A recent CBI business poll reported the alarming inaccuracies and the state of UK business databases. Of the direct mail marketing spend alone in 2015, for sending business-to-business mailings; a staggering £367m was wasted targeting incorrect business people or companies.

What should be more worrying for businesses who are failing to address (sic) this properly, is that this figure is growing year on year and, with the current economic climate and post-Brexit concerns within the marketing industry, this is a cost that many businesses just cannot afford to bare. The solutions are relatively simple, which makes businesses failure to properly validate their customer base, perplexing.

Before making certain purchases, 65% of people like to browse through the catalogue and view products online. Sending businesses direct mail can drive them directly online and to social media channels. Research shows that 86% of people have connected with an organisation online in direct response to receiving an item of mail and 87% of those have been influenced to make an online purchase – Door drop mail such as leaflets, postcards and flyers deliver strong cut-through, with 59% of people saying they open it and acted, try comparing that figure with email marketing!

 

This data drip effect has a direct impact on businesses, leading to wasted efforts from your team and seriously reducing your overall productivity and spend. Since 2015, the job markets across banking, retail and manufacturing have been through severe turmoil, leading to higher-than-average decay rates. Businesses that haven’t revisited their mailing lists in a while may find their sales and marketing efforts are far less effective because of outdated information evaporation.

So how do you quickly stop the leaks?

E-mail address append – Change of company name, promotion or e-mail address naming change, marriage, divorce or a person changing their e-mail address – these factors, often overlooked can hugely affect bounce/response rates, we can sort these records email with appends

Change of business address – Businesses and private residents (between 7% to 10% each year) change address continuously, wasted DM and worse invoicing or goods despatched errors occur where the old address information hasn’t been updated, we can through the our licence with Royal Mail’s Business Change File – we can update these valuable files singularly or in volume.

End of life / Deceased – On a business closure or passing of a business owner there’s an immediate requirement to update your business data. It’s especially embarrassing to try to contact a person who is now deceased or be contacted by a grieving spouse or relative.

Employee leaves company or changes role – As employees leave a company their data will become redundant, additionally there data will need to be updated as they change roles in a company (e.g. new job title, possibly new e-mail address and/or telephone number)

Cleaning and appending data means improved targeting, improved accuracy of mailings and doordrop deliveries and a better experience for your customers whether they’re businesses or consumers. But from the moment you capture valuable customer contact and address data the potential for it to become out-of-date or inaccurate begins; because every day contacts move house, relocate, change their name, register with preference services, or pass away, the question is how are you addressing it?

Call us on 0844 561 1133 to talk about how we could save you 27% off your direct marketing budgets or use the contact form below to ask a question..?

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