Here are some basic questions you need to ask yourself when purchasing a business database: What volume of records do you require? A rough idea will help us gauge the potential and to see if we are close/far from obtaining the right list in terms of the number of records. We also have to bear in mind the minimum order value which is £250 and for higher volume orders (above 10,000 records), there are significant volume discounts. What types of businesses? Do they have industry preferences, a list of SIC codes or Thomson Classifications for example? The Marketing Guru website can used to make searches on the industry of your choice, simply insert your keyword on the search bar and several choices will come up if available. Click on our weblink (see below) to make a search. What size of business do you want to target? What is the range of number of employees in the companies you wish to target. You can also select by Turnover, but this is less accurate. What region or postcodes do you wish to target? Is the data required nationwide or just England & Wales? Do you have a list of postcodes you wish to select? Selections can also be made by Region, County, Town, postal area, postal districts. Which job roles would you like to contact? A decision maker will have a certain main job role e.g. Finance, although their job title could be "Director" and unrelated to Finance. Selections can be made according to specific job titles, but its recommended to pick job roles if volume is required. Which type of sites do you need to contact? For example, you may only like to target Head Offices and Single Sites. Alternatively, you would like to include all sites including Branches and Regional offices. What is the purpose of the database? Are you planning a telemarketing campaign? If so, do you require records TPS flagged or removed? If you are planning to mail as well, it may be prudent to include TPS flagged records in order to maximise the potential from your business database. If you require email addresses, do these need to be on every record or where available?

Other articles from Marketing Guru: Buying an email list Buying consumer mailing lists Contracts and data licensing for marketing lists Getting the most out of your email lists How to select a business database Maximising ROI from business data Maximising ROI from consumer lists