Guide to selecting the right b2b data for your in-house data-driven campaigns

Introduction

Welcome to our guide on selecting the right b2b data for your in-house data-driven campaigns.

As a data reseller, we work directly with end user clients like yourselves and utilise our many years of experience in selecting and supplying b2b data when advising our clients.

We pride ourselves on delivering totally bespoke solutions that match your target markets exactly.

In this guide we will cover:

• Why data selection is so crucial

• How to select the right data for your data-driven campaigns

• Buying the right types of contacts

• Who are Results Driven Marketing

Why data selection is so crucial?

Your data-driven marketing campaigns are totally reliant on the information you feed them.

You could have the best email platform, highly trained telesales teams or fantastic direct mail offering but all will be wasted if your message is not delivered into the right hands.

Getting the right data is really quite simple if you work with a supplier that takes time to understand your target markets and will work with you to support your ongoing campaigns.

How to select the right information for your data-driven campaigns

Below is the 7-step data selection process we have developed and take our clients through.

These are the key fundamentals we feel you should consider when discussing your needs with a potential supplier.

1. Geography

We understand that not all clients work UK wide and will filter our b2b data by geographical locations to meet their specific needs.

Searching for b2b data geographically is an obvious place for us to start a count. Once we have the required area you are looking for b2b data in, we can start to narrow it down further from there.

Search by County

County searches are popular with companies that work regionally. They know where they operate and will simply ask for a b2b data count of companies in those counties.

It is incredibly easy for us to do and have included a list of counties below for you to select from.

​Search by Postcode

Searching for b2b data by postcode is really useful for franchised businesses that have a set territory to work within or companies that are part of specific networks.

We have also supplied postcode specific b2b data to companies that have sales individuals working specific postcode areas.

In these instances, we can run counts based on several criteria and provide breakdowns for how many records are available each sales person.​​

Search by Radius of Postcode

Radius searches for b2b data are, in our opinion under used.

In most instances where companies operate regionally but are not restricted by only working in certain postcodes or counties, radius searches work really well.

We can take your postcode and draw out a certain radius from there. We can then supply a count on all the records we hold for businesses within that area.

2. Industry Sectors

Our data covers over 2,000 sectors that you can select from. Use Lines of Business (LOB’s) or Standard Industry Classifications (SIC’s) to ensure we only supply information for your specific sectors of interest.

Many suppliers are completely reliant on Standard Industry Classification (SIC) codes.

A lot of you reading this will understand that these are a code that you select when registering your company with companies house.

You choose the code that most closely matches the products or services you provide.

There are problems with basing your marketing campaigns on these classifications though.

Firstly, they are not designed for marketing purposes and secondly, can bare very little reference to the companies listed in them.

To overcome this challenge and allow our clients to target their audiences much more closely, our database includes Lines of Business (LOB’s).

LOB’s breakdown SIC codes which means that you can select exactly what you are looking for, rather than making educated guesses.

3. Size of Organisation

Quite often, clients want to target concerns of a certain size. The best way to segment our b2b data in this way is by looking at the number of employees a company employs or the amount they turnover.

Number of employee counts can be done either by number on site or nationally.

Having the option to run counts both nationally and by site has various benefits.

For example.

You may be a training provider that would look to work with companies employing 100 people or more across multiple sites. Were you to just look at number of employees on site, you would miss out on potential clients.

Alternatively, you may a supplier of renewable energy solutions who is looking for large sites using large amounts of energy. Running a number of employees nationally count, may turn up companies that employ 100 people or more, but they might be spread across 8 sites, none of which are particularly large.

You can also gauge the size of businesses on our database by the amount that they turnover. All businesses are classified in turnover bands:

A: <£50K

B: £50K - £100K

C: £100K - £250K

D: £250K - £500K

E: £500K - £1M

F: £1M - £5M

G: £5M - £10M

H: £10M - £20M

I: £20M - £50M

J: £50M +

4. Other Business Criteria

Premises Type Selection

Choose one or a combination of any of the following:

Single Site

Head Office

Business at Home

Factories and Manufacturing

Hospitals and Medical

Office and Administration

Places of Worship

Police, Fire, Ambulance, Courts

Sports, Leisure, Entertainment

Transport

Warehouses and Wholesale

Workshops and Repair Centres

Legal Entity Selection

Limited Liability Partnerships

Private Limited Companies

Public Limited Companies

Number of Branches Selection

Clients regularly look to target multi-site businesses.

Our selection process allows you to select the specific number of branches you would like your targets to operate.

Financial Selection

Profit/Loss

Profit change

Net worth

Sales increase/decrease

5. Suppressions

Worried that purchasing new data will only duplicate information you already hold?

Prior to any purchase we can suppress your existing database against ours to ensure you are only purchasing fresh information.

All we need from you is a list of company names and post codes or a list of email addresses you would like us to suppress counts against.

6. Contacts

Select from our extensive list of job titles and job functions.

7. Channels

All records can be supplied with a postal address, tps checked telephone numbers and email address.

It means we can support all your direct marketing activity be it postal, telephone or email.

Buying the right types of contacts

Many of our clients have bought information in the past that simply hasn’t worked for them for various reasons, the most common being:

• Poor or inaccurate data

• Data didn’t reflect what they were promised

• Data contained the wrong types of businesses

• Data contained inappropriate contacts

Our experience tells us that it makes sense for you to do a bit more digging to ensure you get exactly what you need from a data supplier.

By simply looking at your most profitable clients, it is possible for you to identify key characteristics which can be matched back to a supplier database like ours.

We do this by matching those characteristics to our 7-step selection process to ensure you get not only the right information, but a high performing and compliant database that will generate you the results and ROI you are looking for.

Who are Results Driven Marketing?

Our growing team consists of nearly 30 years industry experience which positions us perfectly to support your data needs and ongoing challenges.

We work closely with our clients to ensure the very best results and look to generate long term relationships whereby we understand our client’s businesses and educate them on the best ways to get the maximum out of their data driven campaigns.

For more information on any of the topics covered in this guide, feel free to drop us a line today on 0191 496 6399 or by email info@rdmarketing.co.uk