At a recent meeting of the Direct Marketing Club of New York (DMCNY.org) Bruce Biegel, Managing Director at Winterberry Group presented his views on the state of the DM industry to a group of nearly 200 attendees at the club’s monthly luncheon. This year marks Bruce’s fifth appearance at the organization’s annual kick-off session of its program year. As always, Bruce’s insights were keen, his commentary wise, his perspective both broad and deep and his wit sharp. Bruce was a recent recipient of the organization’s prestigious Silver Apple Award recognizing 25 years of distinguished service to the DM industry.

For those of us in the tele-services/contact center segment of the DM sector there was much to consider in Bruce’s speech as we continuously strive to improve service to our clients and render more value to the contacts that we deliver to our clients customers. He spoke of several emerging trends in the DM industry. Among these key trends are: the emergence of enterprise data management platforms; growth of centralized data and analytical staff; audience fragmentation and the imperative to integrate on and off line interactions. He spoke about the “holy grail” of target marketing being attribution, that is the instantaneous ability to recognize what’s working and what’s not in a campaign.

At iPacesetters we believe strongly in the supremacy of data to inform the marketing and sales process. We believe that the power of a well-crafted message, delivered telephonically by a well trained agent is the ultimate antidote to audience fragmentation. At the point of that telephone interaction there is no fragmentation; it is an audience of one.

Smart marketers recognize that skilled use of Contact Center techniques are vital components of their channel mix and that the human voice renders a value that no other method can match.

All the best,

Ray