Network node information associated with 3 billion IP addresses on the global Internet will be used to target advertising, flag fraud, verify identities, and analyze network growth.

SEATTLE, WA — June 10, 2011. Profound Networks has announced a massive database of business intelligence data on Internet infrastructure and activities. This information, gathered through a comprehensive census of every active IP addresses on the global Internet, powers novel business applications. Profound Networks develops data-driven tools that are used to segment advertising, uncover medical billing fraud, and track and analyze network growth.

“Our rich data provides information on networks, servers, computers and smart phones, and even the software that’s been installed,” said Blake Sitney, president and chief technologist of Profound Networks. “We can segment this information by geographic area and by organization, often right down to ZIP code or business division.”

Profound Networks uses proprietary technology to unobtrusively gather the public data that exists behind every routable IP address on the global Internet. The company also monitors information on 920 million corporate subdomains, capturing information about network growth and about software and services on those networks.

Profound Networks unpacks and analyzes this data, then uses it to create cutting edge tools for clients in business and government. Sitney says clients are using the data for a wide range of purposes, from monitoring network growth to flagging fraud and blocking web signups that originate from suspect servers. Profound Technology’s current business units focus on display advertising, fraud mitigation, IP validation, and network analytics.

“Customers are coming to us with challenging requests,” said Sitney. “The demand for data about online activities is growing every day.”

About Profound Networks

Founded in 2005, Profound Networks employs a proprietary process to compile data on all the routable IP addresses on the global Internet — currently 3 billion addresses. Profound unpacks and analyzes IP-address data to create customized tools and services that address a wide range of business intelligence and security needs.

Profound Networks uses an innovative data-intelligence technology developed by Marigold Direct. This same data-intelligence technology is used by Marigold Direct, a direct marketing list acquisition firm serving a Fortune 500 client base.

For more information on Profound Networks’ data intelligence solutions, call Ben De Lisle, SVP Sales 646-331-7016 or email ben@profound.net

Marigold Direct is proud to launch DNS Insight, a new email deliverability and creative segmentation tool. Managers of large opt-in email files now have another method to improve the quality of their database. The DNS Insight service validates IP addresses in customer files.

When a customer opts-in to receive email messages, several details are captured: the website where they opted-in, demographics collected via survey questions, the date and time stamp, and the IP address. The IP address is often overlooked as an important data element. DNS Insight looks to change that viewpoint. The IP address indicates the ISP or carrier network that the customer subscribes to. And by periodically testing the status of the IP address, owners of opt-in databases can see if the IP address remains active or not. We have found a strong correlation between inactive IP addresses and inactive emails. For example, if a customer upgrades from a dialup account such as AOL to a cable broadband account like Comcast, there is often a change of email addresses as well. The DNS Insight service can validate that change without sending an email and receiving a hard bounce back. Hard bounces damage the IP reputation of email broadcasters. The last thing a legitimate opt-in email provider wants for their service is to get blacklisted on the multitude of RBL or spam blocking services out there.

An additional benefit of IP Validation with DNS Insight is that the service can flag suspicious records in the customer’s database. During the pre-launch testing period, DNS Insight validated a 6 million record file of USA consumers and found 8,000 records all pointing to the same server in China. These records could have been “opted in” by means of some sort of automated process or bot. Flagging and removing records such as these will only improve the quality and responsiveness of the database.

Improving email deliverability is only half of the DNS Insight solution. Creative segmentation is the other half. DNS Insight will append a variety of new data elements to our customer files, including the fully qualified domain name of each IP address, and the carrier network that the IP address belongs to. The creative segmentation component adds considerable value to the database of DNS Insight customers. Innovative campaigns can be developed targeting specific networks such as Cable, or DSL customers as opposed to Dialup customers. Targeting customers from Educational or Government networks is now also possible. Distinguishing customers based on business or residential networks will prove to be a very valuable segmentation as well.

