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Buying business data
1. First things first. Analyse the data you already have, to help you establish exactly what it is you need. This means considering the accuracy of your data and how it’s currently being used. Who have you targeted to date? Who do you want to target? Have you made the best use of the information you already have?
2. What are you hoping to achieve? Do you want to build relationships? Create brand awareness? Generate leads or sell direct? These are just some reasons why you might decide to buy data. Each reason requires a different approach. And for each, you need different data.
3. Choose your audience. Before you approach a data supplier, think about who you want to reach, what your message is, your preferred means of communication, and the timing. You can then write a specific brief to help you chose the supplier who best meet your needs.
4. Check your suppliers’ credentials. Make sure your suppliers are members of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), are registered under the Data Protection Act and appear on the List Warranty Register. The register is held by the DMA and provides an assurance that the data has been collected lawfully, is up to date and complies with relevant codes of practice.
5. What else can your data supplier offer? Is their sales approach consultative? Do they challenge your strategy, goals and targets? Are they geared towards achieving results? You should also ask to see recent case studies where they can describe how data was used, and what the benefits were.
6. Ask where the data comes from. Data suppliers should be clear and transparent about their data sources. The names on some popular lists may have been contacted a lot and feel wary of further communication. So ask how frequently the data’s been used and what guarantees can be put in place against its over-use.
7. How often is the data updated? One of the biggest difficulties for business data is employee turnover. Ask when their database was last updated.
8. Quality not quantity. Once you’ve decided who to target, you need to check your supplier can get data to the level of detail you require. For example, can your supplier provide the name of the decision maker? It’s not the size of the database that’s important, but the quality of the information.
9. Be creative. You may want to use bespoke data. It may cost more, but the response rate is almost certain to be higher.
10. Consider the follow-up. Initial contact with the target audience is just the first stage of any marketing campaign. Telemarketing activity that follows an email campaign is more likely to produce results than a straight cold call. And because you can measure email, it’s possible to see who opened your email and when. This means you can time your phone call accordingly. Just make sure you have the resources to deal with any responses your campaign may generate.
11. Negotiate a guarantee. Best practice guidelines state that data should be at least 94 percent accurate. In other words, no more than six percent of the data should incur ‘goneaways’. Some suppliers offer their customers two additional contacts for every one ‘goneaway’ – so check what guarantees you have in place.
12. Know your budget. Data prices vary enormously depending on quality and quantity, and whether it’s for a single use or for use over a period of time. Set your budget and stick to it. Remembering that if you buy significantly high volumes of data, you should be able to negotiate a discount.