Your vertical-specific marketing efforts will either be tremendously successful, or fail miserably based heavily on the quality of your marketing list. Identifying criteria before buying a marketing list can help ensure you receive the best results from your direct-marketing efforts.
Marketing List Criteria
Vertical Markets: The first criterion you will want to select when purchasing a list will be your target vertical market. In the world of marketing lists, verticals used to be broken down by Standard Industrial Classification, or SIC codes. An SIC Code was a numeric classification for the industry a particular company belongs to. Since companies can belong to several industries, these companies may have numerous SIC Codes. So for example, if you are working within the health industry vertical, you would select SIC codes that are in health services, doctor offices, hospitals, etc. There are likely to be multiple SIC codes for each industry and you'll want to select carefully to include each of the classifications your vertical may belong in.
In 1997, the Standard Industrial Classification Code system was replaced by the North American Industry Classification System, or NAICS. The NAICS is a much more specific industry classification system than the SIC Code system was. This makes it even more important to take your time and review your industry classifications carefully when developing your marketing list criteria.
Geographic Marketing Footprint: The second criterion for purchasing a marketing list is to determine your geographic marketing footprint. Determine where your service area is geographically, and choose a list that fits within your zip codes, counties, cities or area codes of choice.
Number of Desktops: The third criterion you will want to determine are the number of desktops in your prospects' environments. A good marketing list vendor will have this option available as selection criteria. Since the sweet spot for a Managed Services Provider is between twenty-five and a hundred desktops or so, you will choose twenty-five as a minimum desktop count for your marketing list criteria. Next you will determine the size of the organizations you will be marketing to, based on their gross yearly revenues. You will want to be sure your prospects can afford your services and have the capability to budget for technology investments. Typically, the higher the prospect's gross yearly revenues, the more technology dependent and strategic they are.
Length of Time in Business: You don't want to become heavily dependent on start-up businesses in your client base, due to the odds against a startup's long-term success. Instead, choose businesses with a 5-year history or longer for your next marketing list criterion.
Contacts: When purchasing a marketing list, you should be able to specify who in the organization you want to contact. You need access to the decision maker, so you might choose the President, CEO and CFO. Try for the CEO, with complete name, title, phone number and email address contact information.
A reputable marketing list vendor will provide a guarantee that covers any inaccurate information in the lists they sell, so be sure the vendor you work with offers a guarantee. It is better to pay more for an accurate marketing list than to pay less for one that has a lot of “dead” leads.
Good sources of marketing lists include:
Harte-Hankes
Dun & Bradstreet
InfoUSA
For more information on maximizing the effectiveness of your marketing and sales efforts, see our best-selling The Best I.T. Sales & Marketing BOOK EVER!
Erick Simpson
MSP University
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