WRITTEN ON April 15th, 2013 BY John Keating AND STORED IN Marketing Data

Tags: data broker, databroker, marketing data, marketing lists

Our favourite news story of the week.  Loch Ness Monster:  Is Nessie just a tourist conspiracy? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22125981

“Och aye, yu canne be serious…Nessie is real.”  I hear you cry…(or hoot from your Bagpipes)

The believers maintain that Nessie is a left over from the days of the dinosaurs.  That somehow a large or family of large creatures hides in Loch Ness.  The doubters maintain that there is no evidence to prove these claims.  There is no reliable photo evidence, no Zoological evidence (the occasional dead nessie or even Nessie Dung) and no ecological evidence that the ecosystem of Loch Ness can support creatures of this size.

Either way the hoteliers, cafés and souvenir shops along the bank of the Loch do very well from the interest that is generated and the story is thought to generate up to £1 Million a year in tourism and according to the article “A sizeable proportion” of sightings have  indeed come from Café and Hotel proprietors?

Loch Ness is worth a visit. It is one of the most visually impacting places in the UK, and the villages on the banks of the Loch are packed with great guest houses, hotels and bars.  Even if your visit was not rewarded with a “sighting”, you are going to have a good time, and all that fresh air and walking will do you good.

Nessie is a marketing success,  and any concerns over the ethics behind the story are balanced by the reward that visitors will receive from a holiday in this part of Scotland.

However with the sourcing and supply of marketing data there is no balance.

As members of the DMA we only source legally compliant marketing lists.  We cant rely on myth or legend we need facts.

We are not tied to any data owner and it is the combination of our impartiality, our combined expertise and commercial ethics that distinguish Data Broker from other suppliers of data and marketing lists.  Our customers have complete confidence that the data we supply is ideally matched for their requirements, and the reassurance that their brand will not be damaged through the use of poorly sourced, inaccurate or illegal data.

There are no “prehistoric relics” lurking in the depths of any database that we supply.

If you are looking for data to support your next “Monster” of a marketing campaign give Databroker a call on  0161 941 5700 or email info@data-broker.co.uk

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WRITTEN ON March 27th, 2013 BY John Keating AND STORED IN Data Broker, Marketing Data

Tags: data broker, databroker, list broker, marketing data

Manage your reputation with accurate marketing data from Data Broker

After attending a McDonalds in Hampshire this week, two police officers were chastised for seemingly parking in a disabled bay whilst they picked up a Big Mac and fries.  This was how the event was reported and of course the press soon hatched on to this opportunity to throw a bit of negative PR at an often “under fire” public sector!

The article appeared in many newspapers and was soon trending on Twitter, which was where yours truly picked it up.  Forward on a few hours, to the point where most people who were voicing their opinions seemed to be ready for a public execution we got a statement from the force.

The car had actually attended an emergency call after staff were verbally abused and the building was vandalised by a group of youths.  As is the tradition with most car parks, the nearest bays to the building were the disabled ones, so the officers pulled in there in order to attend the scene without further delay.  The incident was diffused and the officers left, sans Big Mac!  Next Twitter and Facebook users slowly redress the balance with messages of support for the officers and comments of distain towards the people who had taken the photos and suggested that the officers had acted inappropriately.  You can read the article in the Metro News Here

It certainly shows how quickly bad news can spread.

The same happens with your company’s message.  If you run a telemarketing campaign to the wrong target audience, wasting people’s time and clearly rubbing them up the wrong way, you risk a similar backlash.  Just take five minutes to look at the Twitter pages of some of the largest UK companies there are more tweets of errors, bad service and problems, than success stories and thank yous.

Remember this; you cannot afford bad PR, especially with the power of social media.  Before you run any outbound campaign, check that you’ve covered all the bases, including coming to an impartial list broker such as Databroker, to ensure the marketing data which you use is independently sourced and matched to your target audience.  Also remember, our emergency services do a fantastic job of keeping us safe and well, if they help you, take the time to publically spread some good news!

Contact Data Broker on 0161 941 5700 or email info@data-broker.co.uk and let us help you spread good news stories.

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WRITTEN ON March 15th, 2013 BY John Keating AND STORED IN Naked Data Series

Tags: business data, data broker, databroker

Stand up, sit down; Business Data World v Real World

You know from previous blogs that I’m always treating Mrs Data Broker.  At the weekend we went to a posh fundraising do!

This was the sort of event where you need re-mortgage your house before you go; £60 a ticket, plus drinks, plus raffle and then the unenviable task of trying to keep Mrs D’s hand down during the auction as she’s trying to bid £500 for a pair of tickets to watch a very average Premier League game.  Ahem.

