B2B data providers are an invaluable resource for helping Sales and Marketing Managers get their messages in front of the right people.
Getting attention from your prospects can sometimes feel like trying to get served at a busy bar; the barman (prospect) knows you want to ask him something, but he can’t serve you because of the dozens of others (competitors) all jostling at the bar and trying to catch his eye.
In the real world, you’ll eventually get served and order a drink – but in business, you can’t afford to just wait your turn. Your marketing must be much more focused and get the right message in front of the right person, at the right time.
Using data has certainly helped marketing become more focused, to the extent that businesses now have more data than they’ve ever had before! Data-driven marketing campaigns have more potential for success, that’s a given. The challenge now is that marketers must make the best use of the huge amount of data they have access to, to truly personalise their marketing campaigns.
There are 4 key questions you need to ask yourself when starting out on a B2B marketing campaign to ensure you are on the right path in identifying your target audience.
Do you understand the problem your product/ solution/ service solves?
To define your target market, you need to truly understand what business problem your company solves or gap in the market it fills. Only by understanding the problem will you start to then understand who is most likely to suffer from these problems, and start to narrow down industries, verticals and potential buyers.
Have you spent time researching the target buyer?
Once you know the problem, you can start to research a potential buyer and build out a “buyer persona”. Essentially, this is a semi-fictional customer based on research.
To build an effective persona you should research your existing customer base; question your salespeople; even use independent research if necessary. Do whatever you can to build a picture of your customer and understand their ‘pain points’ and business problems.
Once you have this, you can use a B2B data list to identify companies, and crucially people within those companies that fit the bill.
What are your market segments?
You may have a specific solution for a particular industry – retail, finance, transport, manufacturing etc. – but even within those industries, there are going to be different verticals and nuances which could impact the B2B data you need.
Understanding your market means that you can start to segment industries into the individual verticals, and then source reliable data to target each niche audience within the wider sector(s).
This is particularly important when thinking about a strategic campaign because understanding exactly which market you want to target is crucial to sourcing actionable data that will deliver results.
For instance, the Marketscan Megabase includes a responsive classification system with 2,300 industry types – more than double the government issued Standard Industry Classification (SIC) codes.
This in turn enables far superior targeting. By understanding the industry you want to target, you can significantly narrow down this classification from 2,300 to a selection specifically tailored to your needs.
What data do you need to reach your target audience?
Now you know the business problem you solve, you know your buyer persona and you know your target market – the next step is identifying the data you need and what data is available to target your audience.
There are so many data sources available now that it can be difficult creating an accurate and legally-compliant list. This is where a data partner can help.
Our Megabase
As an example, our Megabase pulls in data from the top five leading sources in the UK (118 Information, Thomson Directories, Dun and Bradstreet, Corpdata and Companies House), de-duplicates the information and processes over 40 different quality checks. The result is a premium database of high-quality, GDPR-compliant contacts in over 2000 different market sectors.
We use the same processes for every type of information we provide whether it’s email, telephone numbers or postal addresses.
Armed with the right data list, an understanding of what the product brings to the market, a solid buyer persona and a knowledge of the market segment that should be targeted, campaigns are given the best chance of success.
Whichever data partner you decide to test, understanding each of these elements will help them to source the most accurate B2B data for your campaign. Together, it’s a win-win.
For more information on how to get the most out of data download our Complete Guide to B2B Data eGuide now
