Database Marketing Gurus Walk Away From Traditional Direct Marketing for BeNOW, a New B2B E-Marketing Company.

Business/Technology Editors

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 22, 2000

BeNOW is the Only B2B E-Marketing Company to Offer Clients Free

E-Mail Distribution

Direct marketing gurus Brad Neuenhaus, Andy Cutler, Tom McGinley, and John Groman have launched BeNOW (www.be-now.com), a new business-to-business e-marketing company. According to BeNOW President Neuenhaus, the company grows out of an absolute belief that the future of direct marketing for businesses lies in highly sophisticated one-to-one focused e-marketing technologies and applications. All four BeNOW founders were involved in the founding or growth of Epsilon, one of the country's most respected direct marketing pioneers.

"The direct marketing business has changed completely in the past five years," observed Neuenhaus. "The explosive growth of e-mail has created dramatic changes in the way people communicate and the ways they can be persuaded to act. Most e-mail campaigns are not integrated properly into the overall marketing process. Consequently, companies are missing huge opportunities to develop and nurture customer relationships. BeNOW brings all the pieces together for effective business-to-business (B2B) programs by integrating on and offline marketing techniques, direct mail, and e-mail across all customer channels."

Last fall, Neuenhaus and other senior managers at TPC, a $10 million database marketing company based in Burlington with business-to-business and business-to-consumer clients, held a series of strategy sessions. After thoroughly researching the marketplace and testing their new business model with clients, it became clear that the time was right to move in a different direction. Management decided to close the 14-year-old TPC and create an entirely new entity devoted to serving B2B clients seeking to improve customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities and implement integrated e-marketing strategies.

The timing for such a move is promising. According to the Direct Marketing Association, $38 billion was spent on business-to-business direct mail in 1998, and this figure is expected to increase to $47 billion next year. By 2003, estimates are that $4.8 billion will be spent on direct e-mail. The e-marketing services sector, which combines strategy, marketing communications and technology, is projected to grow from $700 million in 2000 to nearly $11 billion in 2005.

"We are convinced that enterprises of all kinds must become far more strategic in the way that they communicate with their business customers," said Andy Cutler, BeNOW vice president-strategic services. "We believe that B2B e-marketing must be founded on an integrated marketing strategy. A campaign has to support the brand, and it has to be of significant value to the recipient. Without this strategy, you are simply replacing junk mail with junk e-mail, even if it is under the guise of `permission e-mail.'"

BeNOW integrates marketing strategy, database technology, e-mail, and analysis, enabling clients to dramatically reduce costs and increase revenues. First, it replaces expensive direct mail and telemarketing with targeted e-mail campaigns that are one-third the cost and achieve response rates that are five to ten times higher. Additionally, it builds stronger, more profitable customer relationships through more timely, more targeted communications and constant analysis. Finally, BeNOW helps clients implement e-marketing infrastructure and campaigns in as little as 45-90 days. So powerful are the savings that companies can fully fund BeNOW programs by reallocating existing resources.

"Our revenue model is based on delivering a total package of extraordinary strategy, service, speed and results. We are the only e-marketing company to offer free e-mail delivery," Neuenhaus said. "This is like the Post Office making stamps free. We have revolutionized the e-marketing equation and separated ourselves from the commodity e-mail companies that charge for each e-mail."

More and more companies are electing to outsource their e-marketing needs because effective programs require highly trained specialists in a variety of disciplines, an expensive capability to maintain. And because technology changes so rapidly, equipment and software can quickly become obsolete. "Companies are outsourcing e-marketing not because it is unimportant, but because it is critically important," commented Neuenhaus. "BeNOW was created to handle the entire process for businesses from managing the technology, developing and implementing the strategies, and providing all the analytics.

BeNOW's senior marketing team, with decades of direct marketing experience, is led by Neuenhaus, an accomplished database marketer. He spent 15 years at Epsilon and most recently was president of TPC. He is joined by industry veterans Andy Cutler and Tom McGinley, who between them have more than 30 years with Epsilon. Epsilon founder and nationally-known thought leader John Groman is executive vice president and e-vangelist for the newly formed company. Groman is one of the country's leading authorities on customer relationship marketing and is a frequent speaker at industry seminars and events worldwide. Creativity expert Alan Rosenspan shares the title of e-vangelist for BeNOW. Rosenspan has led creative departments for Ogilvy & Mather and Bronner Schlossberg Humphrey (now Digitas), a world-leading direct marketing company.

"In addition to our experienced management team, BeNOW boasts an extraordinary staff of more than 60 professionals who are well-versed in direct and database marketing and technology. Our people have grown up in one-to-one marketing," Neuenhaus noted. "Unlike other players in this arena, we are experts in the fundamentals of one-to-one marketing that haven't changed, as well as in the new approaches and technologies that are revolutionizing the tactics of marketing. We know how to deliver measurable results for business."

Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, BeNOW (www.be-now.com) offers an integrated solution of consulting, customer relationship management, e-messaging and analytical capabilities specifically targeted to the needs of B2B marketers. BeNOW provides e-marketing strategy, outbound/inbound e-mail messaging, campaign management, database management and analysis. BeNOW's clients include B2B marketers at medium to large companies in the high technology, industrial distribution and supply, financial services and telecommunications industries.