Meet the Broker: Karen Waddell

Today we meet Karen Waddell, vice president of list services at eTarget Media.com Inc. Waddell brokers all kinds of lists, dealing mainly in e-mail files for financial services marketers.

She blurs the boundaries between list management and brokerage, a practice common among small companies, which are less likely to wall off the two functions like the big companies.

“I probably spent 25 to 30% of my time doing list brokerage,” said Waddell. “It’s mainly for customers (renting lists from her employer) who need files being managed by other companies.”

Waddell has spent a little over six years in the list business. She started off as a list management assistant at Opt In Inc., now known as Teramedia Inc.

“I left the industry briefly for eight months in 2005 to work in the mortgage industry, but I couldn’t stay away,” said Waddell. “I wanted to get back into this industry and I did when I started at eTarget Media in January 2006.”

Waddell is cautious with list owners and managers she doesn’t know. She prefers to deal only with well-known management firms whose clients have good reputations. She’s wary of any list if a data card is not accessible from a major list search engine directory.

“There are lots of great financial lists on the market, but finding them is all about who your contacts are,” she said.

Outside of work, Waddell spends most of her free time with her husband and their nine-year-old boy. And they have one cat.

“We recently became homeowners and that keeps us pretty busy,” she added. “Otherwise, I enjoy going out to the movies, shopping of course, visiting water parks and other family activities.”

How do you perceive other brokers when you’re wearing your list manager’s hat?

“There are a lot of wonderful brokers out there, but some need to make their initial requests for information more detailed,” said Waddell.

So it’s not surprising that list managers can get frustrated when brokers keep coming back with piecemeal questions, instead of organizing their inquiries in advance.

“A broker might call for a count, and then call back and ask for counts by state. And then call back to ask for counts by age and then income,” Waddell said. “Obviously, it’s better when a broker does their work upfront instead of calling back 10 to 15 times.”

On the flipside, she advises that managers be patient with brokers, because their client’s needs change and the target audience may change. “And sometimes a client needs lots of handholding,” she added.

What’s your advice to someone who’s new to list brokerage?

“It’s important to give good customer service and follow up. And don’t get discouraged, because a big part of the business is doing research for advertisers and sometimes repeating that process a few times before getting a sale,” Waddell said.

Read all the trades and e-mail blasts from companies to keep up with what’s going on the market, know the source of the list and don’t recommend just any file, she advised.

Currently, the hottest list categories in demand are online buyers, technology savvy people and e-mail lists in general, according to Waddell. Demand for specific types of lists is seasonal. For example, in June marketers want lists for back-to-school and vacation offers.

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