Small Business Focus

In 2000, Brian Mattingly was selling data-management software to large corporations, but he saw the potential for small companies to use it as well.

After adapting such software to make it easy and affordable for small firms to use, Mattingly and his wife, Michelle, used it as the basis for their marketing business, Welcomemat Services Inc., founded in 2003.

Welcomemat sends direct-mail vouchers to newcomers for free or reduced-price services at a mix of clients such a restaurants, shops and salons. By using computer bar codes to compile information from customers who redeem the vouchers, Welcomemat's technology enables clients to track customer traffic and even to learn details such as each customer's gender, age, location and income.

"I realized if you could implement this high technology into marketing for small business, it would provide huge advantages for them," Mattingly says.

While the technology quickly proved effective, the Welcomemat duo faced an early challenge in making sure the company's mailouts caught the eye of customers. Their task was to find a way to ensure recipients didn't toss the vouchers in the trash, viewing them as just another bulk-mailed packet of coupons.

So they worked with a graphic artist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., to create 4-by-6-inch vouchers resembling invitations. The material is larger and more personalized than typical mailings.

It's also technologically advanced. In the lower left-hand corner, each voucher contains a bar code showing the recipient's name, neighborhood and home value, among other information.

Quick Info

WELCOMEMAT SERVICES INC.

Business: Provides targeted mailings to newcomers, marketing the services of small companies such as restaurants, retailers and salons, and compiling data about those clients’ customers

Founded:  2003

HQ: 15720 John J. Delaney Drive, Suite 370, Charlotte, 28277

Principals: Brian and Michelle Mattingly

Employees: 11

Phone: (704) 759-0987

Web: www.welcomematservices.com

After a customer uses a voucher, the business returns it to Welcomemat.

The bar code is scanned and the information used in an easy-to-read data sheet profiling the client's customers.

That feedback appealed to Barbara and Jim Wilkerson, owners of Blackhawk Hardware in the Park Road Shopping Center, which signed on as a Welcomemat client last year.

"It helped us spend our advertising dollar wisely," Barbara Wilkerson says.

The approach has paid off for Welcomemat as well.

The company declines to reveal financial details, but Mattingly says its revenue this year will increase 350% from 2004. And Welcomemat has grown to 11 employees, up from five a year ago.

After mailing about 500 packets per month in its first year, the company's monthly total grew to 23,000 in October.

Welcomemat has a stable of 400 client businesses nationwide, including 191 in the Charlotte area.

Even as the company has grown, it has maintained its focus on mailings to specifically targeted customers. And that strategy won't change.

"Folks have asked if we can do a blast mailing," Mattingly notes, "and we've said no."

LESSON LEARNED:

Brian and Michelle Mattingly found a way to adapt data-management software for use in a marketing business that helps small companies sell to new residents of Charlotte and other communities.

This article appeared in the Charlotte Business Journal. Copyrighted by American City Business Journals, 120 West Morehead St., Suite 200, Charlotte, NC 28202, (704) 973-1100.