Mine, sift, and polish… We’re not talking about gems here. We’re referring to an equally valuable one: your B2B contact list! This 2024, we’ll be driving the focus toward this critical aspect.
First things first, let’s define the B2B (Business-to-Business) contact list. This pertains to the list of businesses your company intends to recruit as clients. This includes company names, decision-maker names and positions, email addresses, phone numbers, and additional information such as their industry or LinkedIn profile.
Building a B2B list can be done in two main ways. First, you can generate it organically through manual prospecting, collecting and verifying data from potential clients. Second, you can buy a list from a B2B email list provider, which automates the process and provides pre-verified contact information.
They might be generated organically or purchased from a B2B email list provider. The former collects and collates data by manual prospecting, while the latter automates the process, enhancing efficiency.
B2B Contact List: Database Management
Before exploring the importance of this list, let’s first talk about database management.
Technological advancements transformed the B2B industry into a data-driven, data-centric platform wherein businesses can keep track of customer data and behavior. Cloud technology, AI, and ERP systems allow companies to store massive customer data. These enable them to formulate an accurate analysis of each customer.
Data management is a critical foundational principle that should be applied across all areas of an organization’s operations. Every department – from marketing and sales to general management and purchasing – generates, stores, and transfers large volumes of data continuously.
While data is the most valuable asset businesses have today, a majority of marketers say that it is only “somewhat important” in their marketing strategies. Another report reveals that 44% have high quality data about their target audiences. These statistics imply that thee’s a gap between the actual importance of data and its actual use, thereby indicating a need for better data integration and use.
And even after needed data was gathered, most marketers still can’t keep their lists consistent and accurate. Here is where B2B database management comes in. Database management is an important part of the B2B industry that impacts lead generation, program nurturing, and business growth.
B2B SMEs (small-to-medium-sized enterprises) have adopted this trend as well.
There are several advantages to implementing a data management plan; here are a few of them:
Greater efficiency: having validated data allows you to rationalize processes by making certain decisions.
Greater transparency: data analysis and management tools make it simpler to comprehend employees’ roles, responsibilities, and actions.
Predictability of problems: data-driven predictive models allow for the estimation of potential hazards such as production shutdowns.
Reduced time and money waste: data mining enables optimum capital and time utilization, lowering error margins.
Optimization of internal and external collaboration: appropriately managed and clearly displayed information promotes communication and decision-making processes involving the organization’s stakeholders.
Explore Our Services: B2B Contact List Database Solutions
Why companies struggle with database building
Marketers heavily rely on data and analytics, and to execute your marketing plans, you need secure and accurate information. Here’s a list of the possible reasons why companies struggle with contact database building:
- Missing key information
- Out-of-date information
- Unverified or incorrect data
- Inability to find prospects
- Lack of insight
- Privacy concerns
- Lack of Target Customer Profiles
- Lack of Lead Generation tools
When thinking about reaching your company goals, you also need to think about the role of database management in obtaining a strong contact list. It can enhance your data processes and raise the business value of your firm’s data assets by relieving users across the organization of time-consuming and repetitive data processing tasks. The outcome? A more productive team, improved data compliance, and smarter decisions.
It was mentioned earlier in this article that contact lists can be collected in two ways: generated organically or purchased from a B2B email list provider.
As you grow your small business, using email marketing campaigns to promote your goods and services is a great way to increase brand recognition and generate new leads. To boost your email campaigns rapidly while you’re just getting started, it might be tempting to buy an email list from a list provider. Even while doing so will provide you with some short-term joy, the greatest way to establish an email list that can help your business, still, is to build a list organically.
Some considerations in purchasing a contact list
If you’re looking to generate more B2B leads for your SME business, you might consider buying a contact list. Remember: a contact list is worthwhile if it contains quality contacts. In the same sense, using a non-targeted list will not do your brand any favors nor result in an impressive ROI.
Purchasing a contact list is beneficial for your brand. If you’re running low on possible leads, purchasing an email list might help you reach out to the best customers on time. It can help you streamline your marketing strategy and give your business the attention it deserves.
7 considerations why you should include purchased contact lists in your marketing mix:
- Rapid Delivery with Instant Contacts
Purchasing a contact list takes the workload off your shoulders and leaves it in the hands of a provider. While this may appear to be risky, it can pay off if done correctly. Creating email lists is a time-consuming procedure that requires much research, marketing, and contact sourcing.
You may use this time to focus on other tasks.
