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Marketing data is a long term and constant requirement. How much data is needed can vary with time in the short term but the need for marketing data for most businesses doesn’t diminish over the long run. So when marketing executives evaluate sources to help them address this requirement and help them build more data or maintain their data, they need to be able to identify the two types of data providers:

1. Marketing Database Providers
2. Marketing Data Partners

Marketing database providers are good for a one-size-fits-all kind of solution. These include list providers, rented list providers, database subscription services or off the shelf data which a company can simply buy and use if it can fulfil a requirement well. It’s by no means a bad option and can be very cost effective in many cases or ideal for a quick addition of fresh contacts or accounts into the funnel. Compare it to selecting a suit for an ocassion: if you like it and it fits well, buy it. It will fulfil your immediate need for a suit to wear to that event or ocassion.  However off the shelf databases were not exclusively tailored keeping in mind your business and more often than not, whats ideal for one company may not be as great a fit for another though it may work.

Marketing data solutions partners work with the company to understand specific data requirements and work towards building and maintaing the company database on an on-going basis. Rather than selling data that has been gathered before, it involves understanding what marketing or sales need and coming up with specific solutions to meet an organizations marketing database requirements. Data requirements can be specifc and changing depending for what they are needed. For example, if a data storage solutions company needed new data for a back-up and recovery product campaign, the contacts needed would revolve around those responsible for IT risk management, data center and others responsible for back-up and recovery systems. The account information that would be useful to know for such a campaign could include account profiling questions on what is the target account currently using to address risk of data loss and other questions which would help the sales process. A marketing database solution partner would work towards understanding this need and build the data accordingly. If the requirement was for another product, the data needed to be supplied would change accordingly.

So depending on what kind of support you are looking for when it comes to managing your marketing data (whether its a short term immediate requirement or an on going need for data management) remember to look out for which category the vendor you are evaluating falls in. In the long run a partner who understands your needs, contanstly learns with your organization and takes away part of the overheads that comes with marketing data management is a long term solution. Anything else is a quick fix to a temporary data need.  Are your current data providers giving you exactly the kind of data and support you need?