Web Decisions LLC

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November 11, 2013 Issue

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Data Driven, Actionable Solutions for Multi-Channel Marketing Campaigns

About Web Decisions LLC

www.webdecisions.com
Web Decisions provides cost efficient big data solutions that deliver omni-channel campaign execution and actionable business intelligence to positively impact our client’s business. At the core of our technology platform is a real time enabled marketing database platform designed to recognize consumers at virtually any touch point and deliver data driven consumer centric content to the original touch point—all in real time.

Our nimble, creative, forward-thinking team takes pride in advancing marketing concepts to real-world solutions in a very short period of time. Web Decisions mission is to deliver data driven actionable insights and enable your business to make intelligent business decisions and execute through our exceptional marketing database solutions.

Kim Addington
CEO

Kim Addington, a Business and Computer Science graduate of UVA, has 25+ years of experience in providing marketing database applications for retail, mail order, and ecommerce businesses. He was a former shareholder and VP of Operations for Brigar Computer Services, a sister company of Direct Tech, that was sold to Experian. Kim served as Chief Technology Officer at Experian Marketing Solutions and upon his departure has since founded Web Decisions along with Scot Thomas, former CEO of Experian, and Tom Newkirk, former Chairman of Experian. Over the years, he has had the pleasure to work with most of the major consumer brand companies everyone has come to recognize.

“Web Decisions big differentiator is our 25 plus years of experience in providing database marketing solutions. Recognizing legacy systems and associated thinking required significant change to meet the needs of today’s multi-channel marketers, we wiped the slate clean starting from the ground up and built technologies which are real time enabled and future proofed. As a result, we are able to execute more efficiently and effectively while accelerating learning and campaign execution.” – Kim Addington

Business Services

Marketing

Web Decisions LLC
303 Pisgah Church Rd 2a

Greensboro, North Carolina 27455-2754

United States

336-545-7817
www.webdecisions.com

 Web Decisions LLC
Print Version

Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – November 11, 2013

CEOCFO: Mr. Addington, what is the concept at Web Decisions?

Mr. Addington: Web Decisions is in the business of providing data driven solutions for executing multi-channel marketing campaigns while delivering actionable insights that help our customers grow their business.

CEOCFO: What are you actually doing to achieve those goals?

Mr. Addington: Day to day we are maintaining a marketing database on behalf of our clients. The database is specifically purposed for campaign execution and business intelligence. On the campaign execution side, we’re engaged in the execution of direct mail campaigns essentially in the form of a catalog mailing as we are very focused with core competency in the catalog retail space. We are also in the business of executing email campaigns on their behalf, so many of our clients which are engaged in ecommerce and mailing catalogs also communicate to their customers via email. With the marketing database being hosted at Web Decisions, the email campaigns and catalog mailings are very targeted and relevant to those consumers so our clients are able to personalize messages based upon information stored in the marketing database and present relevant offers to the consumer.

CEOCFO: What do you understand at Web Decisions about the process that perhaps others do not and what allows you to get the results that you are getting?

Mr. Addington: Web Decisions big differentiator is our 25 plus years of experience in providing database marketing solutions. Recognizing legacy systems and associated thinking required significant change to meet the needs of today’s multi-channel marketers, we wiped the slate clean starting from the ground up and built technologies which are real time enabled and future proofed. As a result, we are able to execute more efficiently and effectively while accelerating learning and campaign execution.

CEOCFO: Within that group of clients or within the broad range of ecommerce and catalogs there are thousands of companies perhaps, so can you narrow it down a bit and tell us who is most likely to be using your services and who should be?
Mr. Addington: The most likely candidates for Web Decisions are the big brand retailers that we know so well who want to improve their business. Today we work with Staples, Avenue, Soccer.com, America’s Test Kitchen and dELiA*s all who mail a significant volume of catalogs. Those are some of the customers we have today but essentially the large big brand retailers are a good fit for our business. Prior to starting Web Decisions we worked with Land’s End, Eddie Bauer, Victoria’s Secret, J. Crew and others. When you go out to the shopping mall and look at many of the retail stores; those are retailers that would find value in Web Decisions’ services.

CEOCFO: Are most companies in that category outsourcing these types of services or are many still trying to do it themselves?

Mr. Addington: Looking at the big picture I would say that very few and maybe less than 5% of those big companies attempt to actually build a marketing database in-house. While some of them have attempted to do so and somecontinuetheir attempts, most fail. Having built hundreds of marketing databases for these types of companies we feel that we have a design that is very unique and difficult to replicate.We find most companies outsource the build and management of their marketing database.

