Down to Business-to-Business

Michelle Feit, president of e-mail marketing company e-PostDirect in Pearl River, NY, takes on the business-to-business issues of the day.

DIRECT: What's happening on the business-to-business side?

FEIT: The big issue is that the e-mail list industry has come a long way, but things we do on the postal side — like merge/purges and the National Change of Address process on lists — are not as available on the e-mail side. Also, mailers still aren't incorporating the data into their private databases to be able to mail better and smarter and to query more effectively.

DIRECT: With B-to-B e-mail lists averaging about $400/M, don't marketers complain about the price?

FEIT: No, because the quality is high. Consumer lists are still compiled by, for example, people registering on Web sites. Because of the poor quality of the consumer lists, there is no standard price; it's as low as brokers can negotiate. But with B-to-B lists the sources are much more qualified, and information is likely to include transaction and company data.

DIRECT: Who is putting the files on the market?

FEIT: More than 60% of the business trade publications that have a postal list on the market also have an e-mail list.

DIRECT: What's the average clickthrough rate on prospecting files?

FEIT: It's about 2% to 4%.

DIRECT: What are the clickthrough rates on the consumer lists?

FEIT: From less than 1% to 3%.

DIRECT: What about B-to-B house files?

FEIT: Response rates are much higher, of course — 6% to 10%.

DIRECT: Is e-mail inbox saturation as big a problem in B-to-B as it is in consumer?

FEIT: It's always a concern, never a problem. Relevant information sent to interested people is always welcomed.

DIRECT: Are B-to-B owners putting their lists out there at a pretty good clip?

FEIT: Yes, they are. The average order is higher so a business can spend more money to get a new customer.

DIRECT: Why don't B-to-B owners have the same fear of putting their lists on the market as consumer list owners do?

FEIT: Because there are fewer privacy concerns. The data the B-to-B owners have is not really about the individual profiles, it's about the company demographics.

DIRECT: What's the solution for churn?

FEIT: I don't know of any company that's watching an executive from one business to another. The solution for churn is adding new records.

DIRECT: Do mailers worry about companies filtering out commercial e-mail?

FEIT: It's an issue, but it affects more consumer copy than business copy. The industry needs to understand filtering. The most important thing is testing and results.