Database List Sources for Marketing Lead Generation

The major database list sources for marketing lead generation for North American businesses come from data aggregators such as Hoovers/Dunn&Bradstreet, InfoUsa, or OneSource and are based off the NAICS.

The North American Industry Classification System or NAICS (pronounced "nakes") is used by business and government to classify and measure economic activity in North America. It has largely replaced the older Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system.

Work began on NAICS in the U.S. in 1992 and the first version debuted in 1997 and was updated in 2007, toward NAPCS. The 2007 revision is available from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The NAICS system is designed to be somewhat compatible with the United Nations Statistical Office's International Standard Industrial Classification System (ISIC).

Brief summary of the major database list sources:

• Hoovers (which I am told will include HarrisInfo and Selectory) has 30 million North American corporations and organization records (65M worldwide) including the majority of businesses with more than $10M in annual revenues. Information is updated sporadically by verified users and by researchers annually. Hoovers is itself a large business with $125M in annual revenues and 380 employees and is located in Austin Texas, a subsidiary of Dunn & Bradstreet.   If you are looking to generate a list of companies then try Hoovers. Information Collected by Hoovers: a) · Company and business professional contact information, including name, title, address, phone number, fax number and e-mail address; and b) High-level company profiles and statistics, including industries and number of employees.

   

• OneSource (offers Hoovers information thru their tool) is run by 240 employees based in Concord, MA.  OneSource has detailed company statistics and contact information for 13M business records.  If you are looking at in depth or company profiling try OneSource.
  
• InfoUSA has 600 full-time researchers complete 20M calls a year and telephone verify their records. If you are looking for small businesses try InfoUsa (available for free at your local library under the title of “ReferenceUSA”).

There are other sources for when you need more detailed contact information from online social networking and Internet data aggregators such as:

• ZoomInfo, $10M in annual revenues, 85 employees located in Waltham, MA. Provides in-depth profiles on over 45M business contacts and 5M companies. Strong in Human Resources.
• Broadlook, is an online tool that scours the web and provides research, automated alerts, updates, and intelligence for sales professionals ($5M in annual revenues based in Pewaukee, WI). Great for really targeting medium to large organizations. 
• LinkedIn, has over 53 million members from 170 industries in over 200 countries and territories around the world. (approximately $17M in annual revenues based in Mountain View, CA)
• Jigsaw, $2M in revenues based in San Mateo CA and has a directory of more than 19 million business contacts added and edited daily by a dedicated user base of over one million.

Important notice: According to the Small Business Administration (SBA) there are roughly 30 million businesses with headquarters in the USA. Of these firms 99% are under several hundred employees.  The SBA reported that approximately 20k businesses (not a subsidiary and headquarters in the USA) existed in 2006 with more than 500 employees. Hoovers for comparison purposes lists 22.5k US businesses with more than 500 employees. According to Hoovers, every year your database faces significant attrition… here are a few more relevant statistics to keep in mind when building your marketing list:

• About 10% of all businesses close per year
• Approximately 600,000 new businesses open every year; less than 1% make it to $10M within ten years
• 21% of CEOs will change per year
• 20% of all addresses will change per year
• 18% of telephone numbers will change per year
• 17% of business names will change pear year

 

Criteria for evaluating database marketing list quality:

1. Accuracy – How accurate is the information?
2. Completeness – providing a breadth and depth of data (Do you need companies or contacts or both plus intelligence?)
3. Timeliness – How frequently is the information updated and refreshed?

A few more items to keep in mind when selecting your database list provider for marketing leads:

• What level of contacts (C-level or HR or Finance) are you looking for?  i.e. Hoovers is great for Owners and Finance and weak for HR and Sales for instance.  ZoomInfo is great for HR.  So are vertical solution providers like HRMarketer.
• There are industry specific list sources which may be a better fit than building a list based on the NAICS codes
• Make sure the list you are purchasing has email addresses
• Most list providers will provide a sample list for you to test quality

 

Comments

[JDM]

We've had a lot of luck with InfoUSA as a list rental provider. Particularly, as they will allow you to pay once a year and send to their list as many times as you like.

Worth keeping in mind that everybody else is doing the same thing...

[Search Engine Optimization]

Accuracy,Completeness and Timeliness is one big factor for marketing of this. It's very helpful that you've shared this.

[renamer]

WOW! I didn't know this. Thanks for sharing anyway.