A New Year - A New View

As 2008 approaches, many of us put on rose-colored glasses to shape our vision of what the next year looks like. Beyond a personal wish for health and happiness, you are probably setting goals for your business that may include sales growth, higher return on investment, and a more robust bottom line.
 
If you're a B2B marketer working on campaigns for 2008, it's probably time to take off the rose-colored glasses and get out a magnifying glass. Buried inside your B2B customer file are hidden revenue producers that are masked by SIC industry classifications. The hidden gems are institutions and they represent very lucrative opportunities.

• Institutions are big - both in purchasing power and size. They represent 1/3 of the U.S. economy - that's $4.1 trillion in spending.
• Institutions have budgets that are equal to Fortune 500 companies. Dow Chemical is #40 on the Fortune 500 list with $49 billion revenue. The City of New York has approved a $59 billion budget for FY08.
• According to D&B, the average institution is almost twice as large as the average business based on number of employees. Businesses average 8.5 employees per location while institutions average 16.7.
• Institutions are stable while businesses are born and die at the rate of over 10% per year.
• Institutions mirror your best and most ideal business customers yet they are difficult to reach because they don't act like businesses, don't buy like businesses, and can't be segmented like businesses.

You need to use business databases to reach businesses and institution databases to reach institutions. When you apply business rules to the institutional market, you create issues that make direct marketers cringe. For example: What are the sales of a school? How many employees does a church have? What are the SIC's for diagnostic imaging, or assisted living, or ambulance services? When you rely on data compiled by a B2i expert, you benefit from a precise compiling methodology that makes it easier for you to accurately target the institutions that are most likely to respond to your offer.

We encourage you adopt a new view when you look at your customer file and develop your 2008 campaigns. Call us today - we can help you identify the hidden gems that can help you build a better bottom line.