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Selectabase Launches Free Seminar Marketing
Guide for IFA’s
Selectabase has launched a free guide aimed at helping IFA’s use financial planning seminars to help target and meet new clients.
Seminars, conferences and information events are proving to be a highly effective way of generating new business for Independent Financial Advisers (IFA’s).
To help IFA’s who may be new to the concept of the advice seminar a new information guide has been launched by Selectabase, an independent direct marketing list company which helps many IFA’s promote their events and services through direct mail.
The new free marketing guide from Selectabase aims to help IFA’s discover how these seminars can be used, and give ideas of effective ways to promote seminars to exactly the right audience.
The guide covers a range of topics which can be covered at an event such as retirement planning, investments, tax reduction, inheritance tax for consumers and topics for small business owners such as business and staff protection, pension schemes, employee incentives and tax advice.
Selectabase is a leading independent provider of marketing lists and promotional services to small business in many sectors. Commenting on the reasons for the launch of the free guide, Steve Sellwood of Selectabase said that “we work with many IFA’s across the country from both large and small firms, but we’ve found that more and more were coming to us to purchase lists for promoting seminars and were reporting very impressive results.”
“We thought this was an important trend that other IFA’s could also benefit from knowing more about” added Sellwood.
Selectabase has gathered much evidence of the success of seminars in the form of testimonials from existing clients. For example a financial adviser based in London and representing a national organisation used a mailing list to promote a seminar and is quoted in the free marketing guide as reporting that “there were 85 attendees, and in the first week I have had 5 meetings - I am confident that over time I will gain some excellent clients from this list.”
The free seminar marketing guide for IFA’s is available to download free of charge or by calling Selectabase on 01304 382211.
Selectabase reports UK small firms looking
to direct marketing to help beat the downturn
Direct marketing list provider reports sudden increase in new enquiries from small businesses seeking to trade through economic gloom by gaining new customers.
One of the UK’s leading independent direct marketing list companies has seen a recent increase in enquiries from companies looking to trade their way out of the predicted economic gloom.
The team at Selectabase, who provide lists for marketing campaigns, saw a 47% increase in the number of new enquiries from their website over the last few months.
Whilst both these measures had been steadily growing for some time, there had never been such a sudden increase before, which prompted the business to investigate further.
After speaking with many of the businesses contacting Selectabase for the first time, it became clear that many are concerned about the economic situation and are looking to protect themselves by investing in new customer acquisition through direct marketing techniques such as direct mail and telemarketing.
The increase in interest in direct marketing has come as no surprise to Steve Sellwood, joint Managing Director of Selectabase. “Having worked in the direct marketing industry for many years before launching Selectabase, I’ve seen similar spikes in interest during previous downturns” he recalls.
But this time round Sellwood feels there is a difference in attitude: “I get the impression businesses are facing a tough time for sure, but are trying hard not to panic and talk themselves into an even worse situation. Instead many are trying to take action early by targeting new business”.
Direct marketing has long been an attractive tool for businesses looking to find and convert new customers. It can be highly targeted so smaller volumes are needed, and costs can easily be identified in advance.
Most importantly, responses can be measured so that effectiveness can be calculated on a cost per enquiry or cost per acquisition, providing an important level of management for small businesses with limited resources to spend on marketing.
Selectabase specialise in providing direct marketing lists for small businesses, often packaged into affordable monthly ‘lead feed’ services such as their Startupsplus list, which provides subscribers with the details of new and relocating businesses in their local area, or their Birthday Mailings list of local consumers who are about to celebrate a birthday.
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UK companies left exposed to unwanted
cold calling
Research by direct marketing company Selectabase has revealed that many businesses remain exposed to receiving unwanted telephone sales calls, even though they may believe they have acted to prevent them.
Selectabase analysed over 2 million businesses in one of its largest direct marketing databases to see which types of business were registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), the official scheme to prevent unwanted residential sales calls or its business counterpart, the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS).
The results show that out of nearly 100,000 registered limited companies, over 65,000 are registered with the TPS which only prevents them receiving residential sales calls, not business related calls.
Less than half this amount were actually registered correctly with the CTPS and so protected against receiving business to business cold calls.
The figures suggest that businesses are confused about which of the preference services they should be registered with – a situation which may not be helped by some of the complexities of the registration system for businesses.
For example any of the 65,000 limited companies registered with the TPS and based at a home address, will be protected from receiving residential sales calls at that number, but not necessarily business related sales calls.
Likewise, non limited companies are only protected from receiving sales and marketing calls if they are registered with the TPS, not the CTPS. Research into the Selectabase database showed that nearly 20,000 non limited businesses are therefore mistakenly registered with the CTPS.
Steven Sellwood of Selectabase commented on the findings of the research by expressing sympathy for those businesses which may be confused about which service to register with.
“Unfortunately there seem to be a substantial minority of businesses which may be incorrectly registered and so could receive sales calls they don’t want to receive” said Sellwood.
