Thanks to the poor economy and the continued boom of online media, traditional direct mail databases have slowed in growth. Today consumers access the Web to get their news, read specialized and lifestyle oriented articles, and make purchases. The time consumers spend online has drastically cut into the print circulation bases of magazines and newspapers and have affected catalogs as well as brick and mortar retail sales.
With more people spending more time online, it is only natural that a lot of information is being collected, and that consumers are indeed opting in to receive additional information and third-party marketing offers.
Online generated databases are becoming more robust with the information they capture, simply from the questions they ask consumers. And due the sheer volume of online activity these general and specialized databases continue to grow.
Over the years, direct marketers weighted the sourced value of a particular database. While direct mail sourced databases continue to be most coveted, it is time that today’s marketers give more consideration to online generated databases.
Many online retailers and online publishers ask and collect detailed demographic, behavioral and psychographic data with by asking consumers questions through registration pages that have become more detailed and involved. They also ask consumers if they would like to opt-in to receive third party offers. Through this process the data that becomes available enables direct marketers to select a wide variety of consumer and B-to-B data attributes that will enable them to target their best prospects.
Since both e-mail and postal addresses are captured through the registration process, direct marketers have the ability to execute single and multi channel campaigns.
What makes an online generated database valuable depends on the quality and amount of data captured. The more data attributes captured the better. For example if a consumer signs up for a B-to-B newsletter and only the name and address (both e-mail and postal) are captured then the only affinity to the prospect is through the editorial focus of the newsletter. However, if industry, sales volume, employee size, company name and telephone are captured, the availability of these data attributes make the database more attractive to a marketer because they have the ability to further target their prospect.
Online generated databases have been around for quite a while and their importance will continue to grow as direct mail sourced databases continue to diminish in size. It is time to give these unique and sophisticated universes a chance to perform.
Herb Torgersen is president of DirectInnovations Inc., Suwannee, GA ([email protected]).
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