CHICAGO– Experian, Orange, CA, displayed its revamped B2B direct marketing solution, here at the Direct Marketing to Business conference yesterday. The solution now has the capability to provide clients with a broader picture of the businesses within the Experian database.
According to Mike Green, director of business-to-business marketing for business information solutions at Experian, the newly reworked National Business Database now provides its clients with a database on more than 14 million businesses containing information from 10,000 sources. The expanded information is the result of a decision made by Experian to sink more money into its BTB marketing program two years ago.
“We always knew that we were going to need more data on the companies in our database in order to compete in the marketplaces but the decision had to be made to make the investment in it,” Green said. “About two years ago we finally made that decision and it was to help increase the amount of data as well as improve our technology.”
Green would not disclose the actual dollar amount of the investment but described it as “many millions of dollars.” A number of the company’s major clients, including banks, insurance companies, office supply and telecommunications companies, have been using the new version of the solution and reported that the new version of the database has produced increased response rates compared to the older version, Green said.
As for what the solution now offers Experian's clients that it didn't in the past are, according to Green, a higher quality and quantity of data and “by the end of the year” the ability to access the database via the Web.
A major marketing campaign for the solutions is tentatively scheduled to get underway later next month, he said. The campaign will include direct mail, direct e-mail and print advertising.
Experian has also started adding information on approximately 200,000 additional business operations to its database, including home-based start-ups.
The National Business Database lists include company name, location, principal contact names and titles, headquarters or branch, sales volume, years in business, and industry category (SIC and NAICS codes). In addition to that, Experian can also append its data to a client's housefile and then authenticate it by linking disparate customer and third-party databases as well as cross-examine data against other nationwide Experian relational repositories.
