I was going through an interesting post by Chris Golec of Demandbase titlted “The 5 Key Elements of Microtargeting” and it’s a great read since the practice of microtargeting campaigns to get better results is gaining in popularity among marketers and sales persons. From our own experience we know that communicating highly relevant messages to focussed target groups can yield much better results than spending on hitting large lists of irrelavant contacts. Two of the elements (points 2 & 3) in particular which Chris mentions:

1. Do not sacrifice quality to save pennies: If not updated, any given list is likely to become more than 25 percent out of date after just one year. Microtargeting only works if you have fresh, high-quality contact data.
   
2. Only buy the business contacts you need: Many data providers require marketers to buy large lists of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of contacts to meet their minimum. Yet, a highly targeted campaign may only focus on an audience of hundreds, or even fewer. Over-sending to thousands to fulfill the data provider’s requirements is a recipe for disaster.