Taking direct marketing to a new level

Rough Notes, Jun 2000 by Doucette, Nancy

ThinkDirectMarketing.com offers a "new model" approach to distributing direct marketing lists-online with no per name charges, no minimum quantities

Some entrepreneurs begin honing their skills earlier than others. For Keith Goodman, he began testing his entrepreneurial skills around the age of 17. While his contemporaries were plodding along in their summer jobs doing landscaping work, working for fast food restaurants or in retail, Goodman was a "roadie" for the opening act of heavy-metal rocker Ted Nugent. By his senior year in high school, Goodman was able to capitalize on the rock 'n roll contacts he'd made andwith a bit of luck (the school hadn't paid the deposit on the ballroom where the "real" prom was to be held)-Goodman threw a rock 'n roll prom-as a just-say-no-to-disco event.

"It was a huge success," he recalls, thanks in part to his use of direct mail. Because of his "roadie" activities, Goodman had been involved with most of the school's dances and he collected the names and addresses of the students who attended the dances. As prom time approached, he sent out announcements for the rock 'n roll prom to those students. Three thousand students each bought a $20 ticket. His modest financial investment had grown substantially and put Goodman on a path of what he describes as "starting things and building things."

His resume includes: partner in a recording studio and production company; creator of a computer software company that grew to $5 million in sales in five years; top sales rep for a distributor of high-end computer graphics equipment; developer of a digital media division for that computer graphics equipment company-a division which grew to nearly $200 million in sales within five years; and building up the sales and marketing office of a computer animation software company-bringing it from #4 in its market to #1.

So what brings a person with this diverse background back to his direct mail roots? A non-compete agreement. When the computer animation software company decided to relocate, Goodman chose to remain in Colorado and pursue other opportunities. But to do so, he had to agree to stay out of the film and video business for a three-year period.

Coincidentally, Goodman's longtime friends, Dean Ross Eaker, Edward Fleiss and Bruce Biegel, were faced with a similar careeraltering event. The four combined their resources and began laying the groundwork for what would become ThinkDirectMarketing.com. Its product, ThinkDirectMail, is a family of online direct marketing list products that does away with the "per name" model. This is good news for owners of small and medium-sized businesses, such as insurance agencies.

For many agencies, direct mail is uncharted territory. And for other agencies, a direct mail campaign is a one-time event. Goodman explains that in addition to the ThinkDirectMarketing Geographic and ThinkDirectMarketing Demographic products, the ThinkDirectMarketing.com Web site provides the tutorials, educational content, and interactive tools to change that.

The Web site also provides information about a free ThinkDirectMarketing CD which includes demos of the Geographic and Demographic products, 250 free names for either product, as well as free software. The free software is yet another way to enhance the agency's direct mail effort. Included is Avery Label Pro 3.0, which enables users to create custom labels and postcards for direct mail projects. Also included is Janna Personal Contact 5.0, which is a "full feature" contact manager and marketing list manager (not a demo). This product can also print labels but more than that, it provides reports, tracks marketing activities, and manages customers and prospects. To access the information at the Web site, all an agent needs to do is register-and the registration is free.

Use of the TDM Geographic and Demographic products is subscription-based. A subscription to TDM Geographic is $195 per year. The subscription includes 250,000 names which, if you do the math, works out to less than 1/10 of a penny a name. The search capabilities include the ability to search by ZIP code or ZIP 4 to identify all consumers, businesses or both within a specific ZIP code; radius from any listed address from as close as 1/4 of a mile to 25 miles; SIC code (Standard Industry Code) by keyword or business category to find business type; consumer name or address to identify all exact or similar matches; business name or address to identify all exact or similar matches; phone (10 digit) to identify an exact match; and phone (7 digit) to identify all matching phone numbers within a state.

A subscription to TDM Demographic is $395 per year. The subscription includes 20,000 names (which figures to be less than two cents a name). The Demographic product uses data provided by the Prizm Cluster Lifestyle Segmentation System from Claritas, which enables the user to select from one or more of 62 predefined demographic clusters based on income, age, housing, education and other demographic or lifestyle criteria. What's more, users can combine their search with TDM's radius search feature.