Database marketing: the foundation for lead gen campaign success

Database marketing: the foundation for campaign success

Database marketing — you have probably heard the term, but what exactly does it mean?

As opposed to the approach of blasting out the same message to everyone, database marketing is the discipline of collecting data about your target audience and crafting a message that resonates specifically with them.

There’s an abundance of data available today, both in a company’s CRM system as well as in transactional systems and external sources. Why not harness this data to make your next lead gen campaign more targeted and relevant? Once you master this approach, you’ll find that database marketing is an integral part of your marketing strategy.

The database as the foundation of target marketing campaigns

Target marketing campaigns are only as good as the foundation they’re built on. Getting your contact list right is more crucial than ever in today’s competitive landscape. In fact, an accurate target database is really your most important marketing asset.

The first step in building an accurate list might seem obvious, but it is surprising how many companies miss the mark – know your audience. Be clear about who your target audience is, including the industries you’re trying to reach, as well as the business size and roles of the people you are going after.

Job titles don’t always correlate to what people actually do or care about. Therefore, it’s important to perform additional research and combine data sources to get a more up-to-date and complete picture of your prospects.

Developing the database

Creating a database for lead nurturing or research is no light task. Marketers may own some of the data, but augmenting it with external sources, such as social data, is what adds the sales intelligence you need for effective marketing and communications.

According to Entrepreneur magazine, social data offers marketers some of the best digital signals to follow for two reasons. The first is that social platforms make permission-based public data available to marketers. The second is that social data is full of simple and meaningful insights that enable marketers to target people at all stages of the buyer’s journey.

Start by creating databases exclusively with your target accounts. Once the list of your top prospect companies is drawn up, the next step is to research those companies and add data from as many sources as possible to enrich the customer record.

Learn more about how to create a lead generation database in your target accounts here.

The benefits of database marketing

When you’re able to do data driven targeting and use the information you’ve compiled in your database to segment potential customers, you will be able to craft the appropriate marketing messages for each customer segment.

Your marketing communications messaging will improve. You will have elevated the conversation to a more personal level, demonstrating that you understand what your target audience cares about. This translates into stronger customer relationships.

Ultimately, after the initial development work is done, database marketing improves the bottom line. Businesses segment and target their audience more efficiently and cost-effectively, thus increasing profit margins.

Are your marketing and sales teams complaining that your database is incomplete, dated, irrelevant or inaccessible? See how you can qualify to receive 25 human-verified contacts for your next marketing campaign.

Lisa Vitale is the President of SimplyDIRECT and her leadership positions the company at the forefront of the direct marketing industry.