[cs_content][cs_section parallax=”false” style=”margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;”][cs_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/1″ style=”padding: 0px;”][cs_text]The DMA has warned this month that businesses are at risk of losing consumers through badly planned telemarketing and direct mail.
As a business, you should be building a brand that consumers can trust and rely on, but more and more businesses are now failing to take note of restrictions such as the TPS and MPS, using out of date and unscreened data for marketing campaigns. At this point in time there are around 5.5 million names and addresses registered with the MPS and a further estimated 20 million mobile and landline numbers registered with the TPS. So how simple is it for businesses to access these lists and stay on top of data maintenance?
[/cs_text][x_custom_headline level=”h2″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”false”]How to stay compliant[/x_custom_headline][cs_text]The MPS and TPS are both free services for the public to use but unfortunately this is not the case for businesses. If your business carries out regular marketing campaigns then the most cost effective way to maintain your data is going to be to purchase a yearly licence, but if you only run small and infrequent campaigns then you could consider only purchasing the information as and when you need it.
There are also many mailing houses and other agencies on the market that offer full and effective data compliance services. From buying data lists to cleansing your existing contact list, there are a range of data processing options available for you to choose from, leaving you with no excuse for non-compliance.
[/cs_text][x_custom_headline level=”h2″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”false”]Screening your data can save time & money[/x_custom_headline][cs_text]As a business, your client data should be of paramount importance to you. Keeping your data up to date and relevant may seem like a laborious and costly task but the alternatives can be far worse. For a reasonable amount of money, you can cleanse your data of addresses, telephone numbers and names against the TPS and MPS databases to ensure your data remains fully compliant. Whilst these associations do not have the authority or power to penalise businesses, they can pass complaints to the ICO who do. The ICO have the ability to fine and prosecute businesses who fail to use compliant data.
However, the risk of fines isn’t going to be the only issue faced by businesses who operate telemarketing and direct mail marketing, the biggest risk is more likely to be a loss of trust in your brand and products, losing you valuable customers and revenue. Having a reputation for sending unsolicited mail or making unwanted sales calls can be impossible to recover from for a business. By choosing to screen your data on a regular basis, you could be saving yourself time and money. Ineffective sales calls and mail shots are incredibly costly in both value and time but with cleansed data you can run your marketing in a far more efficient way.
For more information on the direct mail and data processing services offered by Baker Goodchild please feel free to get in contact today or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
Image Credit: Australian War Memorial collection[/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][/cs_content]
