Business-to-Business Mailing Lists
Business lists come in many varieties. From compiled business lists that focus on the location of the business with some but limited contact names to industry specific lists that focus on many different types of contacts within a specific industry. There are also trade association lists available as well as response lists of proven buyers.
Compiled Lists
These lists are taken from public records, the phone book and are typically phone verified once a year. The upside of compiled lists is that they tend to be very comprehensive and can be selected by industry group (Standard Industry Classification codes), number of employees, sales volume and some limited contact information. The typical record will have the owner, president, CEO as the contact, but may have the office manager; managing partner or other designated contact person. Typically these lists have phone numbers available but coverage is not 100% and in some cases the phone numbers are old and have not been updated.
If you want businesses that have been in business for a certain length of time, be aware that a business that changes their legal status (from a Sole Proprietor to an LLC for example) will be listed as a new company when their record is updated. So if you've been in business for 18 years like Market Mapping plus has, but change your legal status, you now have been in business less than 2 years. It's just one of the inherent flaws in their process of gathering information and updating it.
These lists typically have low minimum quantities but also carry high per name costs for low volume orders.
Job Title Lists
These lists are the most sought after for many industries. Companies are looking for the Human Resources Director, or the Purchasing Manager, or All of the Middle Management employees. The difficulty with these lists is that employee status changes about 2 - 3% every month, so at the end of a year they are 24- 36% incorrect. And in bad economic times, these numbers only get bigger, not smaller.
You can typically select by job title, industry group or department. The keys to this type of list are to find out how names and addresses are gathered, and how often they're verified and updated. Recency is critical to this type of list.
These lists tend to be more expensive and have minimums in the 2,500 - 5,000 name range.
Association/Subscriber Lists
These can be the best sources for key, targeted lists. They are updated regularly because the subscribers expect to receive their magazines or association information. There are associations for virtually every industry group from Marketing, to Civil Engineering, to Accounting and other groups. There are associations for Plastics Engineers as well as Boat Manufacturers. These lists can be highly targeted, but tend to have very low counts nationwide and do not cover 100% of an industry. For example, if there are 1000 Plastics engineers in a particular area there may only be 300 who are members of the American Association of Plastics Engineers. So reaching everyone in an industry group or job title may not work for this type of list. For subscription lists, these again don't have 100% saturation but do focus on those individuals who are VERY into their industry, keeping abreast of current changes in their industry. Like Association lists, these will have gaps in coverage and tend to be very expensive on a per name basis.
These lists tend to be the most expensive and have high minimum quantity volumes of between 5,000 names and 10,000 names.