It's simple. A data card is the marketing document that describes a mailing list.
A quality data card does not guarantee a quality mailing list, but you can have a top quality list that is neglected from a marketing perspective (i.e. a poor quality data card). First impressions count, and the data card is most often the first impression that a broker or mailer receives when researching new test lists for a direct marketing campaign.
To be blunt – you wouldn't serve a T-bone on a trash can lid, would you?
I'm not sure everyone thinks this way when it comes to data cards. The t-bone steak represents a quality mailing list with an exceptional test-to-continuation ratio. The trash can lid represents a neglected data card for that same mailing list. Think about this analogy from the perspective of a list broker or mailer.
You select a mailing list of active subscribers that matches your customer profile. The mailing list is marketed by a credible list manager with industry knowledge, a proven track record for customer service, and a diverse portfolio of quality response list titles. Futhermore, the mailing list you selected is known for its success in delivering above average response rates and lifetime value. You are ready to add this list title to your client's new test recommendation.
Not so fast! You notice that the data card has not been updated in over 6 months. Furthermore, you are ordering a monthly hotline so you have no idea what range the counts will be in.
Needless to say, you're likely to question the validity of the information. You may wonder if the mailing list is still available for rental, or you may find out that the owner of the data card is no longer the list manager because they lost the business to a competitor and never deactivated their version of the data card. That's obviously not something the former list manager would want to promote in the public domain, but it happens.
What's the take-away in all of this? It's simple. Keep your data cards up-to-date with quality information on all of the list research channels, especially in the public domain where your content is most visible.
A ranking of list managers by data card quality is published quarterly.
Mary Elizabeth Hurn referenced the following search trend in her March 10, 2009 DMNews article titled "More words in average search query: Hitwise".
"Longer search queries are becoming more popular year over year according to a report put out by Hitwise. Though the majority of searches are one, two and three word queries, these length terms are down 3%, 5% and 1%, respectfully. But queries with four to eight words and over are all up year over year in growth ranging from 3% to 20%."
So what does this mean for you if you are a list manager? It may be good news for you if your data cards are on a search engine optimized (SEO) platform. Every mailing list data card indexed by Google as a unique web page contributes to a successful long tail SEO strategy. List managers, who focus on creating a list marketing environment and data card quality within a certain domain, will ultimately benefit from this trend. Yes, list managers do have long tails.
Every list title, segment, selection and description is a target for the web robots (bots). The more of your data card content they find, the better your chances are in getting noticed on the search engine results page (SERP). The most visited web page, other than your home page, may account for less than 1% of your traffic. However, it is the sum of all of the traffic from all of your web pages that you want to maximize. Winning the battle for the long tail will not only improve your search traffic, but it may also improve your conversion rate.
For example, an attorney looking for a mailing list of small business owners in Rhode Island searches on "small business leads" using Google and pages though 76,800 results. She subsequently clicks on a link that registers her for a third-party lead service that fills her voice mail and litters her in-box with responses from various sales agents. She is not a happy camper, but she knows from experience that it's not worth suing them.
Her paralegal comes to the rescue and runs a search on "small business owners mailing list and RI". He gets one targeted result linked to a data card showing over 12,000 small business owners in Rhode Island. He calculates the cost using the base rate directly from the data card, clicks on 'get more information' receives an e-mail with the contact information, places the order on his company credit card, and delivers the list to his manager that same day.
