What Is A List Broker And Why Should I Use One?

In my years of experience working with PTC's Value Added Resellers (VARs) on their marketing activities, it always baffled me why none of them were using a list broker. I had countless conversations with VAR marketers to try to explain the value of it. I built it into every presentation I ever delivered on marketing planning and marketing tips and tricks. I even invited a really excellent list broker (Oceanos List Intelligence, http://www.oceanosinc.com) to co-present a VAR marketing training webcast on list acquisition and packaged an engagement with Oceanos as a "free consultation" for the VARs (would have been free anyway, but I was trying to build some excitement around it).

But PTC's VARs never took the advice. They did rent and purchase lists occasionally, but they would always purchase directly from individual list owners instead of engaging with a list broker. The only explanation I can come up with is that the VARs are, by nature, very reactive marketers. They don't have a big marketing staff, they don't put a lot of time into developing a plan. And when a list owner or ad rep would call with an offer they would just accept it (or not) without conducting much of a competitive analysis.

Your Audience Acquisition Strategy Should Be Marketing Priority #1
As I have said many times: there is nothing more important in marketing than understanding your target audience and coming up with a plan for how to get your message in front of them. My previous post was about how to define your target market. Now that you have defined your target market, you should consult with a list broker to put your target market plan into action.

4 Reasons You Should Use A List Broker:
#1: Compare Apples To Apples
Lists are an important investment and they should be rented or purchased only after careful consideration and comparison. The list broker will take your target market definition and then conduct a research project to develop an exhaustive "list universe report" of all the postal/email/telemarketing lists that match your definition.

The list universe report will include data cards for each list source. Data cards are essentially spec sheets that describe everything important about the list:

• How the list was sourced
• How many records are in it
• Does it include postal/email/telephone contact information for each record
• What key categories you can select or filter out to ensure you get the best match against your target audience (company size, industry, job title, etc.)
  
• Cost (base cost, minimum purchase amount, cost for each selection criteria applied, shipping & handling fees, etc.)
• Etc.

Once you get the list universe report, you can use it to make an "apples vs. apples" comparison of lists to ensure you are getting the best value. You can make your list selection a strategic decision instead of a reactive decision. And therefore you will spend less time chasing your tail on low-value activities and more time executing against a plan that can be measured, vetted, and defended.

#2: A List Universe Report Can Inform Marketing & Product Decisions
A list universe report is not just good for renting or buying marketing lists. It is a window into the world of your target market. Take your list universe report and start to look into the various list sources and you will find:

• News publications and websites you should be targeting for PR efforts and perhaps advertising
• Professional Associations you should be sponsoring, supporting, and joining
• Trade shows at which you should be speaking, attending, or exhibiting
• Conversations that are occurring that can help to guide your product roadmap and marketing messaging
• Competitors you should keep your eye on
• Potential integration and co-marketing partners
• Opinion leaders you should be following on Twitter

#3: A List Broker Can Do It Better Than You Can
In a job interview once I was asked what my first activity would be if I got the job. I said one of my first activities would be to engage a list broker. The guy said "do you know what SRDS is?" Yes, I know what Standard Rate and Data Service is. I know what data cards are. I know that I can go on the internet and find data cards and media kits myself. I once worked as a list broker, using tools like NextMark to create list recommendations for clients. My experience made me appreciate the services of a good list broker even more. That's because even with access to *subscription* tools (they are not free) like SRDS, NextMark, and Marketing Information Network (MIN) I learned that it is hard work and that experience matters.

Here's the thing: wouldn't you rather have someone do it who is more highly skilled than you? When I was a teenager I once changed the brakes on my car. I know I can do it. But I would rather not spend my day running back and forth to the auto parts store, crawling under my car, bashing my knuckles on the undercarriage, and swearing a blue streak. Instead, I prefer to get an experienced mechanic to do it in their garage with a hydraulic lift and all the right parts and tools. I will be more confident in my car's ability to stop afterwards, because I know that a skilled expert can do a brake job better than me. And I consider it well worth the cost. Which leads me to this...

#4: A List Broker's Services Are FREE!
Any VAR should immediately understand this business model, because List Brokers are Value Added Resellers of lists. List brokers essentially buy lists from list owners. They get a broker's discount on the price of the list from the list owner, just like a VAR gets a marginally discounted price when he buys the software from the ISV. And then the list broker resells the list to you at the list price (thereby making their money on the margin).

