Marketing database and segmentation

"No one cares about your product except you."

David Meerman Scott, author and Founder of Hubspot, a fast-growing inbound marketing company in Boston uttered that famous line. He also said it to his boss when he was a Chief Marketing Officer, and was promptly fired.

But it is more true than ever. All the data shows that the more you personalize your marketing communications, the more effective your marketing becomes.

"9 out of 10 companies have prospect data under 90% accurate."Jim Dickie, Managing Partner of CSO Insights said that to me in my podcast interview.

It's critically important and a real weakness for most companies.

Bottom line: Data is how companies compete today. If your marketing database is inacccurate, you put your company at a grave disadvantage.

One of your first actions in demand generation should be to put a big priority on the marketing database. Companies such as Netprospex, Hoovers, and TheList are all good sources of information. If price is a big concern, check out Jigsaw, as they let you trade contacts as well as buy them.

Most of these services use telemarketing to ensure the accuracy of their lists. And there are automated tools to bounce email addresses to ensure they are accurate.

Your own inside sales team is also a good source of database corrections. One of the best uses of the phone today is marketing database enhancement. The more you learn, the better you sell.

The more accurate the database, the better you can segment your marketing activities. The more segmented it becomes the more effective it becomes.

To illustrate this challenge, take me as an example. Yes, you have name, title, company, etc. But I'm also known as the Fearless Competitor, write a blog called Fearless Competitor, and am a graduate of the University of Notre Dame -- so I love all things ND, especially football.

How can you learn those things and make YOUR marketing database your competitive weapon?