Knowing your B2B prospects from your B2C
Reaching the right business (B2B) or reaching the right customer requires different strategies and involves many different data issues. Prospects in B2B and B2C, ”consumer data” differ, and it is important you know the difference. What is the difference between B2B and B2C marketing data techniques?
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
The whole nature of a business contact is very different to that of a non-business contact – most of us are both types of contact in different spheres of our lives, so the differences are relatively easy to grasp. What is more difficult is how to be clear on managing the quality of B2B and customer contact data, as their structure can be very different.
How to comply with opt-in regulations for non-business data is something we will cover in a future blog…
Key differences between B2B and non-business data
For now, though, let’s think about the key differences between B2B business data and non-business data. This is critical, particularly if your target customers are both businesses and non-businesses. The structure of your database file just won’t work if you try to fit both types into the same file. B2B and B2C details will not be the same.
With B2B data contacts, everything starts with a contact name (and their job title) and a company name. You then need a whole separate set of fields for the company, which of course could apply to multiple contacts within that company. For example, company telephone number(s), website address, turnover, industry classification, business type, number of employees, location, parent company, head office etc. The more of this you build up, the better your targeting will be.
However, with non-business data, it is all about the person – title, name, gender, address, date of birth and whatever contact details have been made available. This could be as a mobile number and email address.
However, the biggest difference between B2B and non-business data is, in fact, the amount of classification that is possible to focus on your target audience. While there are of course many times more customers than businesses, we can all be classified precisely in terms of our demographics, location and our propensity to do certain things – our income level, housing attributes, age and family situation all paint a picture about our likelihood to be interested products or services. There are also reference files of data such as the Royal Mail PAF file. This can be used to verify and cleanse non-business data to a certain level.
These reference files plus geo-demographic and propensity data offer much more complex information than B2B. An individual can easily be profiled for likes and dislikes.
We can help you reach B2B prospects
As our company name suggests, Business Data Prospects, our track record of quality data has been built up around business data (B2B).
Begin targeting your ideal audience with our B2B data today. Our streamlined service and methods can help your business reach your B2B prospects within 24–48 hours. This saves your sales team countless hours and enables them to spend more time making B2B sales.
We understand the true value of quality B2B data, which is why all of our B2B data undertakes various verification methods. This is to ensure we only supply the most accurate contact information. To begin with, all data is cross-referenced against Companies House to validate company details. Our market research team will then validate address details with Royal Mail. The team will then carry out research in our call centre to validate fields such as job titles, positions, and personal B2B email verification. Email validation is then carried out by our in house email platform by the market research team. To finalise our verification process, all telephone lines are checked with BT, ensuring that all lines are active and in-use.
Are you looking to reach a wider B2B audience? Expand your marketing reach today with purchasing our B2B marketing data.
If you have any questions or would like to enquire, please contact us by calling 0333 200 1860. Alternatively, you can request a call-back from one of our dedicated account managers via our request a call-back contact form.