So you pay exactly the same amount you would pay if you purchased the list directly from the list owner, but with a ton of *added value* from the list broker:

• A list universe report that helps you conduct an apples-to-apples comparison of various list sources
• Aggregated billing (you pay one list broker instead of many list owners)
• Management of the logistics (managing the schedule, managing your suppression list of existing customers, managing the suppression of previous list buys, QC of your emails for email marketing, etc.)
• Aggregated open/click reporting from multiple list buys (for email marketing)
• Historical record of the transactions -- so over time you don't waste money buying the same list twice, or a list that performed badly for you in the past
  

The list broker does not charge you for that added value, it comes along for the ride. It is the biggest no-brainer in marketing!

Next topic: What are the 3 types of lists, and what are the advantages/disadvantages of each.

Free Seminar Planning Calendar, Timeline, & Checklist

Just finished conducting a webcast for the VARs about how to plan and execute a seminar and I figured I would post a "sanitized" version of the presentation and planning resources here:

1. Slideshare: "How to Plan & Execute a Seminar"
Link: http://www.slideshare.net/bobhebeisen/how-to-plan-execute-a-seminar
Agenda:

• Set Your Objectives & Strategies
• Planning The Date, Location, Topic & Time
• Marketing & Sales Coordination
• Marketing Execution: Registration Form & Invitation
• Seminar Presentation
• Day of the Event Logistics
• After the Event Follow-Through
• Resources
  

2. Planning template: Seminar Planning Calendar + Timeline + Checklist
Link: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwdynuOi-Ji-NTliMjgxMzAtNjQxYy00MjVkLWIyNjEtN2IzOTkxNzdkY2Iy&sort=name&layout=list&num=50
Tab 1: Calendar & Timeline
Tab 2: Day of Event Checklist

Writing Compelling Invitations for Seminars (& Webinars)

Here is an often cited direct marketing maxim:

Sell the offer, not the product.

This is an important distinction, especially in seminar marketing. The objective with your seminar invitation is NOT to close the sale (so in the invitation don't go on and on endlessly about your product). The objective of your invitation is much more short-sighted than that -- it is to get the recipient to register for (and then hopefully to attend) the seminar. Once you get your prospect seated in the room, then you can begin a more in-depth dialog to understand their needs, fully explain your product solution, and to ultimately close the sale.

Sell the offer, not the product -- so what does that mean? The offer, in this case, is the seminar event itself. Your seminar invitation needs to compel the recipient to register and attend. Your seminar invitation needs to...

1. Convey the value of attending -- What will they learn? What credible sources will they learn it from? Is it being held at a cool place?
   
2. Remove reasons for hesitation -- When and where is it? How do I get there? Is there parking? Will I have to skip a meal? Is it really for me?
   

A Template You Can Follow:


Seminar marketing is actually quite formulaic -- it's tried and true, from years of experimentation and testing by marketers.

See this link for the anatomy of a good seminar invitation (or click the graphic on the left). It is an annotated example of a real seminar invitation that drove registrations for a successful seminar we conducted a few years ago. It follows a tried and true outline you can adopt for your own seminar invitations. Here are some best practices identified:

• Create a compelling seminar title
• Create a compelling email subject line
• Include the logistics: date, time, location
• Include a "what you will learn" section -- that is the #1 reason why someone will register, and if they need to get permission from their boss this is what they will show them
  
• Include 3rd party speakers -- shows recipients that it is not just going to be a sales person talking at them
  
• Include a "who should attend" section -- overcomes any hesitation that this seminar might not be the right fit for the recipient of the invitation
  

Other General Tips:

• Keep the content short and punchy (the example I linked above is probably a little too long, the logistics are repeated and the bios are a little longer than they need to be)
  
• Use subheads & bullets to make it easy to read
  
• Keep the tone of the invitation and the subject matter of your seminar educational (nobody wants to show up to a glorified sales presentation)
  
• Use strong language for your call to action (register today)
  
• Stick to half-day seminars because it is probably too much of a commitment for most business people to get out of the office for a full day
  
• Include an exciting door prize if possible

To read more about selling the offer, check out this article: In B2B Direct Mail Lead Generation, Sell Your Offer, Not Your Offering.

