As businesses look for accurate and up-to-date information to fuel their growth, B2B data providers are becoming increasingly important. These providers provide access to information about companies, people, products, and more.
Having access to the right B2B data can help businesses reach their desired customers, increase their sales, find new opportunities, and gain valuable insights. With the right data, businesses can create targeted campaigns, personalize their message for specific people, and track the effectiveness of their campaigns.
B2B data can also be used to develop better business strategies, analyze customer trends and behaviors, and gain insights into the market. B2B data is, without a doubt, one of the most important tools and in this article, we'll talk about the types of data businesses leverage to stay ahead of the curve.
What is a B2B Database?
Due to their importance and prevalence in the business world, the terms B2B Data and B2B Databases come up a lot but what do they mean?
B2B data is a compilation of details about businesses, including ones that fall in a particular target market, and their employees. This can be utilized for a variety of sales and marketing endeavors. In essence, it is a list/database of individual details with a variety of data points.
B2B database or datasets, on the other hand, is a collection of information about businesses in a comprehensible manner using B2B data. This includes things like company names, size, industry, financials, employee names, email addresses, phone numbers, technographic, and firmographics. It can be especially useful when trying to determine whether someone is a good sales lead and accompanies information you can use to get in touch with them.
Types of B2B Data
The customer/client provides his/her info through various methods/platforms like social media, surveys, mobile apps, and websites, which the business utilizes to create a new product or market strategies, and aims to increase overall customer satisfaction.
The customer data consists of various elements that are personal and behavioral related. Some of the key attributes of B2B data include-
- Personal Information: Name, Email Address, Phone Numbers
- Company details: Name of company, Size, Industry, Location, Decision-makers
Based on the key attributes the datasets are categorized as:
Demographic Data
B2B Demographic Data is a compilation of static information that helps organizations identify whether a contact or lead would be suitable to their complete addressable market. It is composed of personal details of a person and LinkedIn profiles. This type of data focuses on the characteristics of a company’s customer base and employees and includes data such as age, gender, location, and income level. This set of data is usually used to construct marketing plans, campaigns, lead scoring, and nurturing.
Firmographic Data
It includes segmentation of company info, and company profile such as name, location, industry, size, number of employees, performance, revenue, and sales information. This is also used for segmentation and targeting, however, the focus is broader, and lies on the companies.
Technographic Data
This type of B2B data includes information about a company’s technology stack and digital footprint. This is used to gain insight into the tech needs and preferences of a company. This is especially useful for companies in the dev-tools space.
Chronographic Data
This track's events and changes occur as time progresses. It includes company location changes, employee hiring history, past and present employee funding, acquisition, company IPO, and event appearances. It is used to understand the timing of a company's activities, such as when they make purchases, when they renew contracts, and when they upgrade their technology.
Intent Data
This tracks users' online behavior and predicts their intent to purchase based on the content they engage with. It's based on customers’ research habits and what they’re looking for when they visit your website or use your products and helps identify relevant trends. This is used for evaluating the buying intent of a user or a company.
Fit Data
B2B Fit Data is data that is used to assess the fit between a company and a product or service by confirming the prospecting to a specific set of parameters which can include parameters like company size, industry, revenue, and location. The data is similar to other types mentioned, however, it's used to assess the fit rather than to gain insights for strategies.
Opportunity Data
This type of data gives insights into how well a company is doing. It includes information about customer retention, revenue, profitability, employee promotions, product launches, funding, and mergers. Opportunity data is used to gain insights into a company's potential for growth, such as its current market position, its competitive landscape, and its potential for expansion.
Behavioral Data
Behavioral B2B datasets provide insights into how customers interact with your product or service on an individual level. It can include things like page views, click-through rates, time spent on a page, conversion rates, subscription details, and previous purchases. This can be analyzed using website analytics tools. It is used to personalize the B2B eCommerce experience, understand customers' preferences, and build better relationships.
Interaction Data
This type of data looks at the interactions between customers and companies such as emails sent, calls made, website visits, and messages exchanged. It is used to identify trends in customer behavior and develop strategies for improving sales performance.
Attitudinal Data
This type of data focuses on customer sentiment toward a company’s products or services. It can include surveys that measure customer satisfaction or reviews that provide insight into how people feel about a product or service. It also expands on preferences, and purchase criteria, and helps quantify product desirability. This is used to determine which products or services a company is most likely to be interested in, or which messaging is most likely to resonate with them.