Anyway the event was brilliant, good food, nice wine and then making a fool of myself on the dance floor with everyone else.  Midway through the evening everyone put a fiver in a pot with a chance to win £500

“Everyone stand up please” bellowed the compare.  “Now anyone wearing anything green needs to sit down!”  About 25 disgruntled punters sat down, we all laughed at them, they scorned back, envious of our success.  “Now anyone who is drinking Pinot Grigio sit down”.  A large number of women and a couple of sheepish men parked their rear ends.  This game went on until there was finally one guy left standing and he potted a monkey – cheap night out for him.

Despite having already consumed a couple of shandys, my mind was still sharp enough to think about data.  The game which we had just played was actually a great demonstration of the business data world.

Every day at Data Broker Towers, we explain how the “business data world” is smaller than the “real world” and often this is a pretty tough topic to explain.  Really it’s the same as the stand up, sit down game.

At the start of the game, all of the businesses in the UK are standing up ready to be targeted.  The first question is are you a trading company and not dormant etc?  A large bunch of people sit down. Then the compare asks if you’ve registered your company with the Corporate Telephone Preference Service and around 20% take a pew.  Then he asks how many of them have decided to opt-in to receive third party email marketing and we lose another large chunk of people.

From the 300 people who started, roughly 80 would still be standing after just three rounds.

This is where Databroker’s consultative approach will help with your search.  We don’t just throw some figures at you and expect you to buy, we explain the whys, hows and therefores of data.

Remember, if you want to wager a fiver on the highly unlikely chance of winning £500, take your better half to a fundraising dinner.  If you want to win more business for your company and fuel your sales campaigns, talk to Databroker.

Call today for friendly advice from the business data experts.  0161 941 5700 or email info@data-broker.co.uk

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WRITTEN ON March 13th, 2013 BY John Keating AND STORED IN Direct Marketing Expertise

Tags: data broker, databroker, Direct Marketing

Not just a star, this time I the Databroker Northern Delegate met a superstar.  The greatest guitarist of all time, the man who wrote the guitar solo on Bohemian Rhapsody and the only man to ever play a guitar solo from the roof of Buckingham Palace.  Rock Super God, PhD Astrophysicist and friend of the Badgers.  Brain May.

Oh my God.

There I was minding my own business in Dublin Airport when Brian May walked past on his way to the first class lounge.  I have been a Queen fan for a long time, and stood in front of me was one of my hero’s.  My heart was pounding, and my voice was dry so I looked him in eye and just nodded my head.  He knew I was thinking that “I am not worthy”, but he recognised a fellow lover of Rock when he saw one.  Brian May legend.

After such a close encounter with a true Rock God there are only two natural courses of action.

1 A Queen-a-thon

2 Write about it in a blog

Unlike Brian May we at Data Broker are not Rock Gods, nor do we have PhDs in Astrophysics.  We are experts in Data, Direct Marketing and the sourcing of data that helps business growth their sales revenues.  Data Broker the data legends for data, email marketing and helping you to sell more.  Brian May the Rock God for Riffs, Solos, and Shape Throwing.

For those you want to rock their sales call 0161 941 5700 or email info@data-broker.co.uk.

p.s. Please visit Brian’s Website and sign the petition against the planned cull of our Nations Badgers. www.brianmay.com

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WRITTEN ON February 22nd, 2013 BY John Keating AND STORED IN Business Data Lists, Data Broker

In the current climate, your Sales Team can’t just sit and wait for the phone to ring, they have to be proactively searching for new business.  Research shows that telephone prospecting is the most effective way to engage new targets.  So what happens in your company when the Sales Team need telephone numbers to call?

We come across a handful of customers whose answer is “we just go on Google and search for companies”

Wrong answer!  Nil Points!  (Cue the uh uhh sound from Family Fortunes)

Not only could these companies be on the TPS or CTPS list and thus have opted out of receiving inbound marketing calls; but it’s also a total waste of your money.  Guess how much it costs you, if your Sales Manager, earning £25,000, spends one hour looking for phone numbers on Google each day? £3,300 per salesman, per annum – a massive sum of money.

But what could that £3,300 buy you:

- 2006 Peugeot 407 Exec in Crimson

- 7-Night Luxury 5* All Inclusive Break for Two in the Maldives

- Oodles of targeted business data for the whole of your Sales Team to prospect

Data Broker can work to your brief and source accurately targeted business data marketing lists to fuel your prospecting calls, rather than you plodding around the internet.

