Web data is a crucial source of information and insights in today’s business. B2B companies turn to web scraping and other data collection procedures to ensure that they know what they need to know about potential customers. However, when all inside resources are exhausted, there is another way to get useful data sets. Buying B2B data is now a common practice in business. Here is what you can expect if this is the resource you intend to turn to.
B2B Data Types
More or less, everything a company of interest does generates relevant data that could be used for B2B sales. The major division in B2B data types is between internal data that the company collects itself and external data from third-party sources. Thus, when we are buying data, we are after external data sets from professional data providers.
B2B data types are commonly classified in the following way, naming 5 major data categories.
- Intent data. These are data types related to purchase intent, for example, the company’s website visits, the time spent there, and subscriptions to services. Intent data is behavioral data, but it goes one step further by allowing us to determine what the firm is going to do next.
- Demographic data. It is information about the people working in the company, its key decision-makers, job titles, and personal qualities. Contact details also go under the header of demographic data.
- Firmographic data. Data on the company’s size, age, annual revenue, and similar crucial features. Firmographics is to the entire company what demographics is to separate people that work for it.
- Technographic data. All the information about the firm’s technological stack, from hardware and software they use, to how they use it and how innovative their technological solutions are.
- Chronographic data. Lastly, this category covers all the important changes that happen in the company. It includes funding history as well as changes in location and personnel that might affect the firm’s buying intent.
All these categories are important to cover when buying data for B2B purposes. Thus, you can expect that the data sets which will be offered to you will have data points falling under one of these general types.
Are There Hurdles To Buying Data?
Privacy is the main concern whenever there is talk of trading data and using it for business purposes. One might get the impression that governments and law enforcement agencies only try to obstruct businesses from buying data as much as possible. The whole picture is, however, far from being that one-sided.
In fact, in some cases, national and international governmental bodies seek to encourage sharing of B2B data beyond the current levels. This is due to the fact that creative usage of already existing data is seen as having the potential for innovation and economic benefits.
Thus, although, of course, privacy and other regulations are to be respected when buying data, B2B data is far less sensitive than information about private individuals. Having that said, finding a trusted provider that respects the laws and moral guidelines of data collection is crucial.
Aside from legal and reputational trouble that might result from partnering up with a bad provider, there is a risk of bad quality. And buying data that does not meet quality standards is not only a waste of money but can do additional harm to the company by being misleading.
What Else Can You Buy?
Along with buying data products, you might want to be able to get more value for your money. Especially if you are not sure which B2B data sets are right for your firm and present tasks. Thus, what can you expect to receive when purchasing B2B data?
Look for companies that, along with the product, provide excellent service. You can expect various delivery methods, including all the most common data formats, from Excel to JSON files, depending on the data you need. Additionally, API tools should be provided to you to get the information you need as fast as possible.
When receiving a data product, you are also actually buying data services, such as parsing and structuring. That is to say, the quality of the product is based on these services. Of course, you can also buy raw data if that is what you need.
Thus, buying data for B2B purposes is commonly acknowledged as bringing added value to the business.
