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Third party data is a crucial component for direct marketers to build their databases, offering a direct opportunity to reach out to new contacts. But data can be expensive, and maximizing ROI challenging. Here are 10 tips to help direct marketers use third party data more wisely:
1. Have a clear goal for your campaign—response
Only half of the campaign is the list—the other half is the message. If you want the best response from third party data, don't try to sell anything. This may seem counterintuitive, but think of a sales pitch as a marriage proposal on a first date. To get the most for your list spend, focus on response alone as your primary goal.
2. Offer something of value in exchange for data
Lift response by offering something of value—like an analyst report or a great gadget. Balance the amount of information you ask from respondents with the value of what you're giving them.
3. Choose your list carefully
The other key to increasing response is the data itself. Not all lists are equal—quality can vary widely due to a list's source, age and collection method. Ensure high performance by asking your vendor to show you a history of response rates and proven performance for lists you rent or purchase.
4. Segment wisely
Pay for only those contacts you actually want to reach by using segmentation to refine your list pull. If segmentation doesn't appear to be an option from your vendor, ask anyway! If you know your target accounts by name, you can also segment by specific domains. Work with a vendor who can recommend third party lists by segmentation capability.
5. Suppress wisely
Suppression is way to further refine third party data. Specifically, add competitive domains to your suppression list. You may also want to consider suppressing personal email extensions like hotmail.com, yahoo.com or gmail.com, depending on your industry and target audience.
6. Know who you know
Decide whether or not you want to suppress your customers. Instead of suppressing individual contact records from your house list, you can suppress entire customer domains if your message isn't appropriate for existing clients. This avoids making your customers feel like you don't know them—a sure way to build negative brand association.
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