Three out of five specifiers say Direct Mail is relevant

“Companies looking to market their products and services to social housing specifiers must focus on getting relevant messages to the right people”, says Neil Parsonson, General Manager at prospect data provider Windowbase.

Recently Windowbase asked housing specifiers how they keep up with current trends and new products. "Much was down to individual preference - for example some preferred emails as they don't waste paper. Others said emails simply clogged up their servers. But everyone we spoke to said that colourful images made direct mail stand out, and more likely to be read. Most were happy to speak (briefly!) to telemarketers. Relevance relates directly to projects specifiers are working on so can vary, but three out of five specifiers are happy with what is mailed or emailed to them.

“The next stage is to ensure you are addressing the right people. This means knowing which housing organisations are directly responsible for refurbishment and housebuilding (there are lots that aren’t) and who the main decision-makers are. Brochures sent without a named contact are likely to be binned on receipt, which is an expensive end to a sales opportunity.

“Many companies offer mailing lists and a clue to their data quality will be in the price. Firms offering ‘cheap’ data tend to harvest addresses from a variety of unverified sources. However accuracy is low, wasting expensive postage and leaflets. In contrast, Windowbase only provides details of housing organisations that it has interviewed, and only those with more than 200 properties in their portfolio, so you know they’ll be worth talking to and that contact names have been verified.

“Investing in a properly researched database from the start will enable you to target genuine social housing prospects. For suppliers it means more opportunities to sell and for specifiers it reduces the avalanche of irrelevant material!”