This is where bought contact lists come in handy – they’re quick and provide instant contacts. Unlike creating email lists, these free up your resources, allowing you to devote more time to important projects. Instead of spending months on them, you could cut it down to a week, allowing you to reach more people faster.
- Reach a new market potentially
If you want to reach a different consumer base with your services or products, purchasing email lists can be a quick and inexpensive alternative. Creating your list from scratch might take months, leaving you with less time to focus on existing clients.
Buying a contact list directly from a vendor allows you to quickly select the type of demography you wish to target, making it easier to enter a new market.
- Provides a diverse customer base to choose from
Buying contact lists gives you a larger database to work with. With this, you can choose the demographics to target, from age and gender to location. This expands your reach, exposing you to a broader pool of prospects and new demographics to target.
- Expands the pool of potential leads
Buying contact lists can give you access to hundreds and thousands of contacts. A big mailing list like this may take months to compile manually, which is why purchased lists can be helpful because they shorten the time it takes to contact those leads.
As a result, you have more prospective leads and could have access to a bigger database (depending on the demographic you are targeting). This opens up new marketing opportunities. Besides, you just might discover new, suitable demographics you haven’t considered before.
Remember that the more prospective leads you have, the more likely your total ROI and income will increase.
- A relevant contact list can lead to business growth
Your potential for company growth increases enormously if you purchase a contact list that is relevant to your industry, accurately targets your audience, and has a variety of current and interested contacts. Purchased lists speed up this process and reduce the time needed to raise ROI, customer retention rate, and total income, even though a manual email list may offer the same sort of growth with proper execution.
- Business expansion
Every company seeks unique ways to expand its operations and boost earnings and sales.
The corporation may accomplish the same with thorough data from a corporate email list that has been optimized. It provides the ideal venue for the business to interact with high-end clients across various sectors. This helps in boosting the right amount of sales.
- Decrease the time spent chasing leads
Your sales representative needs to spend precious time investigating how to raise the caliber of leads. They can save time by spending less time looking for new leads when using a marketing email list with reliable data.
Any sales representative can easily become exhausted from pursuing leads that will never convert in the future. By providing them with leads that are valuable and simple to convert, you can help them and make their job simpler.
While your contact list may be one of your most significant marketing assets, emails should only be acquired with permission or “opt-in” from those who want them if you’re considering sending out marketing emails. There are several methods for collecting email addresses and gradually building a quality list, and buying a contact list isn’t exactly a good one. Here are the reasons why:
- Questionable List Quality: The list’s quality is frequently deplorable. People on bought lists may not be the ideal target for your message, and more importantly, they did not request to hear from you. So, expect your messages to be disregarded.
- Low Response Rates: Sending an unwanted marketing email to a bought list nearly assures a low open and click-through rate, wasting not just your time but also the time of the person receiving it.
- Damage to Brand’s Reputation: You can purchase a list, but you must first establish a solid reputation. Mailing to a list of individuals who don’t necessarily know who you are or want to hear from you will damage your reputation over time – and regaining that trust is tough.
- You’ll Look Spammy: Most of us receive spam in our inboxes daily. You know how it feels to be spammed, and you don’t want to end up in that filter. Gmail is now utilizing machine learning to prevent 99.9% of spam, according to a recent story. Spamming is just not worth it.
- The Dangers of High Penalties: Sending unsolicited emails (also known as spam) out from your account can get the attention of the Federal Trade Commission. Violating the CAN-SPAM Act can result in penalties of more than $40,000.
- Violation of Acceptable Use Policies: Sending to paid lists is not permitted by any credible Email Service Provider. If you discover a supplier who would, chances are their server is in poor condition, and your emails will be classed as spam anyhow.
Some other considerations when purchasing a contact list include:
- Knowing the data source
Data is the information’s goldmine. Therefore every company has to know where it comes from. It should come from reputable and trustworthy sources, or else your marketing strategy will flop.
Avoid stepping into such a pit at all costs. Find the source of information in the contact lists you intend to buy by conducting your research.
To ensure that you get only the best data source, seek out the services of a trusted customer database solutions provider.
- Ask for the sample data
Always ask for the sample data when you talk with the company’s representative. You can check if it fits your organization’s standards and requirements by testing the sample data.
Most contact list providers specialize in providing specific lists from different B2B industries. Therefore, determine whether your needs match the specialized service offered by providers. Consult the provider’s sample data for verification.
