The last few years have seen an exponential growth in lead & demand generation suppliers, particularly in the US, UK & India.
I get at least 10 emails a week and several more invites on LinkedIn informing me that ‘we have proven results in your sector and have the best, most refreshed and GDPR-compliant first party data sets in the industry’. This is usually accompanied by something about ‘intent layers & predictive intelligence’ etc…
Well sign me up!
It’s not a new thing in b2b marketing – there have always been several reputable suppliers across the demand and lead gen space; as an agency we’ve used in the region of about 20 different media partners over time. But now it seems that as data has become more commoditised, dare I say wholesale, this proliferation of new suppliers has made it trickier than ever for vendors (and agencies) to separate the wheat from the chaff. Furthermore they all seem to have similar names, usually with the word ‘Demand or Lead’ in there. DemandMore! DemandGrowth! LeadSnooper! Demand-OPedia! LeadBalloon! (see what I did there?) DemandBreakfast! It’s really confusing.
What seems to have been forgotten in this data gold rush is the size of the meaningful addressable universe. Vendors want good engagement with (usually) senior Decision Maker’s within the buying group – but let’s do some basic maths:
Target: UK, Enterprises 500+, buying DM group.
According to the ONS, there are 8,000 orgs with 250+ employees;
That means a total universe of 160,000 (based on 20 people in the DM group)
For 500+ we can assume that would be less than 50% of that number, and for 1000+ it’s probably around 20% – and even that is generous.
That means we’re looking at a universe of between 50-70k individuals.
Think about that for a moment. Less than 70k individuals, all being targeted by hundreds, if not thousands, of tech vendors, day in, day out.
Now before we all get depressed about it, there is light at the end of that tunnel. As an agency we spend time vetting these suppliers so you don’t have to; for new, unused suppliers we use a set of criteria that need to be answered to our satisfaction before we’ll engage.
Here are a few of the questions we ask:
- How do you source your data?
- What does the user journey look like?
- Why would users interact / opt-in / sign up?
- How are opt-ins handled to ensure leads are properly sourced and compliant?
- What reporting and analytics capabilities do you offer to track campaign performance?
- Proof of previous successful campaigns
- Client / agency testimonials
So even though it may seem like it’s a bit wild-west out there, there are some really great suppliers – both old and new – who are delivering really interesting, innovative ways of engaging. Our job is to ensure that we act as an intelligent filter for clients in this ever-growing world of DemandOverkill.