Meet the Broker: Amanda Fenchel

Today we meet Amanda Fenchel, senior content strategist at Merkle Inc. Fenchel is responsible for the agency’s list recommendations.

She started working with lists when she joined Merkle in March 2004. Before that she was a media buyer at another agency.

Fenchel’s specialty is the new parents market. She also works with clients in the financial services sector and other consumer products marketers, including catalogers. She has brokered lists for Nike, Dell, Bose and Luvs diapers.

“Probably 85% to 95% of my focus is on lists. I do research, make recommendations and spend time on the phone with clients so I will understand their needs,” she says.

It’s always a challenging proposition to find an optimal mix of response and compiled data to assemble sufficient quantities of names for mailings, but even more so in the current economic climate, she points out.

“List brokerage is an art and a science. Having a gut feeling about which lists will work is an art. The science part is the analytics,” says Fenchel.

Besides toiling with mailers and list managers, Fenchel volunteers for Helping Hand Rescue Mission in Philadelphia, plays field hockey and co-leads a women’s Bible study group.

What’s challenging about finding lists of new parents?

The universe of lists of new parents is limited, as roughly 300,000 babies are born each month, with usually more born in August and September.

Lists of subscribers to new parent magazines can be counted on to perform best, but brokers must consider many lists for merge purge to find all 300,000 new parents. This typically includes data compiled from public records and newspaper birth announcements, besides other online generated data.

Finding duplicate names on multiple lists of new parents is the best possible validation that someone actually is a new parent, says Fenchel.

How can mailers mail smarter during a recession?

“I think a lot of list owners and list managers are willing to help mailers with list pre-testing. We’re seeing a lot more of it because of the economy,” Fenchel says.

Small quantities of data are used to build statistical models to test and determine which list segments perform best.

List owners and managers know their data best, harnessing their knowledge and experience and the analysis work of a list broker can help mailers mail smarter, she says.

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