of tele-researching the list to the agreed criteria we may only find 7,000 suitable names. Clients are often tempted at this stage to broaden the remit in order to get the numbers but we advise them not to. As long as you set the right criteria not only will your response rates be higher but you cost per acquisition will be kept down.
Wired-Up: How should you go about building a list?
LA: The first thing you should look at is your current client list. Profiling your most profitable customers will help you whittle down the type of organisations and individuals you should seek to target.
Second, if you're building a new list from an existing one don't cut corners. If you buy cheap data the chances are it will be out of date and so you will end up paying more per prospect because of the number of gone-aways.
Wired-Up: Specifically if you're using tele-research to build a list, what are the key points?
LA: Prepare a succinct questionnaire that states from the outset:
• Who you are
• Why you are phoning
• What the benefits will be to the person / the company
• How long it will really take
Also never assume you know the spelling of words, and use the phonetic alphabet to make sure you get them right. Geoff Bates will not be pleased if he receives a correspondence addressed to Jeff Bates.
And if you make a promise in terms of deliverables and contacting them again, be sure you can keep it.
Wired-Up: How long can you spend interviewing people over the phone?
LA: More often than not you need to ensure that you capture all the salient data in the shortest time possible. However there are occasions when prospects are quite keen to chat for some time.
An example of this was when Corpdata undertook some tele-research for the VNU IT job site newmonday.com. The brief was to call employed IT professionals to get their CV over the phone. It would then be entered on the newmonday.com database accessible by prospective employers. Needless to say this was a sensitive one, but those contacted obviously understood the benefits of 'being selected' and were more than happy to take part in the 20-minute interview. Of course there were several evening and lunchtime calls to homes and mobiles to do this, but at the end of the project Corpdata had amassed 30,000 CVs for the site.
Wired-Up: What benefits does tele-research have over other list-building techniques?
LA: Tele-research is interactive in real time and so, even though you're working to a script, you may be able to glean additional information there and then. For example, if the number you're calling is wrong you may be able to ascertain the right one in the same call. No other list-building medium is capable of this.
Also it can be used to by-pass other media that the prospect in question has opted out from. Corpdata recently undertook such a project for a fax broadcaster targeting the IT sector. Prior to Corpdata's involvement the client's newsletter was only being faxed to prospects not registered with the FPS (Fax Preference Service). Corpdata rang the registered prospects to gain permission to fax the newsletter to them and in so doing pulled back 50% of those contacted. Not simply providing the client with new prospects but exclusive ones its rivals could not fax unless they undertook a similar exercise.
Wired-Up: Finally, once the list is built how to do you go about keeping it clean?
LA: Obviously list Nirvana results in zero gone-aways, but it is a hard one to achieve. To try and get there Corpdata offers a '2 for 1' money-back guarantee for gone-aways not simply to ensure the quality to our clients but to help us keep our lists clean for future reference.
In addition REaD group has just set up a business suppression file into which all list owners pool their gone-aways. If a Wired-Up reader is running his or her own B2B campaign they can compare their list with the REaD suppression file for accuracy, saving money and face when they come to roll out their marketing campaign.
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Royal Mail Christmas Alerts Case Study
SITUATION
Each Cristmas Royal Mail handles millions of cards, letters and parcels for delivery throughout the UK and overseas. While new communications methods like email and text messaging are finding their place in the communications mix, the increase in home shopping via the internet and mail order, means packet volumes are growing positively. This is especially so at a time like Christmas.
To ensure customers are not disappointed when sending their Christmas mail, Royal Mail publish a set of suggested last posting dates to give extra time for the mail to be delivered on time. In the past these dates have been published using different techniques, from posters in Post Offices, to PR and internet.
However, the message does not always get through and inevitably some customers are disappointed because they were not aware of the last posting dates.
OBJECTIVES
The primary objective of the campaign was to inform interested people on an on-going basis of all the last posting dates.
Rather than go to a cold list Royal Mail decided to build its own from its web site visitors who were coming to www.royalmail.com to look up the postal dates.
A secondary objective was to build a list of mail users who - on giving their permission - would also receive reminders of posting dates for other key events throughout the year (eg. Valentine's and Mother's Day etc).
SOLUTION
Working with their web design agency Rufus Leonard, Frontwire was asked by Royal Mail to set up an electronic Christmas post reminder service which ran from 6 November to 20 December.
Subscribers were able to register their details and request reminders by email or by SMS. Then, in the run up to Christmas, subscribers were sent reminders through their preferred medium of the last posting dates to make sure they posted in time for Christmas.
RESULTS
In total 10,168 mail users signed up for the service with 7,222 requesting reminders by email and the remaining 2,946 preferring to be reminded by SMS.
Initially the service was promoted using a rolling banner on the Royal Mail website. Using this method, sign-up rates averaged around 200 per day. On November 22, just over two weeks into the campaign promotion a pop-up was added to the page with the intention of increasing subscriptions this saw daily sign-up rates more than treble.
Given that the reminders in the run-up to Christmas were sent almost daily, this is not a typical digital marketing campaign. Also the subject line of the email reminders imparted the vital knowledge of how many days remained to get everything posted meaning opening the email was not necessary. Yet despite these factors the open rates of the HTML reminder emails was 58%.
FUTURE PLANS
Only 19% of subscribers opted out of further reminders from Royal Mail. Already this list has been used successfully to promote the mailing dates for Valentines Day and the corresponding sales promotion where the main prize was a pair of Jaguar XK8 cars.
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More Online Games played in UK
NetValue's latest research suggests the British and Spanish play more games online than the rest of Europe. According to the study in March 2002 online games sites attracted over 3.5 million unique visitors from the UK - representing over 22 per cent of the UK's online population.
Frontwire announces E-list seminar for digital marketers
Frontwire, publishers of Wired-Up, today announced the second in its series of briefings for e-marketers. Entitled "E-lists: instant, low-cost access to your customers", the programme features Matthew Kelleher, General Manager of Claritas Interactive, Justin Anderson, Managing Director of Frontwire Jason Meads, Frontwire's COO.
The briefing takes place on the morning of Tuesday May 28 at RIBA.
Email Advertising grows in the US
Email is proving to be one of the most effective customer-retention tools available to marketers, according to the Ecommerce Industry Report 2001-2002
from the US Direct Marketing Association and the Association of Interactive Marketing. Sixty-seven percent of respondents reported that promotion via email increased sales, while 63% rated it the most effective medium for customer retention.
CBI and KPMG report growing reliance on digital business
Faced with the pressures of increased competition companies are increasingly turning to e-business technology to help achieve efficiency improvements. 'Reality Bites', a new report by the CBI and KPMG Consulting suggests that 87 per cent of UK companies are now using e-business technologies to improve efficiency.
Frontwire releases Digital Marketing Survey 2002
Frontwire's Digital Marketing Survey 2002 will be released on June 11. Early findings show encouraging growth in the volume and variety of use of digital marketing for the future. But there are alarm bells - with significant numbers of respondents failing to effectively track their campaigns.
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About Wired-Up
Wired-Up! is published by Frontwire Ltd and edited by Orchid PR
Copyright 2002 Frontwire, All rights reserved. ISSN1477-5834
About Frontwire
Frontwire helps organisations acquire and retain customers in more cost effective ways using digital marketing solutions (with email, SMS and streaming video). Frontwire's core services include: Strategy & Planning, List Building and Rental, Data Management, Design & Editorial, Message Dispatch & Tracking, Response Management, Research & Analysis.
To find out more about our solutions, clients and case studies please visit our web site www.frontwire.com or call Jason Meads on 020 7368 9700.
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