DNS Insight will work with reputable companies interested in maintaining the highest level of integrity and service. For more information, please visit www.dnsinsight.net

The folks over at Melissa Data want everyone to know what five questions to ask when testing a list. The answers to these questions will insure that you have the best possible experience with your list broker and come up with a highly targeted and effective list.

MarketingProfs.com points out that even poorly-done email campaigns can generate a decent ROI. So think what you could do with really top-notch email marketing! This article explains in detail how to demonstrate to your CEO that a larger investment in email marketing can generate a higher return.

DMNews reports that the USPS is conducting tests to better handle “slim jims,” or letter-sized catalogs. These narrow booklets are becoming increasingly popular because, under the new postage rates, they are less expensive to send than traditional-sized catalogs that mail at the more expensive rate for “flats.” After the testing is concluded, specifications for the “slim jims” are expected to change, so direct marketers planning to use this format in upcoming campaigns should follow USPS news closely.

BtoB Magazine offers valuable reminders about the pitfalls of harvesting email addresses without permission (or using harvested email addresses obtained from third parties). Harvested lists violate federal CAN-SPAM regulations. The legal alternative is to use opt-in email lists — keeping in mind that even those must be used in specific ways that comply with CAN-SPAM.

Reacting to recent New York Times articles about list-based campaigns that targeted the elderly with fraudulent offers, the Direct Marketing Association has reminded its members to adhere to its guidelines for “responsible use of marketing data for legitimate business purposes.”

Our clients can be assured that Marigold abides by these guidelines, designed to prevent fraudulent direct mail offers. The DMA asks list brokers to:

• Keep on file a copy of the script, e-mail or print promotion used for a client’s campaign.
• Monitor mailings (via decoy addresses added to the list) to make sure that the list is used only for its appropriate purpose.
• Have a written agreement with the client that makes clear the purpose and scope of the list’s use.

We’re happy to say that it’s been our experience that our clients, many of them established Fortune 500 companies, are aware of these guidelines and conduct their campaigns well within the standards set by the DMA. If you have any concerns or questions about use of a Marigold list for a particular campaign, please contact us for more information.

Marigold has announced several new mailing lists including a massive database of more than 498,000 new businesses. This fresh postal mailing list has segments that allow you to reach businesses at the 1-month, 3-month, 6-month and 12-month stages of growth. Selects include business/industry type, company size, and state.

Additional new professional and lifestyle lists provide access to these desirable markets:

• Retirees — This list includes segments for recent (3-month and 6-month) retirees, and offers numerous selects allowing you to target your offers.
• Surgeons — This multi-sourced file is perfect for professional offers for medical books, uniforms, apparel, and more.
• Nursing Professionals at Home Address — This list provides access to strong buyers of educational and professional tools, including seminars, videos and books.
• Reach a market with exceptional discretionary income using the new lists Households with No Kids and Double Income Household with No Kids.

Search our complete database of lists, or contact us to find out about our ability to develop custom mailing lists to meet your specific requirements.

Here’s a quick roundup of the latest tips and insights from direct mail blogs, newsletters, websites and more.

Inside Direct Mail points out that “Bigger Can Be Better,” with a case study. Find out how a well-crafted aggressive package can generate ROI that more than justifies the additional costs for printing and mailing.

eMarketer covers a new study about how promotional marketers are employing online tactics including podcasts, blogs, banner ads and email.

MarketingProfs weighs the pros and cons of using customers’ real names in marketing testimonials, and readers weigh in on the discussion. This should be of particular interest to B2B marketers, who run the risk of revealing their company contacts to competitors if they quote them by name.

The May newsletter from SubscriberMail (free with registration) insists that “everything you need to know about email marketing, you learned from your mother.” We don’t know about that (did your mom use a list broker?), but we do like their sensible recommendations like “Clean your room” (clean and verify your mailing lists). And we’d like to remind you to “Practice, practice, practice” — test your offer and your lists before rolling out that big campaign.