Next time your Sales Team are short of prospects to call, rather than turning to Google, turn to Databroker.

Google for searching for the latest headlines, Databroker for searching for new business!  0161 941 5700 or info@data-broker.co.uk

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WRITTEN ON February 20th, 2013 BY John Keating AND STORED IN Data Broker, Direct Marketing Expertise

Tags: data broker, databroker, Direct Marketing

Upon on a visit to a local supermarket I was horrified to discover that they no longer sell Cheshire Cheese. “Le roi des fromages” the connoisseur choice.

Admittedly I live in a geographical location where the natives prefer their food processed, fried and dyed orange, but until recently Cheshire Cheese was freely available.  Yes horse meat in the diet has probably increased life expectancy of the locals around these parts, but that does not mean that we deserve to have our choices of premium cheese restricted.  Freedom of choice and freedom of opinion.

People are not all the same.  Another example of how corporate UK disregards traditional values of quality and choice is provided by Boddingtons Bitter.  In the 21st century, the North’s leading pint is produced in the South by the same people who make the lager that turns drinkers into vest wearing anti social idiots with a predisposition to be mean and nasty to their other halves.  Nobody wanted it, nobody asked for it, but the relocation of Boddingtons went ahead.  No choice and no discussion.

Segmentation of your Direct Marketing Database will improve results

Do you care what your customers think?  Do you tailor direct marketing offers and messages to target specific markets or niches, or does every contact on your database just get the same email?

People are all different and marketing that is carefully targeted is always more successful because targeted marketing adds value.  It leaves the recipient fully confident that the sender has something that is of interest to them.  Targeted marketing has a higher open rate.  It generates more clicks to your website.  It generates more leads, more referrals, and more meaningful interactions between business and customers.

Targeted marketing also has more strategic value.  It is effective in building brand loyalty, defending your business against your competitors, and moving towards higher margins and pricing.  Targeted marketing delivers a better ROI.

Random marketing is Spam, and no one wants to receive Spam .  If I want to buy Cheshire Cheese, I don’t care how different types of cheap and nasty Orange Cheddar are on the supermarket shelves. It is not what I want.

Contact Databroker today to learn how we can help you to build a better marketing database to help your business communicate more effectively with your target customers.  Data Broker are data experts, helping you with data supply and impartial data advice that ensures you only buy the best for you and your business.

Databroker for Data, Cheshire for Cheese, and the Banks of the Irwell for Boddingtons.  0161 941 5700 or info@data-broker.co.uk

Life is too short.  Never settle for Orange Cheddar…..

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WRITTEN ON February 14th, 2013 BY John Keating AND STORED IN Data Broker, Marketing Data

Tags: data broker, databroker, marketing data

Its St Valentines season…The Joys.

Another superficial custom imposed on the General Public by the Retail shopping industry.  Just after you have struggled to pay for Christmas, you are hit with yet further demands on your wallet as you are forced to source a gift for your significant other.  Once again people are dragged into shops to queue and pay for stuff that they don’t want or understand just to keep someone else happy.  Flowers, Jewellery, Posh chocolates (the ones in boxes and not multipacks from Farm Foods), or a meal at a restaurant / fish and chip shop.  Even something practical like a new Hoover or Microwave, whatever option you choose it is going to cost.

So this year why not break with tradition give your partner a homemade card and spend the money on the other “true” love in your life, your business and buy some data from Data Broker.

This Valentine’s day call Databroker the true romantics of the direct marketing world

Databroker specialising in provision of impartial advice that helps businesses to source the very best marketing data for their direct marketing activities. We are the match makers that expertly partner legally compliant data of the highest quality to the unique objectives of specific businesses and specific marketing programmes.

We love data, and our expertise will help data love your business by improving the rate of quality conversations that you will have with potential new clients.

Data Broker for those you love their business.  0161 941 5700 or email info@data-broker.co.uk

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WRITTEN ON February 11th, 2013 BY John Keating AND STORED IN Marketing Data

Tags: data broker, databroker, marketing data

Data Broker provide impartial advice regarding marketing data, databases and direct marketing to help businesses source quality data products that support their sales and marketing initiatives.  We don’t own any marketing databases, and we are not tied to any one particular data owner.  No waffle, no filler and nothing pretending to be Fillet when it is fact Philly.

Discovering that your beef lasagne is fact made from old Romanian cart horse could cause you some concern.

With the best intention you have selected your microwave meal from the many on offer at your local supermarket.  Your concerns over Battery Chicken Farming (and random Pigeon additives pretending to be Chicken) have forced you away from the poultry based ready meals, and over fishing and the recent Mackerel quota wars means that you won’t be touching the frozen fish pie.  Beef based processed food was therefore the logical option.