Of course not (maybe to a junk yard dog), but I'm not sure everyone thinks this way when it comes to data cards. The t-bone steak represents the winning combination of a world-class list manager and a quality mailing list with an exceptional test-to-continuation ratio. The trash can lid represents a neglected data card for that same
mailing list. Take a step back and embrace this analogy from the perspective of a list broker or mailer. You select your favorite list research tool from the browser– we'll use the Mailing Lists Search Tool for this example, since that is a free tool in the public domain. Here's what happens:
You find a brand name mailing list of active subscribers that matches your customer profile. This mailing list is marketed by a credible list management firm with superior industry knowledge, a proven track record for customer service, and a diverse portfolio of top notch response list titles. Futhermore, the mailing list you selected is known for its success in delivering above average response rates with consistently high payup rates. Now you are ready to add this list title your client's new test recommendation, but you notice that the data card has not been reviewed in over a year. Needless to say, you're likely to question the validity of the information. You may wonder if the mailing list is still available for rental, or you may find out that the owner of the data card is no longer the list manager because they lost the business to a competitor and never deactivated their version of the data card. That's obviously not something the former list manager would want to promote in the public domain, but it happens every day!
What's the take-away in all of this? It's simple. Keep your data cards up-to-date with quality information on all of the list research channels, especially in the public domain where your content is most visible. You are able to publish and maintain your data cards online for free using MarketMax SE, and those cards will be updated instantly on all of the list research portals powered by NextMark in the public domain.
At the same time, your data cards will be updated for all of NextMark's list research and list brokerage system users, representing 185 companies who acquire mailing lists for new customer acquisition.
Finally, if you'd like NextMark can integrate your web site so you only need to update your data cards in one place — NextMark will take care of the rest. Is there any better way for you to gain control over the process? It's time to serve those data cards 'well-done' and get noticed for your efforts.
I'm neither a list manager nor list owner, but I have witnessed numerious conversations between them in regards to meeting list rental revenue projections. Something was always missing from those conversations, but I didn't know what it was at the time. List managers were well prepared to discuss performance benchmarks such as new test orders, test to continuation ratio, average order size, cost per thousand (CPM), exchange conversions, winbacks, and more. These saavy list managers also had diversified marketing plans, creative advertisements, and schedules that were consistently followed. So what was missing?
I decided to host a webinar to answer that question. The title of the webinar was "Search Engine Marketing For Lists And Leads", and the content of the webinar was focused on the effectiveness of promoting list titles on the World Wide Web. This topic speaks to the heart of list managers and list owners who are looking for innovative ways to drive list sales, and it answers the question about what is missing from traditional models for projecting list rental income.
Number of impressions, click-through rate (CTR), data card page views, and cost per click (CPC) are just a few of the measures that are being used by online advertisers of mailing lists. Projection models are no longer limited to historical results, but also include online performance drivers and conversion rates. Furthermore, list managers are now paying more attention to key words and phrases contained in the data card.
"This makes me realize how updating and the words on the data card really matter", noted Kay Cassidy, Complete Mailing Lists.
The number of online leads, distributed by NextMark's Leads Program to list brokers and list managers, is doubling every year, with over 2,100 in January 2008 alone. This is all coming from the online list searches in the public domain — even more evidence that search engine marketing is essential to increasing list rental income.
Visit our marketing glossary for more information about search engine marketing and other industry information.
Now that I've spoken to a few of the list managers out there in the marketplace, the question is "How?"
I know there are several search engine optimization (SEO) consultants out there that charge big bucks just to give advice on key words, and just as many others who are actually qualified to deliver a comprehensive strategy. Here are a few tips for getting started:
· Educate yourself. Invest the time to read a beginner’s text on search engine optimization. It will not only boost your confidence, but also help you to recognize a qualified consultant.
· Run searches. One of the easiest ways to see what’s working is to run a few searches. Search on list titles, key words, clients and competitors to get a feel for who’s on top and doing things right.
· Take a look at your own website to see which pages are indexed. You can do this in Google and most other search programs by typing in the following text in the search engine results page (SERP): site:your website URL. Here’s an example for the United States Postal Service: site:usps.com.
