Is Quality Lead Generation Getting Easier?

According to The Sales and Marketing Institute (b2bmarketing.com), 70% of business-related contact data is outdated after only 12 months.

The problem is multi-layered. People change jobs…frequently. People change jobs within the same company…very frequently. Sometimes the data is entered into the system incorrectly in the first place, or key areas are left blank.

If your company relies on this kind of information to generate lead lists, this is a huge concern. You take time to create a new campaign, or a new product. You use more time (and dollars) to market that new information to the right people…but outdated lists result in horrible inefficiency. And if that “70%” figure is accurate, are you even coming close to reaching your campaign’s potential? If the old axiom is true that 50% of marketing is wasted, how much is wasted if it’s not even being sent to the right people?

There are many options out there, and some are rising to the top:

LinkedIn (linkedin.com), although relatively new to the scene, has over 50 million members. You can’t buy lists from LinkedIn for campaigns, but the information you can find is attractive and more reliable than the traditional paid-for lists because LinkedIn is still more of a social network, and as a result its users are often updating their own information. However, you are somewhat limited by the quality of your own network, or your willingness to expand it.

Jigsaw (Jigsaw.com) was recently purchased by SalesForce.com, and looks like another strong source. (Disclaimer: my company, Sundog, is a SalesForce partner although we are not yet using Jigsaw).  The lists and contact information compiled inside Jigsaw includes about 20 million names and about 9 million businesses. It includes information from businesses of all sizes and industries. Jigsaw’s lists are now closely tied to SalesForce.com’s lists…which results in data that is more-often updated and is cross-referenced with SalesForce’s database.