From a sales and marketing perspective, the pressure of building and maintaining a quality sales and marketing database can be intense. For existing businesses, there are challenges associated with poor database hygiene (i.e. the database is not kept current or it is corrupted by dumping or merging old data). For a new company, starting a database from scratch can be difficult because it can take years to build an organic, quality list. Often new businesses need to build their sales and marketing lists on a faster timeline so they can begin engaging with potential customers. The dilemma is two-fold, how to quickly build a high quality list and what happens next after you gain momentum with building the list?
The need for a quality list is important because in order to build an effective, digital marketing engine, having a robust database of target customers is the key to generating Marketing Qualified leads (MQLs) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs). Sales and marketing leads are two of the major Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that are used to measure the success of a program or initiative.
When starting to build a prospect list, there are many temptations out there. They come in the form of buying sales leads and lists that are populated with data like name, company, phone and email contact information. It can be tempting to purchase a list because it seems like a quick and easy way to get a large number of potential customers. However, there are a number of pitfalls associated with purchasing a list.
- You may not know how the list was compiled. If the list was compiled from public records, it is likely to contain outdated or inaccurate information (people change jobs frequently).
- The list may contain duplicate or invalid email addresses.
- People on the list may not be interested in your product or service.
- Contacting people on these lists may violate anti-spam laws by sending unsolicited emails.
In some cases, a pre-built list can work depending on how the list was sourced. For example, the list could be a complimentary company’s database that you have permission to contact or it could be sourced from potential customers who have asked to be informed about products or solutions like the one that you are offering.
The more effective way to build a quality, organic database is through specific targeting and ongoing engagement. Start with your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with your product or service? Once you know who your target audience is, you can start to identify the places where they are most likely to be in person and online. Here are the high-level steps to getting started:
- Create valuable content. The best way to attract people to your website or blog is to create content that is valuable and informative. This could include blog posts, articles, infographics, case studies or white papers.
- Promote your content. Once you have created valuable content, you need to promote it so that people can find it. You can promote your content through social media, email marketing, and paid advertising.
- Ask for email addresses. When people visit your website or blog, you should give them the opportunity to sign up for your email list. You can do this by offering a free ebook, whitepaper, or other valuable resource in exchange for their email address.
- Segment your list. Once you have a list of email addresses, you can segment your list based on interests, company size, or other factors. This will allow you to send more targeted and relevant emails to your subscribers.
- Personalize your emails. When you send emails to your subscribers, be sure to personalize them as much as possible. This means using their name, company name, and other relevant information in your emails.
- Track your results. It is important to track the results of your email marketing campaigns so that you can see what is working and what is not. You can use email marketing software to track open rates, click-through rates, and other metrics.
While you are creating engaging content and sending targeted emails, pay close attention to following anti-spam rules so you are not at risk of getting flagged. This includes keeping your list clean and only email market to people who have given you permission to contact them. If you decide to dump a purchased list or list from another source into your existing data/list (think: new employee comes with a contact list from a previous company), this stale, non-permissioned data can corrupt your database. The bad or “dirty” data can negatively affect the deliverability of your campaigns and internet service providers (ISP’s) will report and blacklist you as a sender. This takes a toll on your sender reputation and you’ll lose the value of your list.
By following these tips, you can build an organic, quality database and email list that will help you reach your target audience and grow your business. The bottom line is that this process takes time, thought, creativity and engagement. Your sales and marketing database will grow organically, like a garden, if you nurture and feed it.