· Talk to your hosting service or marketing technology services provider about how to improve your list title page ranking. Here are a few basic principles to guide your conversation:
o Search algorithms are not only extremely complex, but also a carefully guarded secret. Don’t get caught up in trying to figure them out, but spend your time implementing strategies that have historically been successful for others.
o Getting you web pages noticed involves both managing the page content (on-page) and placing links (off-page) on other web sites.
o The content on your web pages will be indexed in search engine databases by key words and phrases. Search engines do not scan the web for content – that is the job of ‘crawlers’ or ‘robots’. The search engines are actually retrieving results from a database of indexed keywords, locations and formats.
o Keywords are indexed in the search databases by the document ID for the URL where they are found, the actual position in that document, and the type of position in the document (heading, title, body, link, etc.).
o The links to your web pages are not ‘created equal’. The page-ranking implications of an off-page link are not only based on the referring site’s popularity, but also on the number of external links on that site. This is an important point that is often missed by the less experienced SEM professionals. A link that is placed on a popular site may actually be less effective than a link that is placed on a less popular, more targeted site that has fewer links.
o Other documents that are posted on your site may also add value to your page ranking. Search engines will convert Microsoft Word documents and Adobe Acrobat (PDF) documents to HTML in order to index the information contained within them. Furthermore, the font sizes, styles, and other attributes may also be captured and used further down the road in the user-search algorithms.
o Note: if you hear the word ‘vector’ mentioned in the conversation, don’t run for cover. All you need to know is that a ‘vector space model’ can be used mathematically represent a web page. This makes it easier for search engines to match user-defined search terms to the most relevant web pages. It’s much more complicated than that, but I promised to keep it simple.
· Look into some of the advertising programs available through marketing technology services providers such as contextually targeted advertising and preferred provider programs. These targeted programs are similar to paid search, but available exclusively within direct marketing list search applications.
· Finally, be patient. It takes some time for your changes to be indexed by the search engines, so you may not see results for weeks or months.
Don’t be discouraged if you begin to feel like you’re chasing a moving target as you learn more about search engine marketing. The field of search engine optimization continues to evolve as companies like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft implement new personalized, localized, and contextualized search methods – but this should only improve the user experience and increase the relevance of search results. If you’ve done the SEM job right as a list manager or list owner, then these users (or mailers) will be waiting at your online doorstep to place their list order. So be encouraged about the future of mailing lists… but don’t ignore the role that search engines play in directing existing customers and future prospects to you and – that’s right – your competitors.
Be encouraged! The mailing lists industry is not dying; it’s evolving – into a dynamic, data-based infrastructure of targeted direct marketing opportunities –and the World Wide Web is bringing it all together. You might be asking, “Shouldn’t this article be listed in the Search Marketing column?” Not really, this is a message for list managers, list owners, and database compilers who simply want to leverage their assets and increase revenue. This is not another promotional effort to redirect marketing dollars to paid search campaigns, and it is not another empty promise. Furthermore, I promise to keep it simple!
The birth of the World Wide Web, circa 1990 coincides with the learning age for the next generation of direct marketers. These search-minded entrepreneurs and business professionals are ‘googling’ their way to the top, and are less inclined to depend on traditional methods for learning about their respective markets. Furthermore, those who are looking for innovative customer acquisition strategies are turning to the Web. “OK, but how does this tie back to my efforts to generate list rental revenue for my list owner?”
The same basic search engine marketing principles apply. For starters, take a visit to Google and run a quick search on the mailing list you are trying to promote: i.e. "Advo mailing". You might be surprised by what you see. If you’re doing a good job with search engine optimization, then the mailing list promotional link could actually appear above the list owner’s corporate site – and all this happens without paying a cent for paid search.
For list managers and list brokers, you also want to keep an eye on your competitors’ rankings. Surprisingly, you may find out that you’re not too late in getting on top of the organic search listings. Take a look at the search results for “list manager” and “list broker”. What do you see? How far down the list did you need to scroll to find your company’s name? Are any of your key competitors on top? If you’re looking for the big names, then you may need to go deep; so seize the opportunity and embrace search engine marketing for your list business. It takes time for your web pages to get indexed, so the sooner you get started – the better.
Check out the direct marketing glossary to learn the lingo for search engine optimization and list marketing.
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