Today we meet Warren Goff, CEO at Listdata in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, a company he's owned and operated for the past 12 years.
Listdata primarily brokers and manages files in the automotive, educational and healthcare markets. A 20-year industry veteran overall, Goff says today's challenges include less readily available response data and more fierce competition.
"There seem to be fewer real response names available and what we're finding is that that mailers who need really responsive lists to complete their campaigns have had to go into the cooperative databases like Abacus and IBehavior to supplement their direct mail drops," says Goff.
This is true, he notes, despite the emergence of the Internet as a marketing medium.
"Someone who buys [online] is someone sitting at home on their computer and stumbles upon or searching for a specific product and they buy that product online. That same person may not respond to a direct mail piece," he says.
Of course, Listdata does deal in online lists.
"We've taken some of our clients and worked with other agencies to put together online campaigns for them to supplement their direct mail. If they're mailing a couple of hundred thousand pieces per month we can supplement that with a couple of thousand online orders per month," he says. "That's really the only other thing we can do."
One possible explanation for this move online may be that telemarketing has dried up.
"Previously, we were providing a lot of data for telemarketing campaigns but obviously when the [National] Do Not Call list and the Telemarketing Sales Rule came in telemarketing was hurt badly and so there's very, very little telemarketing brokerage going on right now," says Goff.
Overall, the growth of automaton in the past 20 years has changed the nature of the list business, Goff asserts.
"I think the biggest challenge just looking at this is the competition," he says.
"When I first started, it was mainframes and tape drives and large computer systems—there was a large capital investment to get into the list business," he says. "You needed expensive equipment, specialized knowledge and the average Joe couldn't just pick up a cell phone and buy a laptop for $300 bucks and be in the list business.
"It used to be when I started in South Florida there were maybe five list companies," he continues. "Today there are five in every office building and there are probably 1,000 list companies within a 20-mile radius of my office."
"It's affected us a lot," he says. "A lot of our mailers have cut back on their direct mail and are only mailing to the most responsive lists; some mailers have just stopped mailing completely."
He estimates Listdata's revenue is down more than 50% compared to last year.
And even when things get better, staying even will be more challenging given the heartened competition, he warns.
Contrary to the consolidation that's been taking place in the list business for the past several years, Goff sees a proliferation of smaller outfits coming on.
"For every large merger, there are probably 10 guys who leave that company and start their own company," he says.
In his spare time, Goff likes to race cars in Florida through the Sports CaAmerica.
