B2B, Consumer List Prices Falling: Worldata

Prices for many categories of lists continue to drop from last year’s levels as a result of the overall economy and other factors, according to Worldata’s just-released Fall 2011 List Price Index.

“I think there are a number of things going on,” says Ray Tesi, senior vice president. “We all thought we’d probably be out of the economic [difficulties] but we’re really not. We take two steps up and three steps back.”

Specifically, the prices for consumer email lists have fallen to $81 per thousand, down 25.69% from $109 per thousand in the prior year.

This is largely attributable to a profusion of available email files. “Many more consumer email lists continue to become available which is driving down price,” he says.

Tesi notes that marketers ranging from large automotive companies to universities and other educational marketers have increased their use of email and the increased volume is contributing to a drop in prices.

He points out that while the response rates and clickthoughs may be constant, the greater volume of email being sent out is driving down the CPMs (costs per thousand).

Another factor possibly contributing to this price decline is the profusion of daily deal and couponing websites first noted earlier this year https://chiefmarketer.com/direct/non-print/0418-deal-sites-data/index.html.

In the business-to-business arena, the prices of aggregated email databases fell to $161 per thousand, 25.46% below $216 per thousand last year.

Similarly, the prices for aggregated postal B2B databases fell $80 per thousand, an 18.37% decrease from $98 per thousand last year.

“Aggregated business databases are still a very new vehicle for marketers,” says Tesi. “While they do perform, the return on investment is proving that the original pricing when these data sources entered the market at were inflated.”

He expects this decrease to continue.

In a somewhat unusual development, the prices for international email lists fell slightly to $401 per thousand from $405 per thousand.

“They’ve either been rising or remaining steady but it was bound to make a turn,” says Tesi.

He attributes this to a growth in the number of magazine subscriber and other response files becoming available in countries like Germany, Spain and the U.K.

“Just like we’ve seen with domestic or North American data, international mailers now have more options,” he says.

Despite the rapid growth of social media and mobile marketing, existing privacy laws are inhibiting their development as data sources. Tesi does not expect this to change anytime soon, even though an increasing number of consumers and professionals are communicating and transacting business through their cell phones and other mobile devices.

The only list categories posting price increases were attendees/members and donors.

The price of attendee/member files went 0.78% to $130 per thousand from $129 per thousand last year.

Donor list prices rose 1.18% to $86 per thousand from $85 per thousand in the prior year.

This slight increase comes after a few years after one of the steepest declines on charitable giving on record https://chiefmarketer.com/direct/non-print/nonprofits-expand-dr-efforts-0715lar2/index.html

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