B2B marketing

[suityou01]

After a long spell on the bench I wanted to look at direct marketing. There are mailing lists out there that can be bought. Has anyone done this, or markets directly? What works for you?

I am in IT development, and specialise in data migrations (system merges, and legacy system replacement) and BPM (Business Process Management) mainly Metastorm.

If I were to market to companies, I would choose SMEs of 300+staff. Anyone got any advice?

[PM-Junkie]

After a long spell on the bench I wanted to look at direct marketing. There are mailing lists out there that can be bought. Has anyone done this, or markets directly? What works for you?

I am in IT development, and specialise in data migrations (system merges, and legacy system replacement) and BPM (Business Process Management) mainly Metastorm.

If I were to market to companies, I would choose SMEs of 300+staff. Anyone got any advice?

Yes I do, but it may be a little late. It's all about networking - the secret to contracting is to NEVER stop networking. When you're in a contract, network. When you start a contract, network. When you finish a contract, network. Your network and your reputation is your business...and you'll eventually reach the stage (quickly or slowly depending on how good you are at networking) where you won't need agencies unless your customers have a policy that insists you go through one (eg Barclays).

So my suggestion would be to get in touch with everyone you've worked with up to now. Let them know you're on the market (don't phone them up and ask for a job....the "if you hear of anything coming up, do give me a shout" type of approach is less likely to frighten people off). Take people out for lunch - put yourself about.

It's actually good fun.

I hope that helps. Trust me - it works....even in times like this.

[MarillionFan]

Mail shots are generally pretty poor.

I remember buying an agency database years ago (off a poster on this very site for £50). Actually it was pretty good, so I blasted emails off to a sample 100

I got around 15 bounce backs, 10 replies saying we'll let HR know and 2 leads, which came to nothing.

In addition, I do have a copy of Dunn & Bradstreet which has 110 million records. So if anyone needs data let me know, but it's going to cost you!

[suityou01]

Mail shots are generally pretty poor.

I remember buying an agency database years ago (off a poster on this very site for £50). Actually it was pretty good, so I blasted emails off to a sample 100

I got around 15 bounce backs, 10 replies saying we'll let HR know and 2 leads, which came to nothing.

In addition, I do have a copy of Dunn & Bradstreet which has 110 million records. So if anyone needs data let me know, but it's going to cost you!

IIRC sales people I have spoken to in the past say 1 lead in a hundred mailouts is about right. The one lead in 10 may come to something.