“Furthermore, this makes life very difficult for our customers who try and act responsibly by screening their telemarketing lists against the appropriate preference service before calling other businesses, but who may not be getting the full picture” he added.
Selectabase are advising businesses that use the telephone for b2b sales or marketing campaigns, even to existing customers, to make sure they screen their lists against all the preference services – both TPS and CTPS, using tools like the Easycheck or 1check data cleansing tools which Selectabase provide at low cost.
In addition, to help clarify exactly what type of business should register with which type of preference service, Selectabase have provided extensive information on their website.
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Selectabase launches free marketing
guide for health and beauty businesses
Selectabase has launched a free guide aimed at helping small businesses in the health and beauty sector promote themselves more successfully.
The health, hair and beauty sector contain some of the largest numbers of small businesses in the UK, so marketing company Selectabase has launched a new free guide to promoting a beauty business on a tight budget.
According to Selectabase’s own Startupsplus data, hairdressers, beauty salons and consultants consistently feature in the top 5 types of new business started up in the UK each month.
Running a hairdressing or beauty salon is a particularly popular choice amongst women who are often looking to return to work or develop their careers. But many business owners feel they don’t have the depth of marketing knowledge or business skills to promote their business effectively.
The new free marketing guide from Selectabase aims to help health and beauty businesses get new ideas for low cost promotions and avid costly marketing mistakes.
The guide covers a range of marketing tools, with a focus on those activities which are the most easily implemented and managed with specialist knowledge, and which can provide the most proven return on investment, such as direct marketing techniques. Promotional tools included in the guide include direct mail, PR, websites, events and press advertising.
Commenting on the reasons for the launch of the free guide, Steve Sellwood of Selectabase said that “we recently identified that growing numbers of our marketing list clients were small beauty and hairdressing salons.”
“After speaking with many of these clients we identified a real need for helpful and useful advice about what options are available for marketing a health and beauty successfully” added Sellwood.
The free marketing guide for health and beauty businesses is available to download free of charge from the marketing tips section here or by calling Selectabase on 01304 382211.
Simple, Selective, Selectabase
Car Hire Firms Drive their way to the top
of UK
Start-ups
Car hire firms were the most popular type of new business to start up in the UK last month for the first time according to the Startupsplus marketing service from Selectabase.
Starting a car hire business was the top type of new venture in April 2008, with more than seven new businesses starting each day across the country.
The news is according to data released today by Selectabase, a UK marketing firm which supplied details of new start ups each month through its Startupsplus small business marketing service.
This is the first month that the team at Selectabase have seen car hire firms top the monthly league table of new start ups since the service started.
The rest of the top ten new businesses to start up in April featured more frequently seen new business ideas and occupations such as pubs, driving schools, hairdressing, plumbers, employment consultants, beauty salons, electricians and builders.
Startupsplus data is one of the most widespread sources of new business start up activity in the UK. Each month data is obtained from a range of different sources then cross referenced and telephone verified to ensure accuracy.
The team at Startupsplus are surprised to see car hire firms top the league table in April. “We are well used to seeing the most popular types of start –up like pubs, builders and hairdressers top our lists month after month, so to see car hire firms suddenly come from nowhere was a real surprise” said Steve Sellwood of Selectabase. “This type of startup hasn’t even figured in our top ten before” he added.
The latest figures from Startupsplus also show that the Birmingham, Belfast and Sheffield postcode areas were the top locations in the UK for new business start –ups last month. This presents fewer surprises, as these areas consistently top the monthly league tables as top new business locations. However in recent months the London area has seen a consistent decline in its share of new business start ups.
Small businesses can obtain Startupsplus for locally targeted marketing campaigns to start up businesses, by contacting Selectabase on 01304 382211 or visiting www.selectabase.co.uk/startupsplus.
Simple, Selective, Selectabase
New Mailing List From Selectabase Aims to
Get Sales Motoring.
A new mailing list for automotive and consumer marketers has been launched by Selectabase.
The B2C Automotive Database is unique in enabling complete direct marketing campaigns to be targeted based on a wide range of car related criteria.
For example, you can select data from based on car ownership, brand, body style, car age, sports, luxury, MPV, and many more possible selections.
The database contains the majority of the nation's households - approximately 34 million addresses, and all data is fully compliant. It's also completely rebuilt every month with fresh updated data.
The B2C Automotive Database is aimed at automotive marketing and at targeting car owners based on the age or type of vehicle they currently own. With the list it's possible to target owners of similar types or makes of vehicle, identify consumers likely to need a certain class of vehicle such as a family car, or help affluent consumers scale up to the next class of car.
The B2C Automotive Database isn't just ideal for automotive marketing, but also for financial services and a host of other lifestyle products or services. Car accessories, insurance, travel and leisure are all industries which can benefit from the B2C Automotive List.
All contacts are regularly cleansed against suppression files to account for gone-aways, deceased and MPS. Telephone numbers can be appended and are screened for TPS records on the day of order.
Free counts from the B2C Automotive list are available from the team at Selectabase by calling 01304 382211 or by visiting http://www.selectabase.co.uk.
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