Data.com - A Robust Database, With a Catch.
February 10, 2016
Data.com - A Robust Database, With a Catch.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Data.com
Data.com has proven to be a valuable asset to both marketing and sales. Initially it was used as a simple research tool to provide lead lists to the sales teams but we quickly started using it for verification of addresses, emails and phone numbers. We also have based many campaigns around the availability of data in data.com and our other research tools. We have slowly transitioned into being more of a content driven company and are relying on inbound leads more so than using these prospecting tools. Sales continues to find it useful.
- Verification, I believe data.com is one of the better tools to verify prospect info. For example, getting the different types of office phone numbers and different types of emails.
- Data.com also excels in its integration with Salesforce. It is very nice to simply add accounts/leads/contacts right into Salesforce. The drawback of course is that custom fields don't get populated. That's always going to be an issue and no fault of the program.
- Number of contacts in the database, Data.com has a robust database of contacts and accounts. Simply entering "marketing manager" will yield several thousand marketing managers.
- Outdated data is always an issue with any database and I know data.com does frequently update, however when I apply my marketing efforts in certain industries, I do find that some are neglected more than others. Direct response marketers and agencies for example seem to have gaps in data.
- Always have to use your SFDC log in to use. It should be easy enough for me to go home to log into data.com with out having to use a security token to get into my SF account from home.
- Exports aren't the easiest. Exports have to happen into Salesforce and then you have to look for the file and actually export it into a usable Excel document.
- Employee efficiency has definitely been improved with Data.com. Our sales team used to find their own leads. Now with Data.com owned on the marketing team, Sales is able to take both prospects lists from data.com and also work our inbound leads.
- Data.com also married well with our marketing automation platform. Made our campaigns more robust. Qualification was measured through their interest in our content. At least now they aren't so cold.
- We've also had success on converting Data.com leads into actual accounts. We have never gotten a direct lead to convert but we always get the right lead to at least get ourselves in touch with the right team.
I also use Advertising Database, this tool doesn't have the robust database but it does have valuable market information that can be used. AdData also can identify marketers and their agencies. This is something that would be a great tool if it lived with in Data.com. Unfortunately right now I just bounce back and forth.