Today we meet Terry Hudock, the managing
owner of Sound Beach Marketing Partners, LLC in
Old Greenwich, CT.
Hudock has owned the firm since Dec. 2001. Before that, she performed list brokerage duties at Mokrynski and Assoc. (acquired by InfoUSA -- now InfoGroup – in 2006), AZ Marketing and the Kaplan Agency. "All these companies don't exist anymore, she says.
Earlier in her career, she worked for Donnelley Marketing back when it was still headquartered in Stamford, CT.
While still keeping her hand in brokerage, she also handles list management and sales consulting at Sound Beach.
"In 2001, after 9/11, I saw a lot of companies in the industry starting to lay people off and they always seemed to be salespeople," she says. "I was unemployed at the time and saw an opportunity to approach some of the list companies I had worked with and offer sales consulting."
Sound Beach handles lists such as BuyerShare, Hotline Direct and Personal Creations, as well as a number of compiled files.
During her career, she's seen the industry contract and change somewhat for the better.
"It's shrunk tremendously as you can see by the size of house files, not only by the number of orders being put through companies but the number of names," she says.
Nevertheless, some things may have changed for the better.
"I think that even though the business has shrunk to some degree in terms of volume, the opportunities in new data and ability to really know our customer have come a long way," she says.
Hudrock believes largely in staying traditional.
"We haven't embraced the e-mail side of the list business as yet," she says. "My main business is to help companies prospect for new customers and I am not convinced that e-mail list marketing is the way to [go]. I've heard a lot of people say it works but I haven't heard a mailer say it works."
Social media may have possibilities, however.
"I think social media probably has some opportunities for prospecting purposes but we have not gone down that road," she says.
As for the economy, she's taking a wait-and-see approach.
"I think consumer confidence is getting stronger. I'm hearing mailers react to that by talking about increasing their fall mailings," she says. "Whether they put a lot of that into new prospecting and new testing will remain to be seen."
On the personal side, Hudock is married to a judge in the State of Connecticut, and is an avid boating enthusiast.
