Here are the 5 key questions to ask when you’re looking for a schools email database supplier:

First impressions count for a lot, so imagine if you got your target’s name or job title wrong. Or how about if your email didn’t even reach them because you had the wrong email address…?

That’s why it’s so important to make sure your schools data is accurate.

Accurate data means you can send your marketing campaigns to schools and teachers, knowing exactly who you’re sending it to, and knowing they’ll receive it.

Any good data supplier will be able to offer you a data accuracy guarantee.

This is just as important as the data accuracy. If your data supplier tells you they have a 99% data accuracy guarantee, this is great – but what you really need to know is whether it will remain at 99% throughout the whole time you’re using the data.

We know that schools change throughout the year – new schools open, staff change roles and staff move to different schools. So it’s important to make sure any changes are reflected in your data and that it’s as up to date as possible every time you use it.

Some data suppliers only update their schools data when it has already decayed or only update it once a year – but here at Buzz our data managers proactively check and update our data on an ongoing basis throughout the year.

You need to know that you can get the exact data you need.

The amount of data you select for your bespoke schools mailing list will be up to you – you might choose to include all UK schools, just Secondary Schools, schools in a certain region or specific job roles only.

What’s important is knowing that you have the largest amount of schools data to choose from. It also helps if your data supplier provides flexible and bespoke data packages which allow you to buy only the data you actually need.

And if you’re not sure what data you need, one of our friendly Campaign Strategists will be happy to help.

Since it’s introduction in May 2018, anyone who handles or processes data needs to follow the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

You should ask your data supplier if their schools data is GDPR compliant. And, if they can’t answer or give you any evidence, then it’s probably best to steer clear.

You might wonder why this matters – after all you’re just buying an email database to run your own marketing campaigns.

But here’s the thing – you could buy your schools data from a general data supplier who knows nothing about schools, marketing to schools strategies and can’t offer you any support other than supplying you with data.

Or you could buy your data from a specialist education marketing agency (like us!).

5 key questions to ask of any data supplier you’re considering using. I hope it helps you to find the best data supplier for you.