How to access databases for mobile marketing campaigns

Since the internet arrived, marketing has gone through an unprecedented shift. The network opens up a world of possibilities, letting you reach a far wider audience and increase sales substantially, whether through email or through devices as widespread as phones and tablets.

One of the key factors is of course knowing your audience and understanding which user profile might be interested in what you offer, because that is what raises the conversion rate: the proportion of people who end up buying.

Reaching your audience without your own list

Many companies have databases of regular customers built up over years. But to run a mobile marketing campaign you do not necessarily need a list beforehand: specialist data companies can provide that information.

These are segmented databases where contacts have given consent to receive commercial communications, and where you can filter by the criteria that matter to your campaign: location, age range, interests or purchasing behaviour.

What to check before buying access

• Consent. Ask how and when each contact agreed to be contacted, and by whom. If the supplier cannot show you, walk away.
• How recent it is. Contact data decays quickly. A list built three years ago is mostly noise.
• Segmentation that matches your product. A large untargeted list performs worse than a small precise one and costs more to send to.
• The legal framework. Data protection rules govern this tightly, and responsibility does not disappear because you bought the list from someone else.

A word of caution

Rented data works best for testing a market or reaching a segment you cannot otherwise access. It will never perform like your own list, because your own customers already know who you are. Treat it as a way to build your list, not as a replacement for one.