There’s no two ways about the fact that poor data costs leads. But what about the collateral damage incurred in the form of lost opportunities, squandered resources, diminished productivity, decreased morale and wasted marketing budget? Not to mention the negative message it sends to a prospect about your organisation.
It’s extraordinary that while prospect data is the mainstay of any telemarketing organisation, it’s not treated with the same care as other costly assets that depreciate in value over time. Very few businesses have any form of data governance in place – even data that is bought and paid for as opposed to the internally generated, ostensibly free variety.
In today’s cost-conscious times, where ROI must be demonstrated at every turn, marketers can no longer afford to neglect their data. The good news is that you can take some simple steps to boost the integrity of your lists, as well as the value you can potentially extract from them.
1. Think laterally when defining your target market
Consider whether size matters. You may have historically targeted mid-size prospect companies based on headcount or turnover, but your offering could be equally relevant to niche business units that are subdivisions of larger enterprises, or smaller organisations with fewer staff but a resource-intensive business model.
Analyse your top existing customers to find your “sweet spot”. What are their attributes and demographics? What characteristics do they share? Pick up the phone and ask some of your customers about their triggers for selecting you as a vendor and ask how you’ve helped them, then use this intelligence as a starting point for identifying similar prospects.
2. Hone your criteria
Choose your decision making profile carefully. Don’t assume the MD or FD to be your best point of contact when a better target may be a middle manager with specialist skills and budgetary authority.
Don’t ignore geographical considerations. If you need to boost sales efforts in the north east of England with a tactical campaign, don’t waste money on buying a national database.
Consider how you intend to engage prospects. If you’re planning to initiate contact with an email prior to a telemarketing campaign, check your source data specifies personal email addresses and not generic “info@” mailboxes.
3. Identify the right data house
A good outsource telemarketing agency can leverage its greater buying power with data houses to deliver economies of scale you won’t achieve by buying direct. More importantly, they will also have a stake in the quality of the data which will be manifested in the outcome of the campaign.
Some list brokers offer access to specialist data sets that may be particularly relevant to a campaign – for example, industry-specific publications or lists pegged around specific events or professional affiliations.
Don’t be afraid to ask for a random sample data to verify its quality for yourself. A high incidence of wrong numbers, gone-aways or obviously inaccurate information indicates your list may be past its sell-by date. Do existing customers show up within your newly acquired pool prior to de-duping? If so, you know your list is in the right territory for your prospect profile.
4. Manage your data
Avoid creating data silos in the form of individually-maintained spreadsheets or databases. Centralisation is key in giving campaign stakeholders a unified view of your prospects, as well as being able to analyse dead-end leads and gain valuable learning opportunities in terms of what works and what doesn’t.
If you’re planning to buy multiple contacts for a prospect company, ensure your CRM system is geared up to capture updates at contact level or valuable insight will be lost. Spring-cleaning is a year-round process – around 70 per cent of business people change one or more details on their business cards annually, and the economic downturn has led to increased workforce turnover and consolidation of roles. Continuously cleanse your data and ensure it’s updated by all stakeholders within agreed timeframes. Assign maintenance responsibility and get buy-in from everyone involved, including sales and IT.
5. Prioritise your data
If you’re sending an e-shot to warm up your data prior to telemarketing, use reporting statistics such as opens to prioritise calls and eliminate any unsubscribes.
If you have a large pool of data, consider staggering the broadcast of your warm-up email to ensure the follow-up conversation is timely and the prospect’s recall is fresher.
As your campaign progresses, prioritise data between hot call-backs, call-backs, no reply, not interested and remove.
Ultimately, any campaign will only be as valid as the data that serves as its foundation, so don’t be hasty in buying the first or most obvious batch of contact details to hand. It pays to invest a little time up front to consider what you aim to get out of the exercise, and be imaginative as well as analytical about how you define your target audience to increase the reach and relevance of your message.
