A Pioneer in the Field of Direct Marketing
Edith was a forerunner in the field of Direct Marketing. In 1956, after the birth of her 2nd child, she began a typing service. Back then, very few lists owners were making their lists available. Those that owned lists took a very dim view of the concept of renting them to direct marketers. So, Edith decided to "compile" her own lists. A partial list of Edith's first customers included such major mail order and publishing companies as Montgomery Ward, Publishers Clearing House, Readers Digest, McGraw-Hill, Grolier, Highlights for Children, and My Weekly Reader.

A Typical Day
A typical day in 1956 would begin with a call from Montgomery Ward, who would request a mailing list of 250,000 names which Edith would compile from phone directories. Imagine! There were no computers, so they did it on manual typewriters. After she compiled the list and it was sent off to the client, they would call back and request another 250,000 names and she would repeat the process. According to Edith, "These were historic and exciting times. The industry was in its infancy and many of the great companies of today were just getting started. We needed to develop the tools that would allow the industry to grow."

A Pioneer of Postal Technology
Edith Roman adapted new technologies as they became available. For example, she compiled and pioneered the use of a complete index of every zip code in the country, back when zip was known as the "zone improvement program". She applied this index to every list to speed delivery, similar to the way the zip+4 does today. But back then, this was all done by hand.

A Pioneer of Mailing Technology
Edith Roman adapted the new technology of Ozalid which was similar to modern day photocopies. She also adapted and used Speedomat plates -- metal plates used to "print" the names. She recalls the first rudimentary computers used in direct mail were like typewriters that had a paper tape. The tape would be encoded with a hole punch system. Once created, these tapes would only last a few printings before they would break, and the list would need to be re-typed.

A Pioneer of Common Techniques Used Today
With the advent of computers, Edith decided to computerize her lists. The company she founded was known as School Lists Incorporated. Edith was the first person to go beyond public domain lists (like telephone directories), and contacted all the colleges and universities in the country requesting their course schedules, department chairperson and professors, which she then compiled into the first list of college professors in America. As more publishers began to realize the potential of direct mail, many more response lists became available, and Edith began to catalog them all. Edith Roman pioneered the process of "seeding" her name on every list, thereby keeping track of list usage. If they mailed that list again, it was obvious that the list was a success for that offer, which was duly noted. Her knowledge of the list marketplace gained her the respect of suppliers and clients alike.

History of Service to the Industry
In 1977, 21 years after she started her list service, Edith organized her various businesses and incorporated them into Edith Roman Associates, Inc. Edith Roman focused the organization on the core businesses of list compilations, brokerage, management and consulting. Her clients included Thomas Publishing Company, Chilton Publishing/ABC, Gordon (now a division of Reed / Elsevier Holdings), and CMP Publications. In the process, Edith Roman provided lists for the launch of many of the most successful magazines in the history of publishing!

A Blend of Imagination and Forethought
As a visionary, Edith had the foresight to recognize and pioneer the birth of a new industry. Today, with over $250 billion in sales, the direct mail industry has earnings that exceed the sales of all other forms of advertising combined!

2nd Generation of Romans
Edith is currently semi-retired and living in the warm and agreeable climate of sunny Florida. Her business is being managed by a second generation of "Romans" -- her sons Stevan and Wayne Roberts. Large direct marketers nationwide have selected Edith Roman to create and manage their prospecting databases. In fact, we were one of the first companies to use relational database management systems for building such databases. Companies for which we've built prospecting databases include American Research Group, IBM, New Pig Corporation, Ingenix Publishing, DIGI-Key Electronics, TestEquity, Information Builders, and Runzheimer International.

A Pioneer of Internet Marketing
From its inception, Edith Roman Associates recognized the impact that the Internet would have on the Direct Marketing industry, and made a commitment to invest its resources in developing an Internet Marketing division. The Internet represents the ultimate direct medium ever devised and our customers' success depends on embracing this technology and applying tested and proven techniques to the web. We began by assisting clients with various banner, affiliation, and email list campaigns as well as consulting with them to build on-line contact strategies for their house files. As the iMarketing industry grew we starting seeing a major gap between marketing and IT among vendors and clients. IT spoke in a language our clients did not understand and seemed to be out of touch with our clients' goals and priorities. In response we launched ePostDirect, Inc(r), our email marketing division dedicated to providing marketing services over the Internet. ePost's(r) mission is to bridge the marketing-IT gap with committed employees who are focused on customer service, marketing, and educated in Internet Technology. We began growing our line of services and products to provide our clients with everything they need to design, implement, and measure their campaigns. Today, we are leading the industry in email list management and brokerage as well as providing a full line of email services -- HTML and form creation, transmission, response tracking, and email address appending. Among our growing list of satisfied customers are Cahners Publishing, Citibank, Columbia House, IMG Direct, Hearst Publishing, Oracle Corporation, VNU Business Media and many more.