Meet the Broker: Scott Robbins
Today we meet Scott Robbins, president of Midwest Direct Marketing Inc. Robbins began his 25-year career working in list management at Chilcutt Direct Marketing. He helped start a list management and brokerage division for Direct Marketing Resources in Kansas City, MO, before he co-founded Midwest Direct Marketing in 1996.
He prefers spending the majority of his time working on the broker side. “List management is very standardized, while brokerage is ever changing and challenging,” he says. “Brokerage is never the same.”
Robbins brokers data for nonprofit organizations and companies involved with agriculture, horses and other outdoors-related markets. He works with the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Equine Discount USA, Valley Vet Supply and Morris Communications Co., among other clients.
The way brokers’ roles have broadened from primarily processing list orders to having more consultative responsibilities intrigues Robbins. “The industry has been migrating in that direction, but not everyone is there yet.”
He believes that the growth in e-mail and search engine marketing is fueling expansion in the list business. “I’m not a statistician, but I do believe the list business is growing. It may be two- and three-person companies, but it’s growing,” he adds.
Recent consolidation of larger firms is giving brokers at smaller companies with expertise in specific market sectors a competitive advantage in his opinion. “I love industry consolidation,” he says.
Robbins is married and has an adult son and daughter. His personal passions include fishing, boating and attending Kansas City Chiefs games. He lives on a working ranch, with horses, six dogs, nine cats and one potbelly pig.
What are the pros and cons of relying on private databases versus list rentals?
Private partnership databases reduce costs for mailers because there are no “run charges,” but few specialty lists are available through private databases, according to Robbins. The downsides for brokers are smaller commissions, besides having a harder time getting approvals for access to data, he says.
It’s fine for mailers in broader markets such as credit card companies to use such databases, but mailers in more specialized markets need more specific lists, which typically aren’t available through private databases. Robbins says.
Owners of specialized lists know they can make more money in the list rental market, than by making data available through private databases, he adds.
Is there much difference between brokering lists for commercial mailers and nonprofit organizations?
“Nonprofits are a pleasure to work with as opposed to working with mailers in specialty markets,” says Robbins. There’s a greater variety and supply of lists that will work for nonprofits, compared to commercial mailers who require very specific types of lists to succeed.
Nonprofits can select women from high-end catalogs or subscribers from publications with high-income demographics for prospecting, while a mailer in the equestrian market for example is limited to finding lists that identify buyers of equestrian products, Robbins says.
A file that generates only a few responses but very large contributions illustrates how nonprofits can successfully “cherry pick” donors from more general files.
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