Things to Consider When Choosing a Data Provider

Marketing data providers are organizations that collect, aggregate, analyze, and deliver consumer information for marketing purposes. Marketing data providers typically provide audiences or consumer data for direct consumer brands or nonprofits. These entities leverage these services to generate new customers and derive incremental revenue from existing customers. 

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Don't Just Choose a Data Provider, Choose a Partner.

Choosing a data partner aligned with your company’s specific needs is critical for gathering and using insightful information. A marketing data provider should be a true partner who understands the KPIs of its clients and works closely to deliver the audience best suited for the brand’s offerings. Path2Response delivers custom-built brand-specific audiences designed to achieve the client’s campaign objectives. We accomplish this using a cloud-based serverless tech stack and machine learning to aggregate and analyze millions of data points composed of second-party purchase data, website visitation data, and third-party data. These audiences are consumers that are most likely to purchase from a brand based on purchases and browsing behaviors from like brands.

Gathering and maintaining high-quality data is a full-time job, but without high-quality data, identifying, targeting, and connecting companies to target prospects are almost impossible. For an accurate, up-to-date target audience, the sources and methods of data collection are vital.

Top three considerations when partnering with a database provider
  1. Data sourcing and accuracy. At the most basic level, data sourcing is the process of extracting data from multiple sources. The most accurate, 1st party data is collected directly from consumers via a website form, questionnaires, surveys, etc. Second-party data is acquired through partners and gives a competitive edge to companies when tailoring audiences for personalized marketing efforts. Brands often use 2nd party data to amplify their 1st party data to better understand their buyer profile. To get a comprehensive view of target prospects, third-party data is collected relating to the prospect’s real-world behavior separate from your brand and is intent-driven. A good database service intelligently combines all three types of data to model audiences. Database providers like Path2Response use machine learning to integrate customer data from multiple sources, refreshed consistently to create a single view for each modeled audience.
  2. Completeness of information. Gone are the days of purchasing a direct mail list of names and addresses based on demographic data points. Data providers using only those factors miss out on prospects that are most likely to purchase based on real-world transaction history. Incorporating this type of intent data, like web searches, actual behavioral signals, and even subscriptions indicates a comprehensive data provider.
  3. Data privacy and security. In 2012, the Obama administration introduced a blueprint for the first “Privacy Bill of Rights.” The purpose behind this proposed legislation was intended to provide clear protections for consumers and expectations for businesses. Since that time, many states including California, Colorado, and Virginia have adopted consumer privacy legislation with more states to follow. A changing landscape with varied state-to-state regulations puts even more importance on who to use as a database service and how the provider gathers and aggregates consumer information. We stay compliant on both the federal and state levels in securing consumer data and in our opt-out privacy policies.

As a database service, Path2Response pairs technology, intent data, and consumer privacy when modeling and delivering marketing audiences to our clients. Creating and deploying campaigns comes down to choosing the right provider and getting the most value out of the collected data across channels.

Path2Response is a trusted data provider with extensive experience in database marketing and customer acquisition. Contact us today to book a strategy session.

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