Business Data
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The business data universe in the United Kingdom spans an approximate two million actively trading locations. These may be segmented by numerous fields (variables), but the primary ones tend to be premise type, industry sector and company size.
Premise Types
There are fourteen premise types used to segment business data, with an approximate percentage spread of the main ones as follows;
Offices and Head Offices: 36%
Retail Premises (Shops): 31%
Traders from Home (SOHOs): 12%
Factories: 4%
Medical Centres: 4%
Workshops: 4%
Sporting premises: 2%
Places of worship: 1%
Others: 6%
Premise types can be used as a business data inclusion or exclusion. By way of example, you may wish to include all types of company except those trading from home. Or you may wish to solely target retail outlets. This field is a good parameter for tightening up your business data list to ensure greater prospecting accuracy.
Industry Sector
There are several business data classifications used in the marketing industry, the most widely recognised being the SIC (Standard Industry Classification) codes. All classifications enable the grouping of similar business types under a single umbrella. For example, pubs and restaurants. There are dozens of different classifications for restaurants alone (Indian, Chinese, English etc), so rather than selecting them individually, the overall Market Sector can be chosen to represent them all.
At a high Level there are 12 Business Groups, under which every business data record resides. These are;
- Manufacturing
- Construction
- Retail
- Service Sector
- Government & Public Sector
- Medical
- Education
- Finance
- Transport
- Food & Drink
- Agriculture
- Materials & Chemicals
It is worth noting that the Industry Sectors and Premise Types can be combined for your business data selection. Typical examples include;
- I want the finance sector but not every high street bank. Their head offices are fine – just not the branches.
The solution: Select the Finance Sector from the industry classifications, but exclude any business data record with a “Retail” premise type.
- I want to market to the manufacturing industry, but only their factory premises – not the head offices.
The solution: Select the Manufacturing Sector business data from the industry classifications, and only include those with a “Factory” premise type.
Company Size
Unfortunately, a company’s turnover is not available (or recommended) in selecting business data for marketing. Aside from many companies not having to file their accounts (limited liability partnerships, or under-sized businesses), the information that is filed is usually a year or two out of date by the time it becomes available within the business data universe.
Responsiva recommends an innovative application of the employee size.
But before covering this in more depth it is important to appreciate the spread of business data by employee size;
The main point of note is that this is a non-linear scale, with more than half of the UK’s businesses having up to three employees. i.e., micro businesses. And over 90% of companies have less than 30 employees.
What employee band to choose?
This depends very much on your product or service offering. Many of Responsiva’s clients require a minimum turnover of £250,000. Or (when we dig deeper) the ability to afford their service. In general terms, 5+ employees would be a good selection point for the business data. But there are points to consider around what precisely “5 employees” truly means.
- This is the number of employees that the company said they had when last verified. When companies of this size are verified, it is often the business owner that is spoken with. Responsiva’s analysis has proven that they occasionally “round up”, so if there are two directors and two temps, they may state that there are five employees in total.
- Timing. If the verification call was made six months ago, the company could now have gained or lost a member of the team.
For these reasons, where a minimum turnover of £250,000 is essential, Responsiva recommends that the business data selection point be applied at 6+.
At the other end of the spectrum (say, at 100 employees) the business data is not so sensitive. To lose a member of staff reduces the headcount by just 1%. But with 5 employees, a single loss constitutes a reduction of 20% on the headcount!
The application of all three of the above variables to a business data specification will tighten your prospect targets and ensure unviable companies are not marketed to. Further segmentation is also available, such as implementing geographical parameters to include only your desired postcode territory. Additionally business data can be selected where specific contact name job titles are available. The final element of a business data specification is to identify your contact method; post, email or telephone. This will ensure Responsiva only count the b2b data which includes the required fields.
For further information, or if you have any questions, call Responsiva’s freephone number (0800 118 5000) or send an email to info@responsiva.biz. An experienced business data professional will be there to help.
