The E-file: an overview - GRS Associates Ltd

Facilities, Health & Safety and Environment

Key decision makers, buyers, influencers and specifiers across thousands of the UK’s largest industrial, business and commmercial sites

GRS is one of the last remaining sources of original content in the DM industry and the only one whose entire compilation and maintenance process is still 100% ‘eyes-on’ manual and 0% ‘cold’ or automated. Expensive and time consuming? Yes, but worth it.

We are also the only one that specialises in all three of these key sectors.

Driven by the twin goals of reducing cost and minimising effort, the most recent form of database compilation is simple internet data scraping. Hiding behind fancy terms such as ‘AI’ and ‘live data feeds’, these new and fashionable data harvesting techniques are already (and deservedly) being called into question as they are failing to deliver the accuracy and quality they promise, while stretching all GDPR rules to breaking point. So, buyer beware!

The number of original content B2B marketing databases in the list market today has been declining steadily for quite some years. Tele-research was once the ‘gold standard’ of database development which – along with membership/subscription, response media and event attendance – provided a reliable and extensive source of high quality, effective and affordable marketing data.

Now in the new ‘gold rush’ for free harvested data scraped from the ‘Net, standards have dropped across the board with quantity replacing quality and yet prices remain inappropriately high.

Just a cursory glance at this kind of data reveals a mind-boggling array of anomilies, typos and even nonsensical text. It is clear nobody has ever bothered to scrutinise it or even run any basic checks. Instead it is scooped up and dumped into a spreadsheet, packaged and promoted as “The Real Deal”. To make matters worse, most outlets are simply part of a chain re-selling the same recycled content under their own brands.

Rarely do such sources offer comprehensive coverage of any particular sectors and often contain a very eclectic collection of named contacts, many of whose inclusion is about maintaining the perception of coverage as opposed to actually achieving it.

And it is the result of resisting such short cuts that makes our E-File unique.

A UNIQUE CONCEPT AND STRATEGY

This pioneering database was launched in 2003 for a small syndicate of sponsors, each one active in a different line of business but all of them targeting either ‘Facilities’ or ‘Health & Safety’ decision makers.

By sharing the sizeable database build budget between them, they could each own a new bespoke marketing tool for less than it cost at the time to lease any other type of off-the-shelf B2B contact file from the list rental market…

How many times does the average commercial mailing list need to be rented out in order to keep turning a profit for the owner? The obvious answer: many, many times! The inevitable outcome? Market saturation resulting in a minimal response and a high unsubscribe rate.

Our strategy has always centred around retaining enough subscribers to cover the considerable costs of on-going research and maintenance, while limiting subscriptions to prevent over-use of the data which undermines the integrity of the files and dilutes the effectiveness of subscriber campaigns.

At the end of each year some subscribers elect to opt out of this syndicate in order to pursue other alternative marketing media leaving scope for new subscribers to join in their place. Ideally, we try to limit user licences to just one per business sector, to give recipients a wide variety of offers while providing our subscribers with the invaluable bonus of exclusivity to maximise their market share ahead of competitors.

The addition of the ‘Environmental’ edition extended our reach into another key sector.

WHAT ABOUT MAINTENANCE?

Regardless of what form of data collection is employed, all information has a limited shelf life and will inevitably decay without a reliable and on-going updating process.

This is the crucial area in which The E-File stands apart from other B2B databases…

Because our E-File focuses on larger commercial sites, we are fortunate to avoid the levels of change and relocation which impact the SME end of the market harder.

While we try to ensure that every site is tele-verified at least once every 12-18 months, our E-File is further enhanced by on-going subscriber usage (mail, phone and email) which results in the regular re-qualifying of any ‘bounces’/returns and identifying any changes and/or amendments as and when they occur.

Recent years have seen an alarming trend whereby more and more companies are outsourcing their switchboards to remote third party contractors who have a limited knowledge of the staff or structure of the sites they are representing. This seems to go hand-in-hand with a woeful misunderstanding of GDPR which increases resistance to any kind of tele-verification calls.

Despite this, all tele-verification work is still carried out by an experienced team of professional UK based researchers before passing through two strict quality control processes during a final manual check by a Director.

Such processes place a very heavy demand on time and resources but compromising on quality is a false economy. We have seen many would-be competitors in the trade fall victim to the temptation to cut corners and seen their reputation suffer as a result.

ARE THERE CHEAPER OPTIONS?

Any marketing manager seeking to undertake the daunting project of such detailed telephone research from scratch would require a considerable budget followed by substantial ongoing maintenance costs.

The simple fact is that there really are no short-cuts when it comes to any database creation and maintenance…

Marketeers tempted to cut costs by sub-contracting tele-research work to a cut-priced overseas call centre will lose out on core fundamental requirements such as vital local knowledge which massively affects the accuracy of the important information required. The wheels have since very much fallen off the ‘off-shoring’ bandwagon, exposing what should have been its most obvious shortcomings!

During the early stages of our E-File development, the vast majority of companies were happy to provide full contact information and the database development business was flourishing. Sadly, with the arrival of GDPR, a culture of suspicion and even neurosis has evolved. Misguided policies born out of a complete misunderstanding of the new data protection laws have given rise to a rapid increase in non-cooperation by corporate switchboards – refusing to provide new contact details believing they are saving their staff from unsolicited and unwanted junk mail.

Ironically, such policies simply cut their staff off from important products and services which could help them do their jobs more effectively while doing nothing to stem the flow of the unwanted and irrelevant ‘spam’ they seek to avoid, as spammers do not engage in expensive telephone research or follow GDPR rules!

This makes building a database of this size a very challenging process.

Contact us to find out how our unique E-File can work for your business