What makes a truly reputable marketing data provider?

Many marketers recognise that sourcing high-quality data is the key to growing a targeted database and ensuring campaign success. When you’re a new business, or you want to grow your community in a shorter space of time, buying marketing data is a smart method of boosting your organic activities.

Other marketers, unfortunately, have been burnt by poor experiences with cheap, inaccurate data and poor-quality suppliers. Almost all negative marketing data experiences originate from an unreputable marketing data provider.

So, how can you ensure the third party data supplier you’re working with is reputable provider of marketing data?

1. Trusted sources

There are many reputable suppliers who build, source and maintain high-quality data contacts. It’s a good idea to check how your third party supplier sources its data.

Often, a reputable business will gather data from:

• Companies House, Directories, Credit Reference agencies, Publishers and Event companies for B2B data
• Electoral Roll, BT OSIS, Publishers, Events, Form Completion, Subscriptions and Surveys for B2C contact lists.

Good suppliers will also make sure the data is run through the appropriate suppression files such as Gone Aways, Deceased, Change of Address and Business Changes files.

If you’re unsure, check with your supplier to find out what sources they have used for the data they are selling.

2. They are accredited

First of all, all data providers in the UK should be registered with the ICO to collect data fairly and lawfully. As an independent authority, the ICO works in the public interest to protect data privacy and to uphold information rights in the UK.

Another way to identify a reputable data provider is to ensure it has the appropriate industry accreditations. Are they a member of the DMA? This association sets the standard for agencies, list brokers, mailing houses and companies.

So, if your data provider has failed to register with the ICO or become a member of the DMA they may not be a supplier of compliant, reputable marketing data.

3. The data is cleansed and updated regularly

B2B data decays incredibly fast, it’s deteriorating from the moment it is collected. If your marketing list provider doesn’t regularly maintain and cleanse their lists, you may end up with low response rates, and poor campaign ROI.

Bear in mind, a niche B2B list should be updated by phone three or four times a year. Often data providers will either have a call center element, sister business or trusted partner/s to do this. Ask your data supplier for a full and detailed explanation of their cleansing processes to check their data can be trusted.

At Data HQ, for example, we’re proud to offer exceptional quality data. As well as regular data cleansing policies, we are members of the DMA, registered with the ICO for direct marketing and are accredited to BSI 9001 quality management system standard, and we work with carefully selected strategic partners that have built reputations for responsibly sourcing data.

So, when they’re reliable, a B2B data provider can entirely transform your marketing efforts. By using high-quality, targeted data, you can connect with the right people at the right time, generating more leads and cutting costs in the process. Yet when data is cheap, dirty and low-quality, you may end up sending spam rather than valuable content, or post untargeted mail that has no relevance to your audience. Always ensure your data provider falls into the first category, or you may damage your brand with poorly executed marketing campaigns.