CEOCFO: Are there many companies in the space?

Mr. Addington: In our specific market space there are four or five companies which we are competing with on a regular basis.That being said, there are two or three close competitors that we are doing battle with in the marketplace on an ongoing basis.Web Decisions has realized significant growth in the past two years. We have made the INC 5000 list two years in a row. In our local area we havebeen recognized by the Triad Business Journal Fast Fiftythree years in a row.We attribute this success to being more nimble and providing database solutions with unique capabilities. Much of our growth is from businesses moving away from larger suppliers that are still deploying legacy style systems and moving to our more nimble future proofed platform.

CEOCFO: Would you give us an example of how that works?

Mr. Addington: Much of our competition utilizes a lot of enterprise off-the-shelf software. It is very expensive and generally only very large companies can afford it. Many of those kinds of technologies today are fifteen and twenty years old. When these companies deploy those types of systems theybecome locked into alegacy platform.Several of our clients have experienced this and find it refreshing to get on our platform that is more suited for today’s multi-channel marketers.Our marketing database technology integrates both online and offline capabilities which provides Web Decisions a competitive advantage.

CEOCFO: What is the key to engaging the people you are marketing to but not annoying them and how do you know when you are crossing the line?

Mr. Addington: Direct marketing is very measurable and we are always looking at the performance of communication channels whether it is catalogs,email or text messages. You have to monitor the preference of the consumer to ensure the right message, at the right time, through the right channel is delivered. The preference of the consumer continues to be important but it is critical to monitor and understand the contact strategy and communication cadence. As an example,we see today that many marketers send too many emails to their customers. By monitoring opt-out,conversion rates and paying close attention to consumer preferences, marketers can adjust contact strategy to optimize campaign performance and maximize customer satisfaction.

CEOCFO: Where does experience and gut feeling come in versus technology?

Mr. Addington: It is a blended approach, but experience is a key factor in the catalog retail segment.Our years of experience are very important having worked across many clients in that vertical we understand the business. The technology allows us to gain intelligence from the data and enables theright action to improve our customers business.Ultimately,it is a blend of technology, data mining and experience that brings those pieces together to add value to the services we provide.

CEOCFO: Is there an ‘aha’ moment when you are talking to a new client?

Mr. Addington: When we are talking to a client for the first time, they quickly recognize the uniqueness of our innovative approach to database marketing. We clearly demonstrate the value of our next generation marketing solutions. When meeting the team our clients realizethe company is led by thought leaders and entrepreneurs with great vision, knowledge and experience. We communicate our ability to befast, nimble, flexible, forward-thinking and inventive, which our clients find valuable.

CEOCFO: What has surprised you most as the company has grown and developed?

Mr. Addington: At the inception of Web Decisions, we believed our offering to the marketplace would only include the execution of marketing campaigns.  Historically we built many marketing databases,however did not think we would ever get back into that business again due to the complexity of building marketing databases. The big surprise to me was the realization of how many companies were not doing it right which changed our direction, so we stepped back onto the scene to help marketers.

CEOCFO: What is ahead?

Mr. Addington: We see real-time interactive marketing as a big area of growth for us. Our direction is to start introducing more interactive marketing principles to the marketing mix.Social media is on the scene and there are many retail companies out there that are leveraging social media the best they can to generate additional revenue. We have developed a real-time interactive marketing platform that allows us to leverage the data when the consumer’s initiating an interaction whether on a website, a mobile app, making a call into a call center, from an ATM machine, a gas pump or other consumer touch points. This is a huge advantage in the marketplace for Web Decisions. We enable our clients to optimize each interaction by leveraging the data and delivering highly relevant one-to-one messaging to the consumer touchpoint—all in real time. We’re providing the right message, to the right person at the right time and improving our client’s business. For our clients it has huge marketing implications.

CEOCFO: Why should the business and investment community pay attention to Web Decisions?

Mr. Addington: Simply stated, it’s our differentiators which provide us competitive advantages.We are truly a strategic partner and subject matter experts in the retail sector. We are the right sized company, meaning we are nimble and able to react, as well as adapt and create custom marketing solutions. Our solutions are affordable and priced competitively while delivering the necessary return on investment our clients require. Our technology platform is future-proofed and poised for the foreseeable future. These are the benefits we deliver to our clientsand the reasons our clients choose Web Decisions as their marketing partner.

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