5 Tips For Purchasing a Quality B2B Database List

Whether you are just getting started with buying data or you are an experienced email list buyer, finding quality leads isn’t easy. In this article, top B2B data provider More Than Words Marketing offers 5 tips for sourcing the right B2B database for you.

A Clean, Accurate, And Well-Targeted List is a Valuable Resource For Your Business.

Clients often ask us how to find good quality lists for their B2B marketing campaigns.

The following tips can help you determine the type of data most valuable to you.

Get Clear On What You Want

Before you purchase anything, you need to clearly define your selection criteria.

A more specific target audience ensures that suppliers won’t surprise you with data that doesn’t match your expectations.

For every B2B data brief request, think about:

Geographical Information

You can choose to map a specific postcode area, a specific city, a specific region, or even a non-standard area, like within the M25.

B2B Sector

Data providers usually cover a wide range of industries, and you only want to choose data from the industries that are relevant to you.

More Than Words’ database covers over 2,000 sectors, and we ask our clients to identify their specific industries of interest using line of business or Standard Industry Classifications (SICs).

Contact Channel

Direct marketing covers direct mail, telephone, and email (business email addresses only, in accordance with GDPR) data.

If your business has a preferred channel through which to contact prospects, you can ask your data provider for a selection of records that specifically have these contact details.

Company Size

It is not uncommon for clients to want to target businesses of a certain size.

This can be done by specifying b2b data based on a company’s employee count, or its turnover rate.

Suppressions

Are you concerned that buying new data will only duplicate your existing records?

To make sure you are only purchasing fresh information, ask if you can suppress your existing database against that of your data provider prior to any purchase.

Taking that a step further, More Than Words’ data cleansing and appending service performs a complete cleanse of your existing prospect database, adding missing records and additional company information at the same time.

Don’t Overbuy

When making a data purchase for direct marketing purposes, it is not necessary to purchase more data than you need.

Any trustworthy list owner or provider will advise how many records they have that meet your requirements, and sell you that selection only.

Think about it this way – how many prospects can your sales team reach in a day?

If you purchase thousands of records, they could remain unused for weeks until you can use them.

And by then, they could be out of date.

Ensure Compliance With The Law

Make sure you understand your legal obligations before beginning any direct marketing campaign.

Email Marketing

GDPR affects who you can send emails to.

Under the regulations, brought into law in 2018, businesses can lawfully contact other businesses if their email content has relevance to the recipient. Email addresses of sole traders and partnerships can no longer be included in email marketing.

For this reason, when purchasing email lists, your data provider should only supply contact information for B2B buyers and businesses.

Telemarketing

For telemarketing campaigns, CTPS (Corporate Telephone Preference Service) allows businesses to ‘opt-out’ of unsolicited sales calls.

Data protection is essential, so check whether the list provider screens its data to ensure clients receive telephone numbers for companies that are not registered with CTPS.

Direct Mail

Despite GDPR’s focus on online advertising, it does have some effect on direct mail and the use of personal data.

Direct mail campaigns do not require consent from a B2B customer, but there are still rules that must be followed.

Any marketing messages should be sent out to those companies who could have a legitimate interest in the products or services you offer.

Use of personal data should be justified, recipients should not be surprised to receive your message, and their personal data should be protected consistent with the guidelines.

Be Prepared For The Results

When using cold data for the first time typical open rates are 10-15%.

If recipients are not familiar with your company, then it can take a lot to persuade them to engage with your marketing.

Although it is important to be realistic, you can add value by researching your prospects first.

Your goals at this stage of prospecting should be:

• identify your buyer persona,
• qualify and prioritise prospects, and
• create a connection through tailored communication and trust.

Craft The Perfect First Touch – And Ensure You’re Helping, Not Selling

Calls and emails should be tailored to the prospect’s particular business, industry, and goal.

When calling or emailing a prospect, remember these tips:

• Make it personal. Provide your prospect with a solution to a specific problem.
• Keep your B2B content current and interesting. Make it something they would want to read or engage with to improve their business.
• Be helpful, not salesy. Give value without expecting anything in return. The focus should be on them, not on you.
• Don’t be too formal. Maintain a natural tone and avoid being overly pushy. It’s a conversation – the purpose is to determine if both parties can benefit by forming a relationship.

Get in touch with More Than Words to find out how we can help you purchase a new marketing database, or to improve your existing data lists on 0330 010 8300.