7 Key Things to Think About When Selecting Prospect Data in the CAD/CAM Market………
Crucial to the success of any direct marketing campaign is not just the message, not just the timing and not just the regularity and consistency of message – whilst all of these increase the chances of message to revenue conversion they cannot do it alone!
Getting the RIGHT message, at the RIGHT time, at the RIGHT intervals to the RIGHT PEOPLE maximises your chance of a campaign having the result on your sales pipeline that you’re looking for.
Sounds easy? Think again. How do you ensure that the database you are using or about to acquire will hit the mark? How many follow up calls receive a sharp response that your type of product or service is not used, or that the company is far too small to need your sophisticated technology, or far too large to deal with individual site software licensing, or that the CAD Manager left four years ago, or the company doesn’t exist any more?
Since 1996 Business Advantage has been supplying many leading IT Vendors and their Channel Partners with quality contacts from our own unique UK CAD/CAM User Site Database, built from the “ground upwards” and containing a substantial portion of the UK technical computing market. We believe we know what companies should be looking for when purchasing data, and we’re happy to share our seven key thoughts with you, and help you prepare for growth in your sales leads.
1. Accurate Data
When talking to companies supplying data, ensure that they have a commitment to maintaining the accuracy of their records. It is of no use to you to email a Managing Director about an event to promote your company in his town in the UK, to discover the MD is actually based in Germany! Ask the supplier how they obtain their data, and how they expand on and keep this up to date. Ask them how often they carry out accuracy checks and what details they obtain.
2. Relevant Data
Following on from this, ask the supplier how their database was built. The area of data acquisition can be a minefield – there are many providers who sell lists collated from subscription lists to magazines, for example. Whilst this data is plentiful and relatively cheap, is it relevant? Do you really want to be wasting your precious campaign budget sending information to Joe Bloggs in Company A, to later discover he has no purchasing influence and in fact the company he works for is a financial services company with no interest in CAD software but subscribe to a CAD publication as it is a good source of relevant sector leads for them.
Make sure the list you are considering is comprised of CAD/CAM software using companies, with contact names that both have influence and an understanding of your type of products.
3. Decision Maker Focus
If your target area is larger organisations, there will be multiple decision makers, and indeed the Managing Director is probably not the person to speak to if you were able to get through to him! Make sure your data is decision-maker oriented. That’s the problem with magazine lists; they are usually full of users not decision makers. There is no point in sending your gold-plated mailing pieces to a low-level CAD technician. It will end up in their bin. Make sure the list you are considering has a choice of management functions – CAD Manager, Technical Director, Engineering Director, Production Manager, IT Manager to name a few, you know who buys from you and whose name you need.
4. Infrastructure
Information on hardware platforms, operating systems and current CAD software being utilised, together with how many seats of CAD within the company, are all essential to assist with focused, targeted marketing. As is the application area that the CAD is being used for – mechanical CAD, architecture, civil engineering and so on. Ask if this information is available if requested with your selection criteria. The ability to be highly selective on infrastructure can save you a lot of money as you will not be wasting your resources on organisations either too small or too large.
5. Selection Criteria
The wider the selection criteria and the finer you can tune this the better:
- Is the data available by geographic area?
- Can you target 2D-only CAD users with a special 3D offer?
- Can you ask for sites with more than 50 employees with at least 10 seats of AutoCAD LT?
- Can you purchase sites within the Mechanical Manufacturing sector that have not yet implemented a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system?
Remember, paying a slightly higher price for this granularity of information will yield far higher results from what will be a highly targeted marketing initiative.
6. Email
We all know the amount of paper based communication within the B2B arena has greatly decreased as our focus has turned to electronic methods as more effective media for getting our messages across. Email broadcasting has to a large extent replaced the traditional mailshot and so personal email addresses are as important to you as a prospect’s mailing address used to be. Ensure that your supplier’s practice is to obtain personal email aliases as opposed to a company generic info@ or similar. You may have to pay an additional fee for this information but finding it yourself could prove a long and costly process.
7. Pricing Options
A supplier with your requirements as his motivator will be able to offer you various options on cost of data acquisition to best suit your budget. For example you may only want the data for a one off mailing, in which case you will need a rental option. More likely, you will want to use the data multiple times as you seek to nurture a relationship with your target audience. Here, you will want to purchase the data. Included in your choices should be a licensing option whereby you pay an annual fee and receive regular updates to the data you have licensed. Ascertain what the updates include, this should be additional companies within your selection criteria and any changes within the records you are using.
Business Advantage has, what is widely regarded as, the definitive database of CAD/CAM users in the UK. Containing information on some 50,000 senior decision makers in some 15,000 individual sites with 164,000 CAD users, the CAD/CAM User Site Database opens the door to increased business for those targeting the CAD market.
For further information see
http://www.business-advantage.com/usersitedata.htm