Products:
Mailing Lists Frequently Asked Questions
Q. I have never used Electric Marketing before. How do I know if your mailing lists are accurate?
Q. How much is a business list?
Q. What details do you provide for each contact?
Q. Are your lists screened against the Corporate Telephone Preference Service?
Q. I want to order a list on disk, but I don't know which format is compatible with my database program/WP program?
Q. Can I have my mailing list on labels?
Q. How soon can you deliver my mailing list?
Q. How often can I use the mailing list?
Q. Can I receive an update of the mailing list in 6 months time?
Q. Refunds and Cancellations
Q. Who uses Electric Marketing mailing lists?
Q. I only want to mail one person in each company. Can you help?
Q. Do you provide fax numbers?
Q. Why is my basket always empty even though I've added products to it?
Q. I am having problems ordering online. Can you help?
Q. Who are Electric Marketing?
I have never used Electric Marketing before. How do I know that your business lists are accurate?
To ensure accuracy, all our business lists are phoned once every four months by experienced telephone researchers. Our researchers check that the person is still in post, that their name is spelt correctly and that the company name, address, postcode and email address (if available) are correct.
If you would like to see a sample of the contacts featured on your selected business list, call us on 020 7419 7999 or e-mail us and we can fax or email a short sample of contacts for you to look at and maybe verify yourself.
How much is a business list?
Contacts are priced at 20p per name (£20 per hundred or £200 per thousand). There is no minimum order. We are as happy to sell you a list of five contacts for £1 as a list of 10,000 contacts for £2000.
What details do you provide for each contact?
For each contact you receive their name, job title, company name and EITHER postal address with full postcode and phone number OR email address OR both if you have ordered both. The price is 20p per contact for postal address OR email address and 30p per contact for both email and postal address.
We check contact details every four months, which means that 'goneaways' are rare and that we pick up company address changes and people moving jobs earlier than our competitors.
If we have the company’s annual turnover, number of employees and website address, these details are also included. Around 70% of the business lists have these details.
Are your business lists screened against the Corporate Telephone Preference Service?
Yes, we are licensed users of the CTPS and screen our database against the CTPS daily. If a company on our database has registered with the CTPS, the phone number has the letters CTPS in front of it, so that you know not to call it with a sales proposition. You may, however, call the company to conduct research or check information.
I want to order a list on disk, but I don't know which format is compatible with my database program/WP program?
We can email data or post it to you on disk in one of the following formats:
ASCII comma de-limited
ASCII tab de-limited
dBASE
Excel
Access
ACT
If you are not sure which format you need, you can download sample contacts in each of the formats to try out with your software. Just click on download.
The five files are called:
sample.txt (ASCII comma de-limited format) DOWNLOAD
sample_tab.txt (ASCII tab de-limited format) DOWNLOAD
sample.dbf (dBASE iii format) DOWNLOAD
sample.xls (Excel format) DOWNLOAD
sample.mdb (Access format) DOWNLOAD
sample_act.dbf (for use with the ACT database program) DOWNLOAD
If you do make a mistake and order the wrong data format, we will gladly exchange the data, as long as you contact us within two weeks of placing the order.
Can I have my mailing list on labels?
We can post the data to you on mailing labels or as a print out. The print out has all the contact details and phone numbers printed down the left hand side of the page with space for notes on the right, making it ideal for telemarketing. Mailing labels do not have telephone numbers or email addresses.
How soon can you deliver my mailing list?
We email or post the data to you on the day we receive your order. Delivery is free.
How often can I use the mailing list?
As often as you wish for 6 months from the date of the purchase, but bear in mind that business data decays at a rate of 30% per year, so after 12 months, 30% of the names and addresses are likely to be incorrect as companies relocate and restructure, change their name or phone number and their people switch jobs and take promotions.
Data is sold for the use of your organization only and must not be swapped or sold or used by a third party.
Can I buy an update of the list?
Yes, and if you order the update of the list within 6 months of the date of the initial purchase we will give you a 75% discount. Order an update between 6-12 months after purchase and the discount is 50%. Providing the selection criteria for the list remains the same, you can have an updated version of the list at these discounts.
Refunds on mailing lists
Refunds of 50p per contact are given for every wrongly addressed envelope that is returned to you by Royal Mail. To be eligible for refunds data must be used by you within 4 weeks of purchase and envelopes must have the Royal Mail's red 'undeliverable' sticker on them. Envelopes returned because the contact does not wish to be contacted by your company are not eligible for refunds. We will verify with the data subject that information supplied was incorrect before issuing the refund.
Refunds on email lists
Refunds are not given on email lists. Email marketing is cost effective and fast, but it is also unreliable. An email can be rejected by anti-spam software and can be returned undeliverable because a server is temporarily down or your target's inbox is full. All of these circumstances are outside our control. The data we have sold you may be correct, but your email still doesn't reach its target. It is the downside of emarketing. We recommend that you expect up to 20% of your promotional emails to miss their target inbox.
We also recommend that before you send your email, you send it to someone who uses spam filter software to see if your email gets through. Spam filters are programmed to reject emails that contain trigger words such as 'free!', 'order now', 'special offer' and are also likely to reject emails that come from addresses beginning sales@, profits@ or mail@.
Cancellations
Orders cannot be cancelled once the data has been sent to you. If you are unsure about what you are buying, please call us to discuss it beforehand. If you are not happy with your data once you have received it, again, please call us.
Who uses Electric Marketing mailing lists?
All companies who market themselves to UK businesses use mailing lists to generate enquiries and make sales.
