With the array of B2B data suppliers and brokers licensing UK data, how do you know which one offers the best targeting for your business? And how do you go about making the most of your investment?
A B2B data strategy lays the foundations for your entire campaign and dictates everything else that follows, from your target market to your lead generation techniques. Any successful B2B marketing campaign starts with a calculated strategy that clearly lays out the budget, aims and objectives.
What to keep an eye on
Before you even begin, there are several core elements that you need to identify which should remain consistent throughout your campaign. When a marketing campaign starts, it’s easy to get side-tracked when things get busy or something unexpected occurs. By clearly setting out your main goals at the beginning of the campaign, you can make sure you remain focused if distractions do arise.
These core elements should be goals that you plan on working towards. While it’s good to aim for improvements, it’s also important to make sure that the results you’re targeting are measurable, attainable and realistic. Instead of saying you want to massively increase your sales, focus on specific examples of this, such as:
- Generate fifty enquiries over the next month
- Gain ten new leads every two weeks
- Reach out to two thousand new prospects every two months
Be sure that everyone on your team has seen the goals and knows what they’re working towards. This way, you can work together to accurately track your B2B marketing campaign and keep a close eye on your progress. With specific and relevant goals, you will have more chance of succeeding and taking your business to the next level.
Introducing your strategy
Now, you need to focus on what will work best for you and your company. The priority focus of B2B marketing campaigns should be lead generation because this is what will ultimately lead to sales. Whether it’s email marketing, direct mail or telemarketing, your focus should be on acquiring B2B data that will allow you to reach your target audience in the most effective way.
While there are many forms of B2B marketing that are effective, there are some which will be better suited to your business than others. This is where it’s important to refer back to your aims and objectives because this will help you identify the marketing strategy that will help you to best achieve your goals.
In contrast, a larger, established company that is looking to increase its lead generation might opt to licence B2B data and run a nationwide email marketing campaign. Once your marketing campaign has begun, you should make sure you frequently check it against your main goals set out in the initial stages of your B2B marketing strategy.
Clean data & consistency
As your B2B marketing campaign gets underway, it’s essential that you keep up with the basics. Data cleansing is key to maximising the efficiency of your B2B marketing campaign. There’s no point in having an effective strategy if you are wasting your time targeting duplicate or inaccurate data. There’s also the possibility that you may be missing out on significant portions of untapped data. If you haven’t recognised that your existing data is underperforming, then you might not be urged to explore new streams of revenue.
As well as keeping your data clean with regular audits, it’s important to remain consistent with your campaign. If you see positive results early on, don’t sit back and just admire your good work – keep pressing on with the same level of focus that you started with. By the same token, if you don’t see any results straight away, don’t become disheartened too early on. Keep up with your strategy and your research.
B2B marketing campaigns can become successful by making the tiniest of changes, so keep tweaking and optimising things but remember to keep your main goals in mind as you do so.
Summary
What we know is that executing a successful B2B data marketing campaign is no easy task. There is an endless list of data suppliers out there and a huge number of ways that B2B data can be used in marketing campaigns.
By outlining your goals early on, you can make sure that no matter what happens, you and your team are clear about what the final objectives are. If things don’t go as planned and you fall behind, always being able to see what you should be focusing on will help to get you back on track.
Ensuring your data is clean should be a major part of your strategy throughout the campaign. Using outdated or inefficient data will have a direct impact on your results and may prevent you from reaching your main goals.
By implementing these key elements into the core of your B2B data marketing campaign, you will maximise the effectiveness of your campaign and increase your overall chances of success.
About us
Marketscan is a leading B2B business data provider that delivers high-quality, GDPR-compliant data. With over thirty-five years of experience in the industry, Marketscan is an accomplished data provider that also provides data analytics, data cleansing, email broadcasting and data consultancy.