The financial state of the UK economy over the last few years has undoubtedly affected the quality of your prospect data. Businesses have closed, redundancies and restructuring has made it increasing difficult to keep track of the correct contact details of the decision makers you need to get in touch with to promote your products and services.
The quickest way to get up to date business to business data (B2B Data) is to purchase it and there are lots of cheap bulk data deals on the market, but are they really great value?
From my experience as a key account manager with
KMB, when dealing with data on behalf of my clients I find that unfortunately, it may not necessarily be always relevant to their business, meaning a lot of the data could be wasted or never contacted due to the sheer volume.
 |
| Know Your Customers |
5 Top Tips for Purchasing B2B Data
So here are my 5 top tips to think about ahead of purchasing data;
- Are all of the industries, locations, size of businesses relevant to my business?
- Do I need the head offices, single sites of businesses only or every division, branch?
- It is not quantity you need, it’s quality data that gets positive campaign results
- Do you have personal email addresses or general sales@ or info@?
- Have you measured past results and refined your target criteria?
Keep Ahead of the Competition
To keep ahead of your competitors and to be confident you are not wasting money on mail shots or telemarketing campaigns that are still not hitting the sweet spot, you will need to invest more time to refine your data further. Taking this time and attention to detail may seem tedious but ensures a more targeted way to market the prospects you want as your customer and a greater return on your marketing investment. As the old adage says;
“If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail”
Research Your Data
Another way to update your data is to undertake your own research via the telephone, email survey, or even internet searching for company news and updates via newsletters, case studies and social media. This is an excellent way to obtain valuable business intelligence such as
- Contract renewal dates
- Latest projects and clients won
- Competitors used
Keep Your Data Clean!
Whichever approach you choose, the evidence is clear - Ultimately will you not only waste valuable marketing budget on the wrong prospects but you will also generate less sales, so keep your data clean and up to date!
Lindsey Goodger is an
Account Manager for KMB Multichannel. Lindsey is passionate about managing her
customer accounts and uses her personal experiences at KMB to ensure that her
clients receive the best possible customer service and return of investment.
Outside of work, Lindsey likes to spend time with her friends and family,
typically eating out, cinema, live music and comedy.
Lindsey is a main influencer in the overall performance and success of
multichannel marketing campaigns.
