Direct marketing organization BB Direct announced on Aug. 17 the launch of a new rentable database that contains figures on U.S. churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship, says BB Direct Owner Brian Berg. BB Direct has been testing the database within its online system for the past two months.
“We can separate a church from a Catholic dioceses or archdiocese. We can also select from a long list of denominations under the Christian categories,” Berg says. “We have Buddhists, Christian, Islam, Jewish, non-denomination, and other, but within each of those, we have much more granulated categories.”
With resellers making up 98% of BB Direct’s clientele, Berg expects list brokers, newspapers, specialty marketing firms, printers, and letter shops to indulge in BB Direct’s database. Berg says that creating printed material or t-shirts, assisting in youth programs, and finding guest speakers are just a few of the marketable services businesses can provide for religious associations.
“There’s just a whole host of different types that churches are good buyers for,” Berg (left) says.
BB Direct gets very specific with the data it provides, including by size and type.
“[But] we also want to ask about the church features,” Berg says. “Does it have a choir? Does it have an affiliated school?”
BB Direct also classifies religious organizations into five “potential purchasing power” divisions: platinum, gold, silver, nickel, and unknown.
“It’s an algorithm that we create that predicts their likelihood for them to be a responder [to direct mail].”
Berg says the list is “purely a direct marketing database” and that he does not see it fulfilling any additional services at this current time. The database is available on BB Direct’s website for $45 for one time use or $90 for multi-use.