These are some types of consumer/company data that business use to identify customer trends and behaviors, optimize marketing campaigns, improve customer experience, identify prospects, understand clients, and consequently make profits.
Apart from this, data acquired can be categorized into many more types. And each help a particular company boost sales at different steps.
These data are collected and stored electronically and structured in a form of a database that is easy to access, manage, and update.
B2B Contact Database - A form Of Database
As the name suggests, the contact information of individuals and companies falls under this category of the database. So, excluding the other data variables, a contact database consists of attributes of firmographics and demographics. It also contains datasets of phone numbers and work email addresses that let you get in touch with leads.
You can get access to contact information to approach other businesses/customers/prospects. This makes B2B databases the primary source of lead generation.
With getting accurate contact data, a list of qualified leads can be created which sales and marketing teams can use to craft personalized email campaigns, engage website visitors with remarketing efforts and target the right prospects at the right time.
Why are B2B databases important
B2B Databases are used for lead generation, outbound sales, and data enrichment. This is a data-driven prospecting approach.
They employ account-based sales approaches to pinpoint the appropriate potential customers at the right businesses and set up their Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs). Additionally, they facilitate the uncovering of new contacts and make sending individualized messages, based on the data that has been collected, a straightforward task. This eliminates the tiresome effort of calling the wrong numbers and manually entering the data into the CRMs.
Sources of B2B Data
- Lead Generation Approach: This is the process of identifying potential customers and prospects, then engaging with them to generate sales leads. Lead generation typically involves collecting contact information such as names, email addresses, and phone numbers. This can be done through cold calling, email marketing campaigns, social media outreach, and more.
- Digital Marketing Tools: Digital marketing tools are a great way to generate customer interaction and traffic. These tools include search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, display advertising, email campaigns, and more. All of these activities can be used to generate leads and collect customer data.
- Content Marketing: Content marketing is a form of digital marketing that focuses on creating valuable content for your target audience in order to build relationships with them and drive engagement. Content can be anything from blog posts to videos or podcasts - it just needs to be relevant to your target audience. Videos have become a powerful tool in content marketing, capturing your audience's attention and effectively conveying messages. Using a video maker tool will streamline the process of your content strategy and further enhance the impact of your messaging, offering engaging visuals to complement your written content. By leveraging content marketing you can collect data about your customer's interests and behaviors which can be used to inform future marketing strategies.
- Data Providers: Data providers are digital platforms that gather large amounts of contact databases that usually include full names, locations, positions, phone numbers, email addresses, social networks, and other contact points.
- Web Scrapping (Natural Language Processing): Web Scrapping is a technique used to extract data from websites by analyzing HTML documents to find patterns that can be used for data extraction. Using NLP on this scraped data can further help identify the relevancy of content and extract higher-quality B2B data.
- Conducting Surveys or Collecting Forms: Conducting surveys or collecting forms is another way of gathering customer information such as name and contact information to build a database of potential leads.
- Company Documents/Registers/Records: Company documents/registers/records can be a great source of B2B data as they usually contain detailed information about companies such as their size and location.
- Customer Interviews: Customer interviews are an effective way of getting basic info about customers as well as behavioral data which can help inform business decisions about products or services offered by the company.
- Review Website Analytics: Review website analytics is another way of getting intent/behavioral data from customers who visit the company’s website or use its services to understand what type of changes need to be made to improve customer experience on the website or with the services offered by the company.
- Through Events & Conferences: Attending events & conferences is also a great way of generating B2B leads as it allows companies to meet potential partners face-to-face to discuss potential collaborations or partnerships which could result in increased business opportunities for both parties involved.
Data acquired can be modified and used for different purposes.
Constraints of B2B Databases
B2B Databases are great but are not a silver bullet for success and have their own set of constraints. Here are a few:
Limited Data Availability: According to a study by Forbes, only about 50% of all available B2B data is accurate, and many times the data is outdated or incomplete. This can limit the effectiveness of any insights derived from the data and make it difficult for companies to make informed decisions.
Costly: Many B2B databases are expensive and may require a large upfront cost to access them. This can be prohibitive for smaller companies that may not have the resources to invest in these databases.
Time-Consuming: Gathering and organizing B2B data can be a time-consuming process as it requires manually searching through various sources such as websites, directories, and social media platforms. This can be time-consuming and difficult to keep up with if there is a large amount of data being collected regularly.
