The changing list business…
Wow! 2008 and 2009 were interesting years. What will we say about 2010 and what changes will we experience? For many the past year has been a challenge in different ways. Some business leaders have been forced to make difficult decisions, others are enjoying success. Friends have lost their jobs while others are finding new opportunities. Family members are wondering how they will retire, others are making the most of new found freedom. Change is all around us. Many don’t like change; but it is driving new experiences and new opportunities.
How is change impacting the list business?
Think back a decade or more and consider how different the list business was. Historically you could purchase a list of yacht or aircraft owners to target the affluent. Then came PIPEDA and the sources of those highly targeted lists were no longer available. The Do Not Call List has impacted our business by reducing the quantity of consumer phone numbers available for telemarketing thereby changing how some companies market. The Canadian Electronic Communications Bill C-27 is indicating more changes are around the corner, possibly similar to the CAN SPAM Act in the US. Many of the changes were “forced” upon the industry by government and consumer protection organizations. Have the issues been resolved or will the next generation be lobbying for more changes that will impact our industry?
How has our industry responded?
Through times of change, our industry has and continues to develop new products and services to meet the needs of our customers. Clustering and mosaic systems have increased in popularity to target consumer demographics no longer available in the list. Modeling and analytics are experiencing growth in marketing campaigns to predict the attributes of a consumer more likely to respond. Mapping improves the ability to see and access a level of information not visible in traditional databases. Mobile marketing allows individuals to be reached where they are. Variable print helps personalize a message to a level not imagined years ago.
With the changes in our industry and the tremendous adoption of CRM systems and data warehousing, all companies are increasingly creating and maintaining their own databases and lists. Think about it… every company has their own list of customers, suppliers and prospects. The list might simply be kept in their email software, such as Outlook contacts, or be in sophisticated CRM software hosted in the Cloud. Therefore list companies are adapting their business from providing lists to also providing list related services. Many of those services are designed to assist their customers in creating, improving, cleaning or maintaining their own lists. An increasing percentage of list business revenue is coming from list hygiene and list development services. An example of a series of marketing list services provided by infoCanada includes taking a customer file, correcting and standardizing the customer information, appending email and/or mobile phone numbers, blasting an email or text message offer to the customer soliciting a response so the company can collect additional data and improve their internal customer data. Today instead of only selling lists list companies are providing value added services also.
What does the future hold?
The appetite for information, at both a consumer and business level, has increased tremendously in the past few years. We all carry around incredible amounts of information in our mobile devices, phones or laptops, not to mention those with computer networks in their homes. We try to keep the information secure and update to date. We are all creating mini databases; list businesses do that on a much larger scale.
The social media explosion into the market space is creating a massive amount of information that is growing daily. Most of the information is unproven and unknown - does it hold an untapped potential for marketing value? Many of us think so and are working on new social media solutions. User generated content and crowd sourcing are creating massive databases of unique and hard to find information - is the information reliable and valuable enough to become part of marketing campaigns? All of this information will continue the evolution of the list business.
The highly connected youth of today are behaving in a way very different than any generation that has gone before them. This group are an emerging demographic that are savvy - socializing, communicating and acting in new ways. They fast forward through commercials on their PVR and have commercial free satellite radio in their car or use their iPod. They have advanced spam blocking on their email. They also play FourSquare and are Facebook fans of Coke, Nike and the new indie band on the scene. They Tweet or Buzz and rely on real or online friends for referrals. They are 10 times more likely to Google a problem instead of dialing a help number and sitting on hold. Will they become more traditional in their behavior as they age or will they be another catalyst for change in the list business?
We are seeing change all around us in our world and the list business is no different. Looking back, the list business has already undergone significant change. Looking forward, the future for the list business is exciting and posed for further transformational changes!