Data Cleansing Cycle

Follow these simple guidelines, to ensure a fully compliant and effective data cleansing cycle is put in place for your business and consumer marketing lists, based on best practice guidelines issued by the Direct Marketing Association…

• Your list of business or consumer postal addresses should be checked against the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) no more than 90 days before the list is used. If you use your list on an ongoing basis, then you need to check against the MPS every quarter to ensure you meet these obligations.
• Your lists of business or consumer telephone numbers must be checked against the relevant Telephone Preference Service (TPS) for consumers or Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) for businesses, before you or your telemarketing agency lift the receiver to make a call. Both the TPS and CTPS registers are being constantly updated every day, so your list should be screened no more than 28 days before it is called. If you have a telesales team calling all the time, then you need to check your list against the TPS or CTPS at least 4 weekly.
• Although it is a specialist sector, if you are planning a consumer mailing to promote any product or service related to babies, then it has to have been cleaned against the Baby Mailing Preference Service (BMPS) file before use. The BMPS file gives bereaved parents the option to have baby/infant related mailings suppressed for 12 months.
• Whilst we are discussing timings, you should also respond promptly to a request from a customer to access their details – subject access request. Under data protection legislation, all information held has to be provided within a maximum of 40 days from being asked in writing. If it is appropriate, you can charge a maximum fee of £10 to provide data, but many organisations waive the fee as part of their commitment to customer service.

If you’re registered under the Data Protection Act (and if you hold any personal data, you should be), then making sure your data is accurate is actually a legal obligation, as well as an ethical commitment to best practice in direct marketing. Keeping your data up to date makes good business sense as well – an accurate mailing list helps your direct marketing become more cost effective, avoids waste and saves money.

If you need any help putting your cycle together or screening data against the MPS, TPS, CTPS, or BMPS, just call the Selectabase team on 01304 382211 for advice and low cost screening options.

Simple Selective Selectabase

A new improvement has been added to the the Prospect Download consumer direct marketing database, which can help reduce marketing costs, improve targeting and minimise wastage.

By linking with the most up-to-date and complete address database in the UK, users of Prospect Download lists can obtain more accurately addressed data, which helps reduce the financial and environmental cost of wastage, and helps prevent alienating recipients with inaccurately addressed mail.

Furthermore, additional cost savings can now be obtained as using PAF can also help maximise potential mailing discounts.

The new feature comes on the heels of a recently launched improved postcode targeting tool, which allows users to enter their chosen postcode then search for all postcode districts within a chosen radius up to a maximum of 30 miles. Rather than hunting through maps of your area, the new tool makes it fast and simple to identify your local geographic target area.

The consumer version of Prospect Download allows online users to build a list selection from over 34 million individuals by using a wide range of criteria; age, gender, income and lifestyle segment. All data is checked regularly for accuracy, and is screened against all the relevant suppression files.

Prospect Download offers free registration and free counts, and lists can be purchased on a Pay As You Go basis with no minimum order value.

To speak with a member of the Selectabase Prospect Download team call 01304 382211.

Any marketer would do well to remember the AIDA mnemonic:

A= Attract; Attract your target with colours image or words

I = Interest; Engage your target by capturing and maintain his interest

D= Desire; Make him want your product or service

A = Action: Tell him what he needs to do to get it

Remember AIDA – it will serve you well!

Every direct marketing campaign needs to have a goal or objective against which results can be compared.

To help set your campaign goals you can research typical response rates for your sector or industry, or gather data on any previous mailings to set a benchmark.

Your goals might just be sales based. Or they might include driving visitors to your website, generating enquiries for your sales team, encouraging previous customers to get back in touch, generating word of mouth referrals and so on. Make sure you set realistic goals for your campaign though, which are actually achievable.

Include in your goals some financial objectives like the average anticipated profit from each conversion, cost of the campaign and a cost per ‘000 sent, conversions needed to break even, and so on.

Identify your target market in as detail as possible. If possible categorise your target segment as much as you can – technology allows you to send different messages to different sub groups.

Turn all of this into a simple one page plan for your campaign.

For help selecting your target audience call Selectabase on 01304 382211.

Which direct marketing method is most effective: traditional direct mail campaigns, or next generation email marketing? Direct mail is sent to businesses and consumers every day by a very wide range of organisations. Email marketing using opt in data is widely used, and growing more rapidly in popularity.

So what are the relative merits of each direct marketing method?

The Benefits of Email Marketing

• Email marketing is direct marketing at its most impactful. Your message lands right in the inbox of your recipient, your message can be personalised, and even targeted to individual recipients.
• Email marketing can be timed to the day, the hour and even minute, in order to reach consumers just when they are likely to make a buying decision.
• Email marketing can also be tracked in detail, even to the amount of people who open and read your email, or who forward it to a friend.
• Email marketing is more environmentally friendly, and has a far lower carbon footprint than other marketing methods.
• Email marketing can be more cost effective as it does not need costly mailing houses, production, postage and so on. However data costs can be higher and email campaigns require a broadcasting partner.
• Email marketing is highly effective in growing online sales for e-commerce sites: in just a few clicks the recipient can act on impulse and buy from your site.

The Benefits of Direct Mail

• Direct mailshots are a tangible and physical representative of your brand, which can be held in the recipient’s hands. A mailer with high production values can say much about your brand, just through its size, feel and texture.
• Direct mail is well established and proven as a marketing tool. Consumers and businesses are used to receiving marketing messages in the post, and are receptive to the message they convey.
• Direct mail can also be used to increase your online sales from your website: increasing numbers of mail order companies are finding that their catalogues are becoming increasingly effective at driving consumers online to order, instead of by mail or phone.
• Quality direct mail data is generally more affordable and more widespread, and does not come with fixed broadcast costs and fewer issues over compliance and the opt in procedure. The direct mail industry is also far more mature with a wider range of suppliers available.
• Direct mail does not have to fight its way through complex spam and junk mail filters used in many email programs.

One fact is universal: any direct marketing campaign needs great quality data. For advice on sourcing the best list for your campaigns, contact us on 01304 382211.