Even with this year’s challenges, it’s an exciting time for digital marketing. Primarily because of how far data – and its use in marketing – has come in the last few years. Ideas that marketers only dreamed about are now a reality: from identifying buyers in-market through intent monitoring to using new strategies such as identity graphs to reach those contacts with a holistic, personalized approach across various channels. 

When you consider the granular level of detail that can be extracted for B2B marketing today, it may be tempting to overlook or dismiss the importance of contact data. Yet, oftentimes the “basic contact data” can be one of the hardest pieces to fill, as B2B data regularly decays up to 70% per year and SMBs typically change personnel and email addresses more frequently, making it even more difficult to acquire. And with all the changes that businesses have faced this year, you can bet that data decay has skyrocketed.

Contact Data:  The Foundational Layer for Digital Marketing

Amidst the startling changes of 2020, one thing remains the same: digital marketers need a solid foundation of accurate contact data to build their campaigns upon. Accurate B2B contact data allows marketers to vet additional data, to drill down further, segment audiences, and create personalized campaigns that target prospects across channels. Now more than ever, it takes a layered approach, with data from multiple sources, to execute strong acquisition campaigns. For example, using an identity graph, which connects data from multiple sources, marketers can target real prospects that meet specifications on an incredibly detailed level based on online and offline attributes. Yet, without accurate contact data at the foundation, you couldn’t reach those potential customers and the rest of the data – no matter how detailed – would be irrelevant. (On another note, at OMI we’re excited to be a part of the identity graph movement – be on the lookout for more information from us on this innovative data strategy.)

The bottom line is, you need all kinds of data to create a complete picture of your prospects. And accurate contact data is at the core – it’s the base layer – of successful digital marketing.

At OMI, we’ve built one of the largest B2B and SMB contact databases, with more than 50 million contacts. We stand behind our data accuracy with a 95% email data validity guarantee for 30 days. Contact us today for more information on how we can support your digital marketing with fresh, accurate contact data.

Outward Media’s proven data cleansing services and targeted, accurate B2B data can enable you to achieve better digital marketing ROI and, ultimately, convert more prospects into customers. Read about our innovative approach to ABM account targeting here.