By utilising high-quality and targeted data, you can be able to connect with more of the right individuals, getting more leads and reducing costs during the process. On the contrary, utilising the wrong data can result in dire consequences for your entire organisation other than your marketing campaign failing to gain traction.

As such, picking the right B2B data provider is imperative. You need to be sure that the partner you will be working with has the credentials and ability to provide the results you are after. Whether you want phone numbers, postal addresses, email addresses or a combination of all, you will only have peace of mind if you trust that your data provider really cares about your company.

That being said, here are important things to look at when picking a business data provider in the UK.

Verifiable Sources of Data

Can the provider tell you just how they garnered the data that they're selling? Also, have their sources been thoroughly inspected? If the answer is no, that should be a red flag. If you have proof that the business data is from a credible source, you'll want to check how often it's updated. Business data is constantly evolving and decays pretty fast. As such, the data needs to be cleaned and refreshed on a regular basis or you won't get the results you're after.

Proper Accreditations

Your business data provider needs to be registered with the Data Protection Act and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Ideally, it is worth looking for a data provider that's registered with the Direct Marketing Association. This is a network of over 1000 firms that provides the best practice guidelines and legal updates. Each member is expected to collect data in an ethical manner.

While undertaking this process, it is a good idea to review the business data provider's own site in a more general manner. Do they have contact information like postal address and phone number? An unscrupulous provider may hide being their site, selling you data and then going missing thereafter.

Thorough and Targeted Data Records

What you deem as targeted and thorough will certainly depend on your specific needs. Regardless, it's best to have detailed information than the opposite. For instance, are you just given employees names, or are you told more about their roles? Also, can that data be paired up? For example, a postal address linked to an email address?

The best business data providers in UK will work closely with your to source data that best match your marketing and business goals. They will conduct penetration analysis or profiling which involves analysing your clients and looking for what they have in common as well as what drives them. This information is then used to get similar prospects from their database and thus help boost your sales.

Guarantees in Deliverability

It is also important that your business to business data provider can verify that your marketing message will reach the individuals you are targeting most of the time. Of course, a 100% deliverability guarantee is impossible as there are numerous variables that can impact the outcome. However, your business data provider should be able to show that your emails and direct mails will reach the intended prospects and that your phone calls will be answered by the right individuals majority of the time.

Business data is imperative in reaching prospects and boosting sales in this day and age. You want to ensure you are on the right side if you're going to use a business data provider. Use the tips above to ascertain such.