penny sleuth2 Apr 2010 18:36
Why smartFOCUS is one to watch
Underhill lives in the rural Somerset village of Wedmore and had his eureka moment when he realised why he kept on receiving mailshots offering him deals on agricultural machinery and chicken feed.
Both of his neighbours were farmers, and because of his postcode, the marketers of farm supplies figured out that he might be a farmer as well.
Today marketing campaigns are scarcely more sophisticated or successful, and huge sums are wasted on a scattergun approach.
At great expense, lastminute.com sends 100 million emails each month, the vast majority of which provoke nothing more than mild irritation. Now it is to pay a seven-figure sum to smartFOCUS to refine its marketing efforts, both to save itself money and to get a better response for its efforts.
This is typical of the work done by smartFOCUS for its 750 customers. Having made that important transition away from pure licence sales, it now claims that about 70% of its revenues are recurrent from one year to the next.
With this base and the addition of new clients – which numbered 80 last year – smartFOCUS should be comfortably able to grow its revenues. With little requirement to scale up its operation profits could grow fast.