It is commonly accepted in direct marketing that a list contributes to 40% of marketing success. Therefore, it is very important to make sure you use the most effective list for your business. A knowledgeable list broker can help you get the most effective list for your business. However, he or she can be most helpful if you specify your request in an effective manner. An important point to remember, as Stephen Covey said, is to “begin with the end in mind”. Knowing what you are looking for as an outcome will help keep the all the details aligned with your end goal. Keep reading to learn some of the best practices to specify your data list request in order to get your results quickly and accurately…

Defining Your Target Market

Before we even get in to how to specify a data request, you must figure out who you are targeting with this information. Defining your target market can be difficult; however there are ways to make the process much easier. Using analytics or fact-based research can enable you to define the type of company and appropriate contact to promote your product, solution, or message. If you do not know how to acquire analysis, reach out to a company with analytics expertise to help search for your ideal prospects to maximize list selections and marketing production. Now, let’s move on to how to actually make a B2B data request…
There are four important areas to address in your business data request: channel, geography, industry, and size. Let’s review each one of these in detail:

Marketing Channels

You need to decide what marketing channel or channels you would like to use. The 4 major ones are:

1. Direct Mail
   
2. Telemarketing
   
3. Email Rental
   
4. Email Purchase
   

We have already discussed email marketing in a previous article
(email marketing), so here we will focus on direct mail and telemarketing.
Direct mail: Direct mail is the least expensive channel to use - especially, if you are purchasing a list for a single use. This means you can only run your marketing campaign once. If once is insufficient, you can purchase direct mail for multiple uses (which is about double per record).
Telemarketing: Telemarketing data is more expensive but includes a business phone number in addition to the business mailing address. The benefit here is being able to talk to a person directly in order to get your message across clearly.

Geography (or Location)

Deciding and specifying which geographical locations you wish to market in is important. Make sure you know what areas you want to target and be sure to convey this information in a manner that is easy to use by data providers.
Most data providers will allow you to specify your geography in several of the following ways:

1. World Region ( e.g. East Asia)
   
2. Country (e.g. India)
   
3. State or Province (US or Canada) (e.g. California, NJ or Ontario, CA)
   
4. State (International) (e.g. Guangdong in China)
   
5. City (e.g. New York City, USA)
   
6. Metro Area ( e.g. New York, USA or Tokyo, Japan)
   
7. Zip Code (US Only) (e.g. 10162 for Manhattan, NY)
   
8. US County (e.g. Somerset, NJ or Orange, CA)
   
9. Area Code (e.g. 731 for Houston, TX)
   

As you can see, there are numerous ways to specify geography, ranging from broad regions such as Countries, all the way down to the classification by Area Code. While using larger classifications will get your more results, the broad ranges may not be the best way to target what your campaign needs. Using the more specific ranges will narrow your results but also concentrate them to more precise demographics.

Industry

You have the ability to target industries in a very precise manner by using one or more of the following ways:
Three major ways to specify industries:

1. SIC (Standard Industrial Classification): This is the most common method of classifying industries. The codes can range from as simple as 2 digits to as complex as 8. For example, the 2 digit code for ‘Miscellaneous Manufacturing Industries’ is 39. This can break down to more specifics, such as the 4 digit code 3911 for ‘Jewelry, Silverware, and Plated Ware’. To get even more specific, you can go as far as using the 8 digit code 39110101 for ‘Bracelets, precious metal’. Use this site http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/sicsearch.html to look up SIC Codes for the industries for which you are interested.
   
   
2. NAICS (North American Industry Classification System): This system works similarly to the SIC Codes, but with a slightly smaller range from 2 to 6 digits. For NAICS, there are 3 separate codes for ‘Manufacturing ‘alone (31 for food and other, 32 for wood and other, and 33 for metal and other). Looking at the first Manufacturing code (31), it can be broken down more specifically to 3115, which is ‘Dairy Product Manufacturing’. Again, this can be broken down to an extremely specific 6 digit code 311512 for ‘Creamery Butter Manufacturing’. Use this site http://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/ in order to search for NAICS Codes pertinent to your marketing campaign.
   
   
   
3. Industry names: Many premier data provider sites allow you to specify your request by using commonly used industry names. They are not as granular SIC or NAICS Codes but they are easier to use. For example, one provider has a category for ‘Machinery Manufacturing’ with further specifications such as ‘Agricultural Machinery Manufacturing’ or ‘Construction Machinery Manufacturing’.
   No matter which of these 3 methods you use to indentify industry, being as specific as possible with the industries you would like to include can make the process of getting counts for your data request much quicker.
   

Size

There are two common ways of specifying the size of the businesses that you want to target for marketing:

1. Number of employees
   
   
   
   1. Number of employees at one site- this is a more narrow criterion, for example if you search for single sites with 500 or more employees in North Dakota, your results will be about 1,712 people.
      
   2. Number of employees at all sites- this criterion opens up the results, so if we search for businesses in North Dakota that have 500 or more employees globally, you will get a much higher result of 3,128 people.
   
   
2. Annual revenue- An alternative way to specify company size is by using their annual revenue, such as “companies that make more than $2.5 million in annual revenue”.
   Size may seem like a simple aspect of your request, but be sure to consider all the possible means to choose size. Also, you may combine each method, such as “companies that make more than $2.5 million in annual revenue and/or have 500 or more employees globally”. Using the word ‘and’ will mean that both criteria will have to be satisfied for a company to be included in your list, while using ‘or’ will allow companies that have either qualifying factor to be included.
   

   So, when submitting a request, remember- the more specific you are, the more likely it is that you will receive a response. Including detailed descriptions of the channel(s), geography, industry, and size will allow those working with you to understand the criteria for which you are looking.
   

   Ready to make a list request? Click here to make an initial request and a knowledgeable broker will help you specify it in the most effective way!
   
   
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