Sources of Lists or Databases for Your Business-to-Business Lead Generation

A big part of a business-to-business sales lead generation success is having a database or list of the right companies, and the right contacts at those companies, to target with your direct marketing.

Your in-house database of customers, sales rep additions and past inquiries is often your best source of new business sales leads.

However, business-to-business marketers often need additional companies and contacts to market to in order to get enough qualified leads into the sales pipeline.

The good news is that there are lots of business-to-business lists or databases available.

Some are categorized as “rental lists” which are generally “rented” for limited, usually one-time, use.

Rental lists are often appropriate for single touch direct marketing campaigns. Or for testing response from new markets, industries or niches.

A good place to start looking for these rental lists is NextMark, which lets you search more than 60,000 mailing lists, email lists, and telephone lists from hundreds of vendors.

However, for best results, I usually recommend that B2B marketers use ongoing, multi-touch campaigns aimed at well-targeted groups of prospective companies and contacts.

Fortunately there are a number of B2B database companies that allow you to buy a license for ongoing use of the company and contact information you select from their databases. This ongoing use is typically limited by the license to a single year. Some of these companies also provide access to their entire database for ongoing use, on an annual or monthly subscription basis.

Here’s a sampling of companies that offer licenses to their B2B databases for ongoing use:

• Experian’s database includes 16 million U.S.A. businesses.
• FirmaGraphix’s database includes approximately19 million U.S.A. business records and 26 million contact names.
• GuideStar’s database of non-profits gives you access to 3.3 million contacts at more than 5,000 organizations.
• Harris InfoSource’s Selectory Database includes 15 million businesses in the U.S.A. and Canada.
• Harte Hanks CI database profiles up to 10 different technology areas at more than 650,000 North American locations, and includes more than 1.5 million technology decision makers and influencers at over 600,000 small to medium businesses and large enterprises throughout North America, Latin America, and Europe.
• InfoUSA database includes more than14 million US businesses.
• Jigsaw is an online directory of more than 7 million business contacts.
• MeritDirect’s B2bBase includes over 60 million names compiled from more than 500 B2B and hi-tech lists.
• Netprospex is a relatively new source of contacts (over 2,400,000 accurate business contacts across 350,000 companies) including difficult-to-find mid-management decision makers across North American businesses.
• Scott’s Directories Canadian corporate database includes 162,000 companies as well as medical, government and association databases.
• Zapdata gives you access to D&B’s business information on 14 million US companies.
• ZoomInfo allows you to access profiles and contact information for more than 37 million people and 3.5 million companies.

As you can see, some of these databases cover virtually every business. Others focus on specific industries or niches.

Which of these or other B2B lists or databases have you used for lead generation?

Please share your comments about these or other marketing databases or lists you have used for B2B lead generation:

• Which have you had the most success with, and why?
• Which are best for reaching specific industries or job functions?
• Which do you recommend against, and why?