Electric Marketing sells lists to over 2,500 companies every year. Our clients range from small start-up businesses and consultants working from home to huge corporations. Regular users of our lists include:
Abbot Research
Acxiom
Adderley Featherstone
Advertising Standards Authority
Albemarle Interim Management
Angela Mortimer
Angoss Software
Ant Marketing
Antal International
AP Information Services
Apter International
Arden Direct Marketing
Aricot Vert
Arno Fords
Ashridge Management College
Ashton Penney
Aspire Coaching & Training
Association For Coaching
Atos Origin
Bain & Co
Bank of Scotland
Beament Leslie Thomas
Bell Pottinger
Blessing White
Brahm Agency
Brand Fusion
BRG UK
Bureau Van Dijk
Business Forums International
Business Lists UK
Business Maps
CACI
CBI
Cambridge Executive Development
Cambridge Marketing College
Cambridge University
Capita People Development
Capital Capture
Caspian Publishing
Centaur Communications
Ceridian Centrefile
Chartered Management Institute
Chiumento Consulting Group
CIPD
CODA
Cogent Elliott
Colliers CRE
Cotswold Conference Centre
Coventry University
Cranfield Management Development
Critical Eye Publications
Customer Care Research
Data HQ
Davies Arnold Cooper
DestiNet
Direct Marketing Association
EuroDirect
Executive Programmes
Experian
Falconbury
Forrester Research
Forum Events
Frost & Sullivan
Future Foundation
Gannons
Garner International
Getty Images
Glazer Design
Gower Publishing
Graham Technology
Great Western Wine
Hammonds
Harper Craven
Hay Group
Haymarket Business Publishing
Henley Management College
Henry Stewart
Hicklin Slade & Partners
Hopewiser
Howgate Sable
Illumine
Immaculate UK
Incite
Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies
Ingrams Events
Innovation Data Processing
Institute of Directors
Institute of Sales & Marketing Management
Intec Business Colleges
Intermedia Global
Ipsos MORI
IQPC
John Brown Citrus Publishing
Kaplan Hawksmere
Keith Prowse
Keynote
Kogan Page
Leadership Factor
Leeds Metropolitan University
Macmillan Davies Hodes
Mardev
Market Makers
Marketing Improvement
Marketing Outsourced
Marks Sattin
McCann-Erickson Advertising
Michael C Fina
Michael Page International
Microsoft
Miller Heiman
National Computing Centre
Navigator Customer Management
Nielsen//Netratings
Northgate HR
Nova Direct Mail
Novo Executive Search & Selection
Obis Omni
OCS Consulting
Onefish Twofish
ORC International
Osborne Clarke
Oxford Research Agency
Oxford University
Pinsent Masons
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Proactive HR
Propeller Training
Pureapps
Quadrant 1 International
Quorum Training
Really Useful Research Company
Reed Business Information
Reed International
Revolution Events
Richmond Events
Right Track Consultancy
River Publishing
Roberts & Corr
Roffey Park Institute
Royal Bank of Scotland
RSA Direct
SHL
Shoosmiths
Skillsoft
Slater PR
Snowdrop Systems
Speakers For Business
Spearhead Training Group
Spencer Stuart
StoneShot
Target Displays
Thales Training Consultancy
The Economist Group
The IDM Group
The Rialto Consultancy
The Work Foundation
Thomson Online Benefits
Touch Local
Vitesse
Vox Pops International
WARC
Whichlist.com
Whitespace Communications
WNB Consultancy
Wolters Kluwer
Wyatt International
XPO Innovate
?What if!
I only want to mail one person in each company. Can you help?
We can provide one contact per company although we don't advise it. Our database is largely made up of large companies with many offices around the UK.
For instance if you were looking at a list of marketing directors, most companies have only one marketing director or maybe only a marketing manager. But a large company such as Barclays Bank has several marketing directors who are responsible for different product areas, e.g. one marketing director for mortgages, another for savings, another for corporate banking and so on.
If you insist on one contact per company we will provide you with the most senior contact we have eg group marketing director. We do not subscribe to the view that the group marketing director will pass information mailed to him down the line so that your beautifully crafted mailshot ends up in the right hands. More often the most senior man has a ruthlessly efficient secretary who decides what her boss sees, and it isn't always mailshots.
Do you provide fax numbers?
Sorry, no we don't. While it is easy to get a company's main fax number, our experience with faxshots showed us that faxshots to a company's main fax number rarely reach the desk of the person targeted. The answer is to get the department fax number of the person you are targeting and these are constantly changing as offices swap desks around or move the fax machine to the other side of the office. Also we found that fax shots attract higher levels of complaint than mailshots.
Why is my basket always empty even though I've added products to it?
If you are experiencing problems with your shopping basket or if your basket is always empty you may need to change the security settings on your browser. Click here for help and more information on this problem.
I am having problems ordering online. Can you help?
1. Select your mailing list by clicking the box next to the list.
2. When you have made your choices, click the yellow 'view my basket' button to the right of each product page.
3. An order form will detail your choices. Please check they are correct and enter your name and delivery address details.
4. If you are outside the UK but in an EU country, we need your VAT number so that you are not charged the VAT (sales tax).
5. Payment
If you wish to pay by cheque, print the order form and post it to us with a cheque made payable to Electric Marketing Ltd.
If you wish to pay by credit card, enter your credit card details. Please remember to give us the address at which the card is registered. This is a secure site and it is safe for you to send your credit card details to us electronically.
However you may print the order form and post or fax it to us with your credit card details written on the form. Or you can choose the order by phone option and call us with your card details.
Any further questions? Please call us on 020 7419 7999 or send us an email.
Who are Electric Marketing?
Electric Marketing was set up in a small office in Brixton's Electric Avenue in 1991. Its co-founders, Robert Bingham and Melissa Mackey continue to work in the company. It is a private limited company and only sells business lists that it compiles, updates and owns itself. Electric Marketing does not sell lists on behalf of any other list owner.