With modern BSE testing, Beef was arguably the safest of all meats and frozen Beef Lasagne was king of the frozen ready meal.  That was until last week when you discovered that you have probably eaten Horse.

Cheap filler has no place in either your dinner or your database.  Quality marketing data products deliver positive results.  Poor quality databases do not.

It is a simple metric.  Has your Data salesman (with the brown shoes and the patter) provided you with a  “representative” sample or has he simply shown you the cream of his database?  Selected to meet your requirements whilst knowing that the rest of his database is mince….Horse Mince.

To distinguish Horse DNA from Cattle DNA takes Molecular Biologists.  To source good data and to protect you from the bad, you need Databroker.

Databroker for lead generation, email marketing and direct marketing. Horses for the Grand National.  0161 941 5700 or info@data-broker.co.uk

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WRITTEN ON January 29th, 2013 BY John Keating AND STORED IN Data Broker, Email Marketing

So last week, winter finally arrived and the country ground to a halt.

It is not that the British can’t handle the cold weather the fact is that we can’t handle any weather.  When it’s hot we burn, the reservoirs dry up, hosepipes are banned, petrol prices go up, farmers crops fail, and food prices rises.  When it’s wet, rivers flood, reservoirs flood, we feel the need to drive through floods, we need rescuing, petrol prices go up, farmers crops fail and food prices rise.  And when there is anything more than a gentle wafting of snow on the ground: Pipes freeze, energy prices rise, roads close, schools close, farmer’s crops fail, food prices rise, people can’t get into work and business slows down.

But the digital office has changed all that.

Technology allows more and more of us to work from home.  The days of phoning the boss, and pretending to be snow bound and grabbing those bonus holidays are over. Laptops, smart phones and cloud computing systems mean that as long as we have access to a Wi-Fi connection we can work.

Even if you live in area with no broadband (which is increasingly difficult, anywhere on planet earth), as long as you can make it to a Starbucks, or a McDonalds (other coffee shops, fast food outlets and hotels with free broadband are available) you can work.

In the 21st century with Sat Nav tracking, Smart Phones and bosses checking employees Skype, LinkedIn or Facebook, skiving has become a greater effort than working. However the good news is that, if you can work so can your customers.

Using digital marketing, such as email marketing, or B2B SMS, you can still communicate with your customers, generate leads and make sales.  That is, assuming that your customer database is any good of course and if it is not we at Data Broker are here to help.

So if your Sales team are snowed in, flooded out, or if you think that they are busy watching Jeremy Kyle  and need some support prospecting new business call Databroker on 0161 941 5700 or email info@data-broker.co.uk

Data Broker for business and for the bosses.  Databroker for lead generation, email marketing and direct marketing.  Not for Karma lovers, nor the work shy.

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WRITTEN ON January 17th, 2013 BY John Keating AND STORED IN Marketing Data

Tags: data broker, databroker, marketing data

Databroker helps you weigh up quality v quantity

Last weekend’s “clash of the titans” was of course the Manchester United v Liverpool match at Old Trafford.  Prior to the match, Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge made a claim that I am sure would have interested Herr Sigmund Freud . “There is no bigger club than Liverpool in the Premier League”.  Interesting comment.  Is football really about size Daniel or is it about the results?

Mans preoccupation with size has so often been his downfall.  The Titanic, the largest ship of its time was outsmarted by frozen water.  David was smaller than Goliath, and perhaps if the Empire had built Death Asteroids as opposed to Death Stars it would have been harder for Luke Skywalker and his pals to find and destroy them.

So when you respond to the spam email offering you a million record contact database for a knock down bargain price alarm bells should be ringing.  Is size really what makes the difference between good email marketing campaigns or does the quality of the data also play a factor?

Size is not everything when you are buying data, and neither is price.  Yes they are both important factors, but fundamentally has the data been selected as a perfect fit for your company or is the salesman just leading you down the tried and tested path that will “miraculously” conclude with him recommending his data as the best solution to your needs.

Databroker are established, trusted, impartial providers of marketing data along with expert advice to companies who are looking to drive results through direct marketing.  As the original Databroker it is our impartiality, expertise, and integrity that are our unique selling points.  Your business is unique, which means that our recommendations to help your business grow must also be unique. Tailored solutions to support better customer targeting.

Trust the best when it comes to sourcing your data lists, contact Databroker on 0161 941 5700 or email info@data-broker.co.uk

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