Post your comments and let me know if I missed anything!

How often is too often when it comes to email frequency?

Recently my colleagues and I were asked by my boss for some "best practices" guidance on how frequently you can send email to your opt-in list without wearing them out. There is no simple answer available for this question, but here are some interesting statistics that were dug up:

>>>>>
From: Christensen, Lindsey (http://twitter.com/Lindsey3D)
Subject: RE: need a little bit of background research on email marketing

Here is some of my research, hope it helps!


From Marketing Sherpa: Open Rate for Email Blasts Continues 5-Year Decline

- This week’s chart shows the five-year decline in open rates for business-to-business email. On the one hand, we have some corroboration that the number of people reading the average newsletter or blast has declined. It’s almost impossible, however, to tease out the degree to which this is a result of true decline or a reduction in our ability to measure opens.

From Marketing Sherpa: Economy and Email – B2B Budgets

- Pressure to meet numbers has always been a problem for email. It forces marketers to send too many emails to too many list members - the 'batch and blast' mentality that has eroded the trust of consumers and businessmen over the last 10 years. This enthusiasm for email in the downturn is going to mean greater competition at the inbox, and that's not necessarily good for the long-term health of the medium.

Those organizations that use email successfully throughout the downturn will be those that practice email responsibly and efficiently - through creativity, personalization, segmentation, testing and pristine list management.

33.9% of B2B email newsletters are typically sent once a month. - Marketing Sherpa (November 2006)

11.9% of B2B email newsletters are typically sent once a week. - Marketing Sherpa (November 2006)

42.4% of B2B email newsletters are typically sent less than once per month. - Marketing Sherpa (November 2006)

5.8% of B2B email promotions are typically sent once a week. - Marketing Sherpa (November 2006)

21.2% of B2B email promotions are typically sent two to three times a month. - Marketing Sherpa (November 2006)

36.5% of B2B email promotions are typically sent once a month. - Marketing Sherpa (November 2006)

32.7% of B2B email promotions are typically sent Less than once a month. - Marketing Sherpa (November 2006)

The percentage of professionals who bother to unsubscribe from email they no longer want was 22%. Consider unsubscribes to be only one-quarter of the real picture!! (source: Return Path)

The most interesting option I came across that I hadn’t considered before was:

- Provide a frequency-reduction option: “I would like to receive no more than 1 per week” or “I would like no more than 2-3 per month”

Lindsey


>>>>>

From: Connall, Danielle (http://twitter.com/DaniConnall)
Subject: RE: need a little bit of background research on email marketing

I found this MarketingSherpa article, “Protect Your List : How to Fight 3 Internal Battles Over Email Strategy ” (click to view) which discusses common email marketer challenges around frequency, list -building strategies, and infrastructure. Here are the important points around the risks of increased email frequency:

· Subscribers are more sensitive to the frequency of email from one specific sender than to overall volume of email in inbox

· When MarketingSherpa asked email subscribers why they unsubscribed or stopped reading messages from a company:

o 58% said the emails weren’t relevant to them

o 44% said they received too much email from sender

o 31% said they simply receive too much email overall to pay attention to it all

Chart: 5 Reasons Recipients hit “Spam” or “Junk Mail”

· Benchmarks for the appropriate email frequency are difficult to come by, as it depends on the nature of the mailings and your audience. “I.e. CAD Tip of the Day” v. “CAD Tip of the Week” (there is a case for both) In addition, some people tolerate more than others do. So to handle this, check history of unsubscribe rates v. executed campaigns, and also there should be frequency testing done that is targeted to each segment (each segment will tolerate differently.)

We should be:

· Frequency testing

· Reputation monitoring (there are free tools available to check email IP addresses for trends)

Ideas for marketing:

· Consolidating efforts across teams whenever possible. Perhaps assign one designated neutral person responsible for overseeing the messages that are going out and recommending when it makes sense to consolidate.

· Continue highly targeted, relevant messaging to segments based on a variety of factors. More behavioral marketing – get them while they’re engaged. My guess is that the biggest challenge for marketers is bandwidth. Highly targeted, strategically executed email campaigns by nature require extra thought, planning and CRM rigor.

I hope this helps. There is a lot more info available out there, so let me know if you need more.

~Danielle~