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Corvallis economic staff say business registry nearly complete but email contacts remain scarce
Summary
Economic development staff reported a near-complete business registry that identifies most firms by industry, size and address but contains email addresses for only about 350 of roughly 4,600 businesses; staff said a CRM and IT support are needed to turn the registry into an effective outreach tool.
Corvallis economic development staff told advisory members that a citywide business registry now identifies nearly every business by industry type, employee count, address and phone number — but email contact information remains limited, constraining outreach.
"We have about 3,500 seller records for permanent data, but sometimes you have a contractor pulled up, and you're not actually the business," the presenter, identified in the meeting as Chris, said. "We have about 350 email addresses out of about 4,600 total businesses."
Chris said staff consider the registry substantially complete on core fields but that email addresses and automated contact-import features are the remaining work. He described the current process as labor intensive: matching names and addresses manually and following up by phone for bounced emails.
The presenter and other attendees discussed using a customer-relationship-management (CRM) platform to automate data imports from calendars and email. Chris said the office has demoed HubSpot, Salesforce and Vertex and is looking for a solution that reduces manual data entry.
"If you could take a look at my calendar and who I'm meeting with and then pull those contacts in automatically," Chris said, "that would eliminate another step." Lily, identified as a staff member assisting Chris, was described as helping get up to speed on site selection and other work.
Board members suggested practical steps to increase email capture, including trying common address formats (example: info@companyname.com) and using student or temporary help to verify contact details. One advisory member recommended Zoho as a platform that integrates with Outlook, subject to IT support and configuration; the member offered to share contacts who have implemented it.
Members emphasized the registry's value for coordinated local outreach. Chris and several members said most of the 350 emails currently captured are for downtown businesses, reflecting earlier lists from the Downtown Corvallis Organization (DCO) and the chamber.
The registry is already being used for targeted initiatives, and staff said they will continue to increase coverage and pursue CRM integration with IT help. No formal vote or budget decision on CRM purchase was taken at the meeting.
