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Use A List Broker To Grow Your BtoB Marketing Contact List

Known buyers with brand loyalty simply cannot be bought. For this reason, many businesses view their BtoB marketing contact list as the lifeblood of their sales machine. A new product is launched and the list is contacted - the phone in sales starts to ring. It’s like magic.

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Always Expect More

So, we know that in-house databases work really well, but as marketers we should always be striving for more.

When did you last review your contact list? I mean REALLY look at it. Probably not for a while. Do you know how many names on your list have ‘gone away’ or haven’t responded to the last 3 campaigns you’ve sent out?

You could be doing yourself a disservice. You see, if you remove the deadwood from your list your costs will decrease and your conversion rates will automatically increase. This doesn’t mean a jump in sales numbers necessarily but it will give you more accurate results to test and measure.

 

How Can a List Broker Help Me?

We have connections with vast databases - some of which offer data cleansing services. So, if you have a huge database of contacts and you’re not sure where to start your housekeeping, an external data comparison is a good option.

Your data is exported and then compared against resources of known accurate data and then either cleaned or improved with additional data.

 

Filling the Void

Any level of housekeeping will leave a space in your database. Will your management team lose confidence if your database suddenly drops from 10,000 contacts to 7,000? You know that the data is no less effective, after all you’ve only removed the unresponsive records, but the perception could be that your database is insufficient.

 

How to Supplement your In-House Data

There are several approaches to this, and I’ll outline the two most common here-

 

1. Buy Data for Ongoing Use

It's possible to buy data that you add into your own database and use multiple times. The terms of use vary by vendor, some permit only a specific number of uses, others allow for unlimited use.

If your product or service requires a long sales funnel - several connections to a prospect before conversion - this is probably a good option for you. You will be able to use the data for a long reach campaign, sending several messages over time.

A word of caution, most data resources limit the use of data in some way - either by frequency of use or by time. If you do import the data into your CRM it's essential that you can identify the records and remove them if and when appropriate.

If a person from a data source has direct contact with your business it would be common for you to continue contact with them after the data rental agreement has expired. You will need to be able to demonstrate that a relationship exists and also separate these records in your database.

The simplest solution is often to isolate the purchased data and store it separately. If someone from the data source makes contact with you directly then they can then be added to your CRM in the usual way.

 

2. Rent Data Short-Term and Encourage Subscriptions

If you want to qualify prospects before they find their way onto your database, this is a good option for you.

You would rent a database for single or multiple use, send out your marketing message and encourage recipients to subscribe to your database. Offering incentives like early-bird discounts or special offers is a great way to increase conversions.

The major benefit is that only self-qualified individuals, those who have a genuine desire for your product or service, will end up on your database. The new subscribers will also have agreed to your own privacy policy so you can have complete confidence that the data will be used correctly in the future.

 

The Fine Print

Buying data is not as simple as sending a purchase order, getting a big list and starting to churn out emails and postal pieces. Data protection and privacy laws need to be adhered to and we always advise you to read the small print carefully.

We only use data sources that conform to specific standards - so we have confidence that the data we sell is opt-in, with permission granted to send third-party messages.

The responsibility to use opt-in data is yours, so you must check your sources carefully.

 

In Conclusion

In house data is extremely valuable. It’s quick, cheap and effective. Make sure your database health is on your priority list and keep your go-to resource running at an optimal level.

If you need advice on the best data sources to supplement your in-house database-

Call me today at +1(860)-210-8088

Email me directly at dpeterson@worldinnovators.com.