The proliferation of mobile data in the database and list marketing industry is a significant opportunity for direct marketers that use this consumer information correctly, according to Kroll Direct Marketing.

Mobile Marketer interviewed Lee Kroll, president of Kroll Direct Marketing, Plainsboro, NJ. Mr. Kroll talked about how mobile data provides and opportunity for marketers.

Here is the entire interview:

So Lee, you get a first-hand view of the data coming into the system for mobile numbers. What percentage out of all the data coming in has a mobile number?
Being that 100 percent of the data is coming from online Web sites and aggregated sources we are seeing on average 44-47 percent of the data coming through has a mobile number.

But there are certain categories that have a higher percentage. For example, dating sites are seeing about 90 percent of the data coming in having a mobile number and the data is extremely accurate.

About 70-80 percent of subprime financial data comes in with a mobile number, and this data is also accurate.

In today?s marketplace there are more Web sites where the online publisher is specifically asking for or making provisions for the consumer to provide their mobile number in addition to a landline number.

Surprisingly, some consumers are still providing their cell phone information in the landline entry field. 

About 35-37 percent put their cell phone number in the landline field.

In order to not lose sight of the importance of capturing all of this valuable information, we have to look at both fields as a point of contact because folks have migrated away from using the landline and now use a mobile phone as their primary mode of contact.

Given that a huge chunk of numbers is mobile in the database, where does that leave database marketing?
For traditional mailers it changes the dynamic dramatically because you can?t call a mobile with IVR.

We have to ask clients a series of questions such as are they using a live operator, an IVR or how the data will be used because we don?t want our clients to have negative issues in terms of upsetting consumers and being fully compliant.

Most folks are not aware of the nuances of how to utilize mobile data. It would be good to have guidelines for the traditional direct marketing and telemarketing. Something like dos and don?ts for utilizing mobile data.

For the online marketers that are collecting mobile information, they don?t realize that there is value in the mobile data that we can identify and monetize this consumer information.

Marketers can communicate with individuals where they now know their mobile numbers and develop campaigns to get them to opt-in.

This is an entry point in providing marketers the ability to initiate mobile campaigns to consumers that are already on their house file. 

Let?s say consumers are trending towards offering mobile numbers as their sole point of contact. Can marketers with an existing business relationship with customers that have given mobile numbers, target these individuals on their mobile devices?
If they have an email address they can easily conduct an email campaign in order to collect opt-ins. For example, if Macy?s could do an email campaign to drive consumers to its Web site where there would be a provision for the consumer to enter their cell phone number. Macy?s could then collect the mobile numbers from their existing customer base that would be opted-in for future mobile campaigns.

In return consumers would receive a text saying they have joined the Macy?s opted-in SMS database and will receive communications from the brand. Consumers have to be reached for permission from another channel first.

What are you doing new in this area?
With over six years of experience in the mobile space, we have seen the early stages and are now seeing more marketers interested in the utilization of mobile channels.

We have particular experience in the non-marketing sector, meaning non texting. We have about six different mobile files ranging from 6 million to 140 million records and the data is very robust with additional touch points such as email, postal and many having landlines as well. We also have hundreds of additional demographic and psychographic consumer selections.

So, the marketer can identify prospects by household income, ethnicity, presence of children and so on. We also look at the application side in risk mitigation, credit and collection, homeland security and law enforcement.

Because people are beginning to move away from landlines it is an emerging marketplace. The mobile data can be used effectively as an immediate touch point due to the fact that we look at the time and date stamp as a critical point. There is no other source where you can identify and contact to the consumer daily and in real time and we know these people are engaged and can be contacted immediately.

The fact that time and date stamp are looked at as a critical factor makes it very different from the traditional direct marketing lists. We get the information within seconds of someone clicking submit and we know how to utilize this valuable information.

One of our applications that we support is working with an agency that specializes in the sports and entertainment marketplace. Surprisingly, the sports teams and the venues are unaware of who is actually attending an event.

Upwards of 70 percent of the attendees are unknown to the team and venue because consumers are buying through StubHub or are guests of a ticket holder.

To overcome this challenge, the venue or sports team conducts a text campaign asking attendees to vote or somehow interact via text.

We receive the inbound phone numbers (ANIs) and we append them back to our mobile database, identify who is behind the number and provide the information back to the team for them to follow up with a postal or email campaign to invite them back to future sports events or offer discounts on refreshments.

Inbound call centers can also utilize a similar application where we will take the inbound ANIs and have them appended against our mobile database in real time in order to obtain valuable information about the household that will save time for the operator in order processing and consumer verification.

Additional marketing opportunities exist where unique up-sell and cross-sell of products and services can now be offered in real time.

Without this insight we would not be able to capture any information about the consumer calling about a product or service that they may have seen in a DRTV promotion. 

With 31 years in the list business, how will mobile change list and database marketing as we know it?
Data is king no matter what marketing channel it is utilized in. What we have been able to see and develop in the last six years is that mobile is here to stay and will be an integral part of every marketing strategy. The direct marketing community has yet to capitalize on the importance of and success that mobile marketers have been experiencing. 

From a budgeting standpoint, mobile marketing currently falls under the digital umbrella and as a result may not have the proper recognition and allocation of budget. Mobile is part of the process and we want clients to be exposed to the channel and how to maximize the channel through data enhancements.

A unique trend that marketers need to be aware of is that most consumer databases have a header where there is provision for a landline phone number with up to seven bodies of that household tied to that landline phone number.

Now you have the same household and can have up to seven bodies in the household with individual mobile numbers and email addresses tied to each household number. This changes the marketing dynamics dramatically.

Each household member has different interests that can be identified back to the referring URLs, which are the source of the mobile phone number. This is an incredible resource for marketers to communicate with personalized offers to individual members of the household.

For household data collection, many service bureaus have not had hands-on experience working with mobile data. This is a new arena for service bureaus being that the household indexing and collection of data tied to the individual record is something new. The time and date stamp is an integral touch point that needs to be integrated into figuring out who the person is and where the data is coming from.

An example is where you have a teenager looking for an educational offer and the parents looking for a cash advance or debt consolidation offer. It changes the whole dynamic and so many service bureaus haven?t been exposed to the use of referring URLs, interest categories or the time and date stamp.

Another unique factor is that many young adults live together or have multiple housemates where they are showing up in the same household address with different phone numbers and different names and interests. Your prospect universe can be expanded by looking at these additional members that are not on a traditional direct marketing database.

Final Take
Lee Kroll is president of Kroll Direct Marketing

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