Quality of Data: The quality of the data can be questionable as it may be outdated or incomplete. This can lead to inaccurate insights, which can have major implications for companies that rely on the data for decision-making. Gartner's research found that poor data quality is responsible for an average of $15 million per year in losses. LinkedIn also reported that at least 30% of the overall data decays yearly.
Security and Privacy: B2B databases are often shared among multiple parties and this means that there is a risk of data breaches or unauthorized access to sensitive information. Companies need to ensure that they have adequate security measures in place to protect their data from being misused or stolen.
Outsourcing B2B Data from Data providers
Getting help from data providers to meet the challenges mentioned above can be an effortless and time-saving solution as the main focus and priority of these providers is to outsource data.
- These providers have already verified contact information which can be easily transformed into leads.
- Accessing and segmenting these real-world B2B contacts can be of great value.
- Additionally, the data provided is structured and organized, which minimizes the time taken to format it.
- Some of these providers offer free demos and trials.
- Furthermore, lead generation companies are available to help you find fitting data and opportunities.
- Even though getting data from data providers is convenient, there are still some risks associated with it, and not all providers are compliant with security.
Nevertheless, it is better to get data from the best data providers available in the market and ensure the accuracy and quality of the data.
- Proxycurl is an outstanding source of data with 401 million people and company profiles.
- It provides up-to-date and novel data on potential customers.
- It is one of the most sought-after providers of B2B contact information, thanks to its highly performant and robust APIs.
- Proxycurl provides access to details of both personal and corporate entities, including name, telephone numbers, and work and private email addresses.
- Overall, there is an availability of a whopping 44 data points.
When searching for B2B Data, not all providers have the same offerings; some specialize in contact databases, while others provide different types of information such as Fit and Chronographic data. So, it's wise to be aware of your needs beforehand and look into the pricing, features, and reviews of the B2B Data Providers before making a purchase.
Top 10 B2B Databases Platforms & Providers
B2B contact databases are essential resources for any business. They provide comprehensive, up-to-date information on customers, allowing businesses to effectively target their marketing and sales efforts.
But with so many B2B data providers, it can be hard to choose the right one for your needs. To help you out, we've compiled a list of the 10 best B2B data providers. All of these providers offer high-quality data and a variety of features. With the help of these providers, businesses can gain invaluable insights into their target market and create more effective marketing and sales strategies.
So if you're looking for a reliable B2B data provider, one of these 10 should be a great fit.
- Proxycurl
- Lusha
- Linkedin Sales Navigator
- Lead 411
- Rocket Reach
- Lead IQ
- Clearbit
- SalesIntel
- Uplead
- Owler
Refer to this Top 10 B2B database providers article and get the details of each company.
Frequently asked questions ( FAQ)
What is B2B Prospecting?
B2B prospecting is the process of identifying potential customers who are likely to be interested in a company’s products or services. Having a list of prospects is essential for any type of B2B marketing campaign.
It is possible to create lists of potential customers in the B2B world via a variety of techniques.
It involves researching, analyzing, and targeting potential customers through a variety of methods such as utilizing LinkedIn Data, creating an ideal customer profile, obtaining assistance from B2B data suppliers, forming relationships, and investigating before employing email campaigns, cold calling, and other forms of digital marketing.
This method can be used to segment target audiences, fasten the sales process, and create marketing approaches for significant clients. The goal of B2B sales prospecting is to locate potential buyers and transform them into new businesses. The aim is to identify leads that have the highest potential for becoming paying customers and eventually nurture these leads through the sales funnel until they complete a purchase.
Difference between B2B and B2C Database
The difference between B2B and B2C databases lies in the type of customer they are targeting. B2B databases focus on businesses, while B2C databases focus on individual consumers.
A B2B database typically contains information about a company’s size, industry, location, contact information, and other relevant data points. This allows marketers to target their campaigns at specific companies that fit their ideal customer profile.
On the other hand, a B2C database contains more personal information such as age, gender, and interests which can be used to target individual consumers. This type of database is often used by marketers to create personalized campaigns that appeal to specific segments of the population.
In a nutshell, B2B databases provide more detailed information about businesses and are used to target specific companies, while B2C databases contain more personal information about individual consumers and are used to create personalized campaigns.
These differences are particularly important when it comes to B2B vs. B2C email marketing. B2B email marketing relies heavily on detailed company data to craft messages that resonate with business decision-makers, while B2C email marketing focuses on personalizing content to engage individual consumers.
