Whatever industry you specialize in, if you are a business selling services or products to further business, you will need B2B data. Business-to-business data, commonly known as B2B data, is what firms use to improve their understanding of other businesses, generate business ideas, enhance decision-making, and benefit marketing and sales teams.
In this short guide on B2B business lists, we will help you define what it is, the various types of data, sources where you can retain it, how to manage it, use cases, and benefits.
What are B2B business lists?
B2B business lists can be comprehended as any form of relevant information regarding other businesses. B2B lists usually consist of a database of individual contacts with an array of data points that are used to fuel marketing activities and various sales strategies or processes.
B2B business lists include information like company names, employee names, email addresses, phone numbers, technographic, and firmographics. All the information you will need to qualify someone as a good sales lead is included in B2B lists, including information on how to contact them.
How can B2B lists be used?
Essentially, the goal of B2B lists is to get converted into leads and then into sales. These lists of data can come from a variety of sources but most of the time from a single one or a combination of in-house, inbound, or paid. With regards to what source they come from, they can be categorized into the following:
1. Cold leads (businesses that haven’t engaged with your company)
2. Warm leads (businesses that know about your company and have shown some interest to know more)
3. Hot leads (businesses that know about your company, have shown some interest, and want to purchase from you)
The most common B2B data use cases
B2B lists are an important segment in the productivity, growth, and success of the sales and marketing teams. The data is also leveraged to conduct market research, industry analyses, and fuel Al-based tools.
Naturally, the data use cases fall under three categories: outbound sales, lead generation, and analytics. Here’s a closer look at how they are practiced by businesses.
Outbound sales
Outbound sales are the ones that are performed by the sales team, the team rep contacts the prospect first. This is done by email marketing or direct-dial phone numbers on the contact lists.
This is quite a discussion category. Some believe that it’s too time-consuming since you have to explain everything with no guarantee that key decision-makers will get informed about your offer.
However, others believe that this technique saves time in closing deals since marketing teams are good convincers and will land the deal. This belief is backed up by research from the Sales Insight Lab, which shows that a minimum of 50% of your initial prospects don’t require the products or services you offer.
Lead generation
The most common users of B2B data are marketing and sales teams, therefore businesses utilize the data to improve their teams, boost lead generation, and consequently increase conversion rates. 50% of the content created by B2B marketers and sales teams is focused on creating brand awareness and interest.
An example of this would be how you can access a particular company’s technographic data. With this information, the marketing and sales department can enhance their insights into whether or not a prospective customer can desire additional software.
Analytics
Aside from supplying the marketing and sales teams with precious information, B2B data has the potential to enhance businesses’ research and analysis processes. More specifically, companies get access to firmographics, technographics, and intent data which is used for competitive analysis.
Likewise, there are many other useful processes that businesses can discover from examining B2B data. Here are some of the sub-use cases:
● Track market growth
● Identify market gaps
● Monitor competitors
● Improve internal processes
● Generate products/services
● Risk analysis
The main benefits of using B2B business lists
B2B data is important to see a more complete view of other businesses. Transforming the marketing and sales teams’ techniques must be backed up with accurate data, that’s where B2B comes into hand. Here are the benefits and importance of B2B lists.
Opportunity to identify addressable markets
If you send a connection request to every single B2B professional out there, all you’ll get from it is an insight into how big your market is. Alternatively, a personalized B2B database can map your market. Specify a few details and in return get a detailed market segmentation.
Improved targeting
Building a market map will help with the focus on marketing to ideal targets. This can be taken even further. With the existing data, you have to pinpoint the companies you are targeting. After you have the list, create buyer personas and understand the buyers and decision-makers within those companies.
Better personalized marketing
98% of marketers agree that a personalized approach advances customer relationships. Personalization makes for a more effective campaign.
Personalization can be carried through in many ways. Email campaigns can use segmentation and personal clever data inserts, display ads or social media can add to a campaign.
More compelling content
Remember buyer’s personas, well they can help you understand what content will resonate with your audience. Use the customer data to understand people’s motivations, and create content that aligns with those motives. And of course, after publishing content, website analytics will give you further insights on what was a hit and what wasn’t.
Conclusion
B2B business lists are award-winning suppliers of high-quality data, databases, analysis, and targeted lists for businesses. These have proven to provide companies with greater opportunities, improve lead generation, enhance market research, boost sales and marketing strategies, and more.