Meet the Broker: Ed Bello

Today we meet Ed Bello, an ailment list specialist with Lighthouse List Co., Pompano Beach, FL. Bello provides list brokerage services for firms in the healthcare industry, such as Med-Care Pharmacy.

Bello has been with Lighthouse for about four years. He previously “dabbled with lists” at K2 Graphics Services Inc., a printing and mail services firm.

“I did some list brokerage there, but not to the extent that I do now. I had some clients who needed lists for catalogs and brochures,” he said.

Home improvement projects normally keep him busy on weekends. “When I’m not doing list brokerage or working around the house, you’ll find me relaxing on the beach.”

Bello won’t be recommending any lists next week. He’s getting married on Feb. 25. He and his wife plan to honeymoon on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.

How do you do choose ailment lists?

“I spend a lot of time making sure it’s not assumed data, based on someone’s formula,” Bello said.

The best ailment lists are comprised of self-reported data sourced from relevant Internet or direct mail surveys, and of course response files, he explained. Age and income are the most commonly used selects.

Bello prefers to test 30-day hotline names, after he looks over Web site surveys and reviews copies of direct mail surveys used to gather information. “There’s not much else you can do.”

To him it seems like it’s becoming more difficult to acquire good quality ailment files for clients. Either the data is not accurate or it lacks specificity of  the ailment, said Bello.

For Internet generated data, the most important thing is to determine what’s driving Web site traffic, he said. Survey questions on Web sites not related to health don’t inspire his confidence in the data being generated.

“Not any old ailment file works for my clients,” he said.

How has the Do-Not-Call list registry affected you?

“No much. It doesn’t affect me in a big way,” said Bello. “But it comes up because some clients would like to make calls.”

Cherry picking only those records with telephone numbers is not a viable option, because usually the counts are too small.

Bello said he encourages clients to focus on choosing postal lists with age selections—and to simply request all the records available with telephone numbers.

“You might end up with 100,000 postal records and 10,000 with phone numbers,” he said.

Another option is to overlay files with telephone numbers from new telephone connection lists. “Those people haven’t had a chance to get on the DNC list,” he said.

Know someone you'd like to suggest for Meet the Broker? E-mail Jim Emerson at jim.emerson@penton.com.