- Price of the contact list
Every business has a budget allocated for a specific need. You should determine whether the email list is appropriate for your company’s demands and does not go over the budget set up for it. Always strike a balance between the two; don’t save on quality by buying low-quality email lists.
Leverage how we can help you drive more business leads with our robust business contact list in APAC
Buying contact lists: Is it really worth the risk?
Lead generation is an essential part of every marketing campaign, and it serves as the bloodline of every existing business out there – including small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
SMEs are always looking for effective ways to gain an edge over competitors and boost their sales. In this modern era, companies are continuously adapting to the digital environment. With so much competition in the market and the shift of consumerism in the digital platform, investing in efficient lead generation strategies is essential to keep your business afloat. One of these strategies is having a B2B contact list.
Most marketers find themselves in the position where they want leads RIGHT NOW. Of course, salespeople need new people to email or contact to make sales. With the need to fill the sales funnel quickly, there’s the outright temptation to buy leads.
Buying leads frequently involves purchasing contact details like phone numbers and email addresses. It sure sounds convenient to skip the legwork, swipe your credit card, and buy those leads anyway. But is it really worth the risk?
There are other safe and efficient ways of obtaining contact lists aside from purchasing ones: Creating your own list of contacts and managing your own lead generation campaign or using a full-service lead generation provider where you can receive all the benefits without expending a lot of resources.
Building your own contacts list and managing your own lead generation campaign is great, but if you want to reap more rewards, save time and effort, make sure that you’re hitting the right targets and that you’re on track toward boosting your sales, then you might consider consulting lead generation specialist.
Expand your market reach and get new clients with Callbox, a trusted B2B lead generation service in Singapore and across APAC. With our Lead Generation, Appointment Setting, Event Marketing, and Global Sales Data services, your leads and meetings with potential clients are secured.
At Callbox, we prioritize meeting customers where they are. We understand the modern buyer has control, and our multi-touch, multi-channel approach empowers them to personalize their information journey. Here are the marketing strategies we use to help businesses in lead prospecting and generation:
- Account-based Marketing (ABM)
ABM, in a nutshell, is a growth strategy in which both the sales and marketing teams collaborate to develop personalized buying experiences for a small number of high-value companies.
ABM marketers collaborate with sales to identify key prospects before creating individualized campaigns and messages for the target accounts’ buying teams. Finding and engaging with people who are already interested in your product or service is the goal. When done correctly, it enables organizations to target their preferred clientele at a large scale.
With its focus on personalized campaigns, B2B businesses can largely benefit from ABM in terms of strong customer relationships, increased ROI, valuable insights, and improved conversion rates.
- Telemarketing
This is basically defined as selling by phone. In the B2B industry, however, it means more than that. Telemarketing is all about reaching your target market with a well-crafted message and engaging your potential customer’s interest in your brand, products, and services.
Using this strategy, you can gather leads by making cold calls, sending emails, or having in-person discussions. Typically, this occurs when a consumer is phoned for the first time without any prior knowledge of their interest in your offers.
- Email Marketing
Any marketing technique that involves sending promotional emails to a list of clients or potential clients is known as email marketing. It also technically includes one-on-one contact, such as messages sent to address a particular customer query.
It is a direct marketing channel that allows businesses to share information on new products, sales, and updates with customers included in their contact list. This strategy has moved from a one-size-fits-all approach to one that’s focused on personalization, segmentation, and consent.
- Multi-touch Multi-channel Marketing
Multi-channel marketing combines several channels for distribution and promotion into a single, unified strategy to entice clients. This strategy utilizes the unique benefits of specific marketing channels to effectively and efficiently communicate the value of a product or service. Email, direct mail, websites, social media, display ads, and/or a retail storefront are just a few examples of these channels.
Callbox: Experience and lead generation expertise
The full lead generation services of Callbox, including a full package of these lead prospecting strategies, maximize the selection of quality B2B contact lists for your pipeline. There’s no shortcut to B2B success. Don’t take the risk of purchasing leads from online providers. Work towards your goal with the help of experts and only with experienced lead generation service providers in the B2B industry.
Every B2B business thrives on good, highly qualified leads, and this job is made easier by choosing the right lead generation provider.
Mine, sift and polish your B2B contact list with only the trusted professionals in the industry. Good planning and decision-making, coupled with the right tools and strategies, are surefire ways to shine, boost your sales, and leap into more business opportunities with confidence this 2024.