Looking for inspiration and insight? Want to find out what other companies are doing? Here’s a list of major direct marketing industry events for the second half of 2007:

DMA: E-Mail Policy Summit
May 18, Washington, DC

DMA Audioconference: Teleservices Council Legislative Update
May 22 (audioconference)

24th Annual ACCM – Conference for Catalog, Internet & Multichannel Merchants
May 21 – 23, Boston

DMA: Nonprofit Leadership Summit
June 5-7, Coral Gables, FL

DMA & FTC: Green Lights & Red Flags: FTC Rules of the Road for Advertisers and Direct Marketers
June 15, Boston

DMA International Day
June 18, New York

DM Days Conference and Expo
June 19-21, New York

DMA: Fast Forward 2007 – Executive Summit for Marketing Information Business Leaders
Aug. 1, 2007, New York

2007 New York Nonprofit Conference
Aug. 8-9, New York

DMA: 3rd Annual Directo Day West
Aug. 13, Long Beach, CA

DMA Audioconference: Teleservices Council Legislative Update
Aug. 21 (audioconference)

Channel Partners Conference and Expo
Sept. 26-28, Secaucus, NJ

DMA 07 Conference & Exhibition
Oct. 13-18, Chicago

DMA Audioconference: Teleservices Council Legislative Update
Nov. 13 (audioconference)

Forrester’s Consumer Marketing Forum EMEA 2007
Nov. 15-16, Barcelona

National Center for Database Marketing 2007
Dec. 10-13, Las Vegas

Marigold has just announced three new B2B mailing lists to help clients target specific purchaser subsets within the business universe.

MultiLocation Pros puts you in touch with more than 15 million businesses nationwide that have a headquarters plus branch locations. Segment the postal mail or phone data by headquarters or branch, as appropriate for your campaign. You can further target your mailing to companies by their annual revenues, number of employees, or number of years in business.

Minority Owned Businesses (postal, email, or phone) makes it possible for you to reach more than half a million minority-owned businesses. Selects for this extremely targeted list include business/industry type, ethnicity, ZIP code, and more.

Research and Development Professionals gives you postal mail, phone and fax access to more than 25 thousand professionals in a specific title set with purchasing influence and authority.

Please contact us to find out more about these powerful new lists.

Some of the hottest areas in direct marketing — and direct mail — are the emerging ethnic markets. As this article from The CEO Refresher explains, dramatic profitability is in store for those companies that can recognize an ethnic market for their product and appropriately tailor a campaign to reach it.

That’s where Marigold’s newest mailing lists can help. We now offer a full array of lists that allow direct marketers to reach consumers by ethnicity, language, and religion. For the Hispanic market, more than 20 lists are available for consumers by country of origin. All the lists have numerous geographic and lifestyle selects, and can be tailored to match the target audience for your specific campaign.

The new mailing lists include more than 150 ethnic lists, as well as lists representing larger geographic areas such as the Mediterranean and the Near East. You can view counts for 40 of the larger lists here. To inquire about specific lists and the selects available for them, please call or email us.

Over at Direct, Ken Magill lets email marketers know “Why the CMO Thinks You’re an Idiot,” taking the industry to task for failing to measure results. Magill bases his dim view of the field on findings from a recent Jupiter Research study (fee required) that found at least half of email marketers fail to regularly track basic key performance indicators (KPI’s) such as revenue per subscriber, average order size, and click-to-conversion rates.

BtoB Online reports similar observations from a study conducted by Marketing Management Analystics for Financial Executives International. Fewer than 20 percent of the financial executives surveyed were happy with the quality of the metrics they get from their colleagues in the marketing department. Poor communication was a problem, but the lack of a budget specifically for measuring marketing effectiveness was also blamed — fewer than 10 percent of the companies surveyed had one.

Perhaps not coincidentally, a new article at MarketingProfs.com reports on the emergence of new role in organizations: Marketing Operations. Its function is “to drive the connection between marketing strategy and execution and actual results.”

On the lighter sider: Get a glimpse of the online version of the Nashville Zoo’s attention-grabbing new direct mail campaign urging patrons to “get behind” the zoo.