Let’s face it…the data industry is full of scammers. Data is an intangible product and unfortunately some people take advantage of that fact by reselling old, ineffective data that they claim is fresh and accurate. How do you know until you try it out? This leads to time and money wasted on campaigns that are destined to fail because a crucial element of the campaign is faulty – the marketing list.

Now, even if you have found a quality marketing list company you can always go online and find negative comments about these reputable companies – so how do you know who is real and who isn’t? Here are five ways to know your list company is the real deal.

– BBB rating
– Local Chamber of Commerce Member
– Member of other marketing organizations like the DMA
– Compiler vs. list broker
– Guarantees

Check their BBB rating. Make sure that they are at least a B rating and that all of the complaints posted have been successfully resolved. Other things that affect a company’s BBB rating are:

– Number of years in business
– Employee Size
– Revenue

So, a smaller company will generally be a B rating, even though they are a quality company. Are they a member of your local Chamber of Commerce? Reputable companies will spend the extra money to be involved in local associations like this as well as national or international organizations like the DMA (Direct Marketing Association).

Understand if they are a compiler or a list broker. List compilers are the source of the data – list brokers purchase their data from list compilers. Unfortunately for list brokers, it’s hard to distinguish between a real list broker and someone reselling the same old list to thousands of end users. The general rule of thumb is to work directly with the source of the data – you can avoid unnecessary price mark-ups this way, as well. Finally, what are their guarantees if something goes wrong? A reputable company will guarantee their data in writing. Make sure that they will replace the defective data at no cost to you.

For all of your mailing lists, sales leads, response data, specialty list, and email broadcast needs, contact US Data Corporation at 888-610-3282.