Take control of the 2010 Dealer Database

One year ago yesterday, I posted a blog entry to this site outlining how we go about compiling the information for our annual Dealer Directory, which is published each May. I thought it might be time to revisit that topic as, a couple of weeks ago, our 2010 Directory was mailed out and we’ve begun to hear from the dealers who were not included or have found a mistake in their listing.

As I’ve been explaining to those who have contacted us, the company we hired to find all the dealerships in the United States that survived the downturn and are still in business followed the same protocol utilized in previous years to put the file together. Using our subscriber list, our previous dealer directory lists, yellow pages directories they purchased, and their own proprietary lists and databases, they attempted to contact dealerships in three ways.

The first phase was a series of emails sent over a two-week span, followed by a broadcast fax campaign for those that didn’t respond or have an email address, and, finally, a series of phone calls to the businesses that still had not responded. Despite those attempts, however, the directory still had mistakes and omissions.

In anticipation of the problems that inevitably occur when trying to catalogue the contact information of several thousand business, we asked our database company to create a simple and effective website that would allow dealers to access their information and make whatever changes they saw fit.

All a visitor has to do is visit the landing page and enter the dealership’s phone number, and the listing for that business will be pulled up. If the dealership is not in our database, a page with blank fields will be displayed allowing the necessary information to be entered.

Go to http://www.bimarinedirectory.com to visit the site, which just went live a couple of days ago. And if you have any problems or questions, please shoot me an email at jmohr@affinitygroup.com.

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