Good list building affects all aspects of business, including the funnel and pipeline. Collecting the names, titles, emails, phone numbers, and social data, creates that holistic record.  However, building a quality, accurate, and targeted list requires planning.

The best way to build targeted lists that are holistic, clean and complete is to establish a list building methodology. List generation is an ongoing strategy because data is ever changing. Therefore, it’s not a one-time event.

Collaborate and plan

Get all of your key stakeholders together thinking about your list goals and process before you go out and start building it. Stakeholders include your team as well as other teams impacted by your list building efforts. Include those who have built successful lists before, such as your list vendor or high level salespeople, to weigh in and provide insight. Make sure you’re on the same page about why you’re creating the list, including your goals. Know what you’re going to do with the list once it’s built. Determine the plan and big picture before you dive in.

Standardize your data

Part of your methodology includes data standardization. This sets the standard for how your data is organized in your lists. For example, will your contact’s title be organized as VP of Marketing or VP, Marketing? This may seems like the same title, but to a CRM, it’s two different formats, and therefore, two different titles. Another example is California versus CA. A CRM does not recognize this as the same location. Therefore, before you get your list, and before you move it into your CRM or marketing automation for your outreach and campaign creation, you’ve got to have a plan for standardizing it.

Incorporate Salesforce

Your list building strategy should also include your CRM from the start. These cannot be independent. As you are gathering and using the data, plan to push it into your system. Keep the two connected as much as possible.

Not only is it important to have your CRM, such as Salesforce, full of your new list data for outreach and tracking purposes, but it’s also important to check against existing contacts. If you’re buying a list and half of those contacts are already in Salesforce, you’re wasting your money on the list. This is considered a duplicate. A strong list vendor and/or integration with your CRM will detect the duplicate, and give you the option to view both records — old and new — side by side. Then, you can merge the existing record and new record resulting in a single, updated record. No longer are you paying for the same contact data twice.

Take these strategies with you on your next marketing journey, and the future of list building will be bright.

About the Author

Amanda Nelson is Director of Marketing at RingLead where she leads the content marketing strategy and execution. She has spent the last three years in content marketing and community management at salesforce.com and Radian6, and has a background in account management for interactive and full service advertising agencies. Follow her on Twitter at @amandalnelson.