Baby Boom

Parents-to-be who are expecting happy bouncing direct marketing offers will find more of them in their mailbox than in their e-mail inbox.

The ever-expanding universe of new parents' names is currently around 3 million to 4 million, notes Linda Huntoon, executive vice president of Direct Media Inc. But while information is often being collected online, physical address files still outnumber e-mail lists.

Privacy concerns are part of the reason. “Everyone is being so conservative,” says Huntoon. “No one wants to incur the wrath of anybody.”

“Parents are definitely getting more sensitive” when it comes to their children's information, agrees Britt Vatne, American List Counsel vice president.

While there are e-mail files available — such as AmericanBaby.com's list of 288,643 first-time parents and MaternityMall.com's 82,044 buyers of maternity fashions — many list pros say marketers want to reach new parents by more traditional methods, at least for the initial contact.

“Once they have that name/buyer, they may try to shift him or her online,” says Huntoon, adding that buyer files work well, perhaps because moms-to-be want offers and information on all the gear to buy for baby.

Indeed, Linda Sandler, president of Adrea Rubin Marketing Inc., notes that her agency has seen a 20% increase in names on maternity clothing company Mothers Work Inc.'s file over the last year. The list of clothes buyers from A Pea in the Pod, Motherhood Maternity and Mimi Maternity stores has a universe of more than 5 million and a hotline of some 91,000 last-one-month “first born” names.

For many marketers, the time to reach new parents is before the baby is even born.

“It's really challenging to reach new moms during pregnancy — and that's the time women are deciding on brand choices and purchasing products for their growing families,” says Sheryl Roth Rogers, vice president of marketing for Mothers Work.

Magazines, which typically reach out to moms as soon as they know a little one is on the way, are still considered key sources for names. American Baby, which has 1.8 million active subscribers, is still doing a lot of sign-ups in doctors' offices — one of the oldest and best ways to contact new parents, says Huntoon.

Vatne says ALC has seen a slight bump in size of the Parenting magazine file, which has 1.4 million paid subscribers. The Parenting Group also publishes Baby Talk, a controlled circulation publication with a circ of 1.8 million. The magazine targets pregnant women and moms with children under age 1, and like American Baby generates many subscribers through cards and giveaways distributed in doctors' offices.

About 70,000 names per month also are generated through Parenting's First Moments new and expectant parents' gift kit, given out primarily to new moms in hospitals. Vatne says she has seen the new-parent files being used for offers other than baby products, such as lifestyle magazine subscriptions.

Multiple-child households, first birth and single-parent homes are among the best selects available for this niche, says Adrea Rubin, CEO of Adrea Rubin Marketing. She adds that there are numerous compiled files available as well.

Of course, the value of a compiled file depends on the source of the data and who is compiling it. Huntoon says mailers should consider whether names supposedly new to the market are really new, not just different sources of the same names.

Overlay data can work wonders when it comes to finding new parents, but the match has to make sense, she continues. For example, overlaying buyers of pink ruffled nursery décor doesn't make sense for a gun and hunting catalog file.

Survey data, another traditional source of new parent information, also has been changing, because a lot of polling is now done online. This may have affected their performance for the better, says Huntoon, since people who respond online are likely younger families, obviously affluent enough to own a computer.