Telemarketing Lead Generation Blog

Building Databases and Uncovering Contacts : Leveraging the Internet With Telemarketing

Posted on Oct 28, 2008 by Jason St Onge, Senior Account Executive

Considering that over 60% of a telemarketing lead generation campaign’s success is directly attributed to the targeted database, it is evident how important data is to achieving desired results. Building and maintaining accurate contact databases is an ongoing challenge for many marketing and sales departments. Although every organization has unique data challenges or needs (from verifying existing contacts to uncovering new ones), one commonality is that no one wants to waste time and resources chasing the wrong prospects.

For contact generation and verification programs, TeleNet has had the most success using a combination of telemarketing, web research, and electronic validation. We have been running programs of this nature for years and the biggest innovations have primarily come through the way we use the Internet. For a number of reasons, organizations have become much less willing to share employee information (not directing calls without a specific name, etc), requiring more upfront research to uncover the appropriate contacts needed to start the verification process.

If you are tasked with building or maintaining a database, here are a few online sources of information that can be utilized to assist you with your contact generation process:

• Data Services such as Hoover’s or Harte-Hanks (subscription required) – used to find company information and executive and other high-level contacts
• Company Websites – used to find management team members or press releases, blogs and other content that may provide relevant contacts and contact information (i.e. direct lines, email naming conventions)
• Google Searches – used to search for specific titles or job functions within specific companies to uncover contacts for verification
• Networking Sites such as Linked-In or Jigsaw – used to search for specific titles or job functions within specific companies to uncover potential contacts (and who they may be connected to) for verification
• Industry Resources such as trade publications and industry organizations/conferences – used to search for key executives within target companies

These sources play a key role in uncovering the contacts that should be verified through the calling process. Even if the contacts uncovered turn out not to be the appropriate contacts, they serve as a starting point to penetrate organizations and obtain referrals.

Tagged: telemarketing data cleansing, telemarketing database, telemarketing lead generation, telemarketing contact verification, telemarketing contact supplementation

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