Several years ago my sister was working for a small company in the Washington DC area that does database marketing. I never really knew what that meant until she worked there and I had a reason to find out. The company gathered information on people from a variety of sources and built consumer profiles on each American household.
Her company knew how many vehicles you have, whether you voted Democrat or Republican, what brand of cigarettes you smoke, if any, and all kinds of personal information. They then sold that information to companies to be used in telemarketing and direct mail advertising campaigns.
Telemarketing has become much more sophisticated now. The information used by the telemarketers is more accurate so calls aren’t wasted on people that don’t qualify, and the calls are better targeted to the demographics and lifestyles of people who might be interested.
Small companies can now use telemarketing in select markets to their advantage. It doesn’t have to be a bad word – you should check out some of the good things that telemarketing can do. And with the price of postage going up again, it may make more sense to use the telephone instead of the mailman to deliver your company’s message.