“We need to grow, and we've already emailed everyone we know.”
The same database is being asked to deliver bigger numbers every year.
Sound familiar?
Most people who come to us don't arrive with a service in mind. They arrive with a target: more registrations, more exhibitors, more members, a fuller pipeline. They know their data has something to do with it, but not exactly what.
Data services come with a lot of labels: list building, enrichment, validation, market mapping. It's hard to know which one solves your problem, and easy to buy the wrong one.
What we usually hear
“We need to grow, and we've already emailed everyone we know.”
The same database is being asked to deliver bigger numbers every year.
“We don't know who else is out there.”
There's no clear view of the wider market, so it's hard to know where new business will come from.
“We've bought lists before and they didn't work.”
Generic data looked good on paper but didn't reach the right people.
“We don't have time to research it ourselves.”
The team is busy running campaigns, not finding names and checking contact details.
Find where to start
Pick the situation closest to yours. Each one shows the kind of help that usually fits and where to read more.
What usually helps
Bespoke data building: researching the organisations and decision-makers you don't have yet, built to your brief.
Data BuildingWhat usually helps
Audience mapping: defining your total market, then showing how much of it you already reach and where the gaps are.
Audience MappingWhat usually helps
Prospect intelligence: mapping the market, finding who you haven't approached and ranking who to call first.
See how it worksWhat usually helps
Campaign data readiness: checking and preparing what you have, and topping up where your reach is thin.
Campaign Data ReadinessWhat usually helps
A database health check, then validation and gap filling, so your existing records are working as hard as they can.
Data Quality & Database HealthWhat usually helps
Segmentation: grouping your audience by job function, seniority, sector and organisation type so you can target with confidence.
Customer & Audience SegmentationNone of these quite fit? Tell us what you're trying to achieve. Working out what you need is part of our job.
How we help
Whatever the starting point, most projects come back to three things: knowing where your growth is, building the audience to reach it and making sure the data is something you can rely on.
01
Where is our next audience?
Your database isn't your market. We map the organisations you could be reaching, overlay the data you already hold and show you where the gaps and opportunities are, by sector, organisation type, size and geography.
02
How do we reach the people we're missing?
We research and build the audience you don't have yet. That means the right organisations and the decision-makers inside them, including specialist and hard-to-find audiences that generic lists don't cover.
03
Can we trust what we're using?
A dependable source you can come back to for every campaign, event and sales push, built and checked the same way each time.
Know who you're reaching.
Know who you're missing.
You don't get a spreadsheet and a goodbye. You get a quality-checked audience, ready to use, plus a clear explanation of what it means and what to do next.
How it works
Tell us what you're trying to achieve and who you want to reach. We'll handle the research, the data and the judgement calls.
A free conversation about your targets and the people who matter to you. You don't need a brief; we'll write it with you.
Using our Universe Map (Umap), we build your total addressable market from the organisation types, sectors and geographies you want to reach. More on audience mapping.
We overlay your existing CRM or database to show who you already reach and who you don't.
Our researchers find the right organisations and decision-makers, validate contact details and categorise every record. More on data building.
We highlight the segments and accounts most worth pursuing first, so your team knows where to start.
You receive structured data formatted for your CRM or campaign platform, with a short summary of what we found and what we recommend.
What you get
Every project is bespoke, but most deliver a combination of the following.
Your total addressable market, broken down by sector, organisation type, size and geography.
How much of that market you already reach, and where the biggest gaps are.
Organisations and decision-makers built to your brief, not pulled from a generic list.
Contacts categorised by job function and seniority, so your message reaches the people who buy, attend or join.
The accounts and segments most worth your time, ranked against your goals.
Validated, structured records your team can import and act on.
Less time researching, more time selling and marketing, and growth built on your market rather than on memory.
Who it's for
Our specialism
Find the visitors, exhibitors and sponsors you haven't reached yet. We map the organisations active in your sector, show which ones already attend or exhibit and build the data to reach the rest.
Clear audience intelligence also strengthens the exhibitor and sponsor pitch, because you can show exactly who your event reaches.
Find eligible organisations that aren't members yet and reach the people who make the joining decision.
Grow your readership, advertiser and sponsor pipelines, and show partners the quality of the audience you reach.
Give your clients a defined target market and reliable audience data, delivered by us behind your service.
Understand how big the opportunity is, and who's in it, before you commit sales and marketing resource.
Typical roles we work with
For event teams
The best time to find new exhibitors and visitors is long before the campaign starts. We plan the work around your event calendar, so your next audience is ready when you need it.
10–12 months out
Build the full market of companies active in your sector, compare it with past exhibitors and sponsors, and create new targets for the sales team.
7–9 months out
Find the organisations and job roles missing from your visitor data and build them ready for your pre-event campaigns.
4–6 months out
Late-stage builds for unsold space, sponsorship packages and visitor segments that are still under-represented.
After the event
Clean and enrich exhibitor and registration data before it goes into your CRM, ready for the next cycle.
Want the full picture? Download our free Event Data Calendar.
Why The Data Business
Technology-powered. Human-led. Bespoke. Accountable.
You don't need to know which service to ask for. We work out what audience you need, look at what you already have and recommend the right mix of work.
We don't sell access to a generic contact database or a bank of credits. We build data around the audience you want to reach.
Data platforms can be a useful part of your stack, but someone still has to decide who to target, judge the quality of the results and act on them. We take responsibility for those decisions and hand you a finished, quality-checked output.
We use AI and automation for speed and scale. Experienced researchers check the results, fill the gaps and catch what technology misses. About the TDB AI framework.
Every project has a dedicated account manager and research team. You pay for the data you receive, with no subscription.
We've used The Data Business for several years for bespoke list builds and reverification. Not only do we get great engagement rates from the data, but Chris and the team are always very helpful and diligent. They have a good understanding of the industries we operate in, meaning that we can give them very detailed briefs, which they deliver to the exact specifications we ask for.
FAQs
Start with what you're trying to achieve: more registrations, more exhibitors, more members or a fuller sales pipeline. We'll look at the data you already have and the market you want to reach, then recommend the work that will make the biggest difference. You don't need a brief before you talk to us.
A list gives you access to records that already exist, built for no one in particular. Data building starts with your brief. We research the organisations and people that match it, check them and deliver an audience built for your goal.
Bespoke means it's built around your audience rather than taken from a generic database. Fresh means it's researched for your project at the time you need it. Qualified means each record is checked against your brief and validated before we deliver it.
Your total addressable market is every organisation that could realistically buy from you, attend your event or join your association. Knowing it lets you set realistic targets, see how much of the market you already reach and spot where growth is most likely to come from.
Yes. We research the relevant people inside each target organisation and categorise them by job function and seniority, so your marketing and sales reach the people who make decisions.
We can check new data against your existing records or an exclusion list, so the audience we build adds to what you have rather than repeating it.
Yes, this is one of the most common uses. We map the companies active in your event's sector, show which ones already exhibit or sponsor and build a prioritised list of new targets for your sales team.
Yes. We deliver structured records formatted for import into your CRM, marketing or sales platform.
Every project is scoped and priced to your brief. You pay for the data you receive, with no subscription or credits to use up.
It depends on the size and complexity of your market. We'll give you a clear timeline once we've agreed the brief.
We research each project to your brief, combining business information sources with our own researchers. We agree the sources and lawful basis with you at the start of every project.
Tell us what you're trying to achieve and who you want to reach. We'll work out what audience you need, look at what you already have, find the gaps and show you how to fill them. No obligation, just a useful conversation.
Prefer to start smaller? Ask about an Audience Reality Check