Meet the Broker: Ellen Blumenkrantz

Today we meet Ellen Blumenkrantz, vice president of list brokerage, at Specialists Marketing Services Inc. She’s one of half a dozen brokers who moved over to Specialists a few months ago when it acquired NRL Direct.

Prior to learning the list trade, Blumenkrantz worked for advertising agencies. For the last 20 years she has been brokering lists for catalog marketers. She spent 10 years honing her brokerage skills at Jami Marketing before joining NRL Direct.

Blumenkrantz presently handles list brokerage for such catalog titles as Doctors Foster & Smith, Donna Salyers’ Fabulous-Furs, Comfort Corner, Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland and Big Dog Sportswear. She also works with one large non-catalog client Life Line Screening of America.

“I’m glad I have my established client relationships and that I don’t have to find new clients to keep me busy,” says Blumenkrantz.

She believes list brokerage work has became more competitive and tougher for newcomers entering the business to find clients, as the catalog market has matured.

Compared to five or 10 years ago, there are far fewer catalog start-ups and the growth of cooperative databases has decreased the volume of individual list rental transactions and commissions, she says.

“People who got into this business 20 years ago really could pick up new business from start-up catalogs. Now most new catalogs are new ventures started by existing companies, which already have relationships with brokers,” she adds.

Otherwise, most new start-up activity in direct marketing now involves online ventures, which she says, means brokers will have to adapt to new circumstances, just as they did when cooperative databases started chipping away at individual list rental volume.

“I think the list business will continue to evolve,” says Blumenkrantz. “It has survived the big cooperative databases, which have taken a tremendous share of list rentals.”

When she’s not working, Blumenkrantz enjoys nature, especially hiking and kayaking. She belongs to two hiking clubs and is a member of several environmental groups.

“I really live for the time I spend outdoors, but I like the city too, the symphony, ballet and stuff like that,” she says.

How has the Internet created new opportunities for brokers?

“A lot of Internet traffic is being generated by catalog mailings,” Blumenkrantz says.

This has created a new market for Internet “match-back” lists that identify customers who responded to catalog mailings by ordering products at Web sites. Online orders have all but replaced mail-in order forms and reduced phone orders.

More and more companies have begun using “match-back” lists in the last two to three years and that’s generating more business for brokers. She says a catalog that receives 40% of its orders online may actually being generating 80% of those same orders from catalog mailings.

“Companies need to do match-backs to find out which lists got customers to go online and make a purchase,” Blumenkrantz says.

Has the quality of list data changed in recent years?

“Overall, I think the quality of data has improved,” says Blumenkrantz. “It’s because it has become more expensive to mail and companies are taking better care of their house files.”

Customer orders and source coding for lists are being entered into databases more quickly and files are being updated more frequently, including change of address information, according to Blumenkrantz

List selectivity has increased too as the trend has been for companies to release more precise data from house files, and more lists offer carrier route coding to qualify for postage discounts.

“There’s definitely better list hygiene and there ought to be because people are paying for it.”

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