NEW YORK – Show floor reaction to this year’s DM Days New York Conference & Expo was fairly balanced. In fact, few people had much to criticize – not even that favorite direct marketer carp: “Where’s the traffic?”
For direct marketing veterans like Ed Mallin, chief of infoUSA’s Donnelley Marketing, shows like DM Days are as much about consultation as they are marketing.
“Lots of our meetings now with our customers are less traditional sales and more brainstorming,” Mr. Mallin said. “What we’re trying to do with these sessions is bring the best and the brightest.
“Someone says, ‘Why are we buying all these companies?’ ” he said. “When we acquire, we again are acquiring talent, unique expertise and relationships. To me, that’s what sales and marketing are all about.”
One of the leading database marketing firms, infoUSA recently bought Mokrynskidirect only a few months after buying another list firm, Millard Group. Previous acquisitions include Yesmail, OneSource, catalogVision, Triplex, Edith Roman and Walter Karl.
Donnelley chose yesterday to debut SalesGeniePro – Marketing Edition for midsize companies with 20 to 500 employees. The Web-based hosted service helps users manage campaigns and create data options suited to customer acquisition efforts.
SalesGeniePro – Marketing Edition is sandwiched between the SalesGenie MarketZone product for large businesses and the SalesGenie offering for the SoHo market. It costs $30,000 to use.
“We’re basing the pricing on the number of companies the business has, so it’s very scalable,” said Pete Giraldi, executive vice president at Donnelley.
The product’s features include access to multiple data sources, including the company’s own; selections and analysis functionality; reporting; and campaign management.
Targeted at business-to-business and business-to-consumer catalogers, SalesGeniePro – Marketing Edition will give users access to infoUSA’s 13 million-record business file to reach prospects for customer acquisition. Client file suppression will occur automatically to help with such efforts.
“This product is the result of the new direction that Donnelley has been taking in the past 12 months,” Mr. Giraldi said.
