By Kirk Chritton
Director of Marketing and Product Development

Here's an important maxim for B2B marketers: All institutions are above average.

It sounds like a joke from Garrison Keillor's radio show. Each week Keillor tells a story about the events in his fictional hometown of Lake Wobegon, where "all the children are above average." In the case of direct marketing, though, it's not a punch line. When it comes to response for most B2B marketers, all institutions really are above average.

One MCH partner has built a prospecting database that combines MCH's institutional universe with records from a variety of other B2B data providers. During our consultation, we inquired which of MCH's specialized segmentation tools would be incorporated into the solution. Our partner, who had spent quite a bit of time with data by this point, surprised us with his reply. He didn't need to include any specialized selections. His models already ranked MCH's institutional data in the top quintiles of the data. "Your worst segments outperform the average business segments. My clients will want to use all of the MCH records."

We asked another long-time MCH client how we could explain the value of our data to potential new users. "You just need to say it's all about the ROI," she said emphatically. "MCH's data is the best value. Time after time it produces higher response rates like a response file, but at the lower cost of a compiled file."

How can institutional data outperform business databases? First, institutions such as hospitals, schools, government offices, and churches tend to be big, growing, and financially stable. Think about your childhood hometown. How many of the shops, restaurants, factories, and even corporate offices of your youth are still there today? You're from a rare town indeed if there hasn't been nearly complete turnover in the business community in the past few decades.

On the other hand, what about the city government of your hometown? It's almost certainly still in existence, but with expanded services and a larger budget. Most of the schools, hospitals, and major churches are probably still up and running, but with new buildings or additions to support new classrooms, health services, or church child care facilities.

The second major advantage of compiled institutional data is its purity. Institutional database compilers like MCH use specialized compilation methods that ensure that institutions are correctly segmented. Unlike a B2B database that is compiled using one-size-fits-all methodology--which often involves guessing whether to classify "Columbia Christian" as a school, university, church, child care center, publishing company, or plumber--when MCH compiles a database of churches, we add only churches. When we research schools, we only collect information on schools. Guessing leads to misclassification, which leads to reduced response rates, which leads to pressure on your bottom line.

Even in Lake Wobegon--where Keillor jokes about the latest doings of Pastor Ingqvist from the Lutheran Church and the misadventures of the parishioners of "Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility"--institutions are the cornerstone of the community. In Keillor's town, your town, and every town institutions are all above average.