InfoCision makes the connection

Ken Dawson, Chief Marketing Officer, InfoCision Management Corp.
Ken Dawson, Chief Marketing Officer, InfoCision Management Corp.

As communication channels expand from the traditional phone call to a bounty of online platforms, the direct marketing industry is challenged to keep up. InfoCision Management Corp. is no exception – but the difference is that they see this challenge as an opportunity.
In business since 1982, InfoCision is the nation’s second largest privately held teleservices company and a leading provider of direct marketing solutions for Fortune 100 companies and nonprofit organizations.
Chief Marketing Officer Ken Dawson has been instrumental in InfoCision’s transition from a traditional teleservices company to a full-service direct marketing partner. He revolutionized InfoCision’s service offerings to include multichannel solutions and highly personalized, highly targeted communication driven by data analytics.
Smart Business sat down with Dawson to get his take on overcoming business challenges, championing innovation and adding value for clients.
Give us an example of a business challenge your organization faced, as well as how you overcame it.
For all of us in the direct marketing industry, a key challenge over the past several years has been adapting to changes in the ways people communicate. A number of personal exchanges that once required a phone call can now be accomplished via mail, e-mail, text message and Web (on Facebook and Twitter, for example). Where there was previously one central channel for communication, there are now multiple channels positioned side by side.
At InfoCision, we actually saw this challenge as an opportunity. More channels mean more ways to reach more people. While contact center solutions remain the core of what we do, we have made a significant investment in expanding our multichannel services. In the past few years, we have built a direct mail division; and we continue to develop new Web services, like our innovative online campaign system. Perhaps most importantly, with our Business Intelligence Group, we have advanced our data analytics capabilities. Leveraging data allows us to help our clients reach people in the most effective way possible across multiple channels.
In what ways are you an innovative leader, and how does your organization employ innovation to be on the leading edge?

In order to thrive in today’s business environment, you have to be an innovator. You have to constantly be looking for new ways to make your operations more effective and efficient. Fortunately, InfoCision has always been a progressive company, both in terms of our technology and the services we offer. We are continually enhancing our capabilities and developing solutions to help our clients reach more people and earn the highest possible return on investment (ROI).
InfoCision employs innovation to give our clients new and more effective ways of connecting with customers. For example, our Best Time to Call technology uses data to tell our Communicators when they are most likely to reach a person by phone. Our variable data printing capabilities enable us to personalize mass mailings to the individual. And our online campaign system gives people the ability to interact with organizations on the Web. All of our innovations serve the same purpose: Provide our clients additional ways to connect with customers on a more personal, one-to-one basis.
How have you added “value” to the products and services you provide to clients?

InfoCision adds value to our services by customizing all our offerings to meet individual client needs. We tailor our solutions for each and every organization we work with. If a client needs a web application and phone support for contacting online leads, we can do it. If a client needs a phone call that leads to a direct mail piece, we can do it. Rather than simply provide a static set of services, we customize everything to produce the best possible results.
Our full spectrum of direct marketing solutions also adds value for our clients. These days, marketing success requires giving your audience as many choices as possible. Most organizations come to us for call center solutions and discover we offer so much more: direct mail, creative services, interactive solutions, data analytics, etc. Because we have all these capabilities under one roof, we make multichannel interaction seamless. We use data to tie all the channels together and ensure our clients are reaching customers the way they prefer to be reached. That’s a true added value, and one that helps drive results and maximize ROI for our clients.
How to reach: InfoCision Management Corp., (330) 668-1400 or www.infocision.com