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Business-to-business Marketing Strategies: Free Information for the assessment of its market
If your target market includes other businesses, direct mail sites such as infoUSA and MelissaData are great places to go when you need to purchase a specific list. However, a little known fact that these sites (and others like them) are also a great free resource to obtain other information about your potential market to help you make smart business decisions.
Direct mail sites allow you to input all types of search parameters to its target demographic, whether business or consumer and use that information to access your database to create a target list to help you define your market. Furthermore, in order to sell that list sites Direct mail has to tell you how many leads are in it, which means that these sites may serve essentially as a free online resource for entrepreneurs Smart seeking to assess their target market in several ways.
There are other resources on the Web to access marketing business-to-business-in Dunn & Bradstreet, for example. But the advantage of direct mail sites is that they are actually created for market research purposes. This means that it is easier access to key information such as how many restaurants spend more than $ 1,000 a year on office supplies, or how many architectural firms are located within of a certain zip code.
So what good is knowing all this information? Let's see a few business-to-business examples.
Say you're a graphic designer and has worked a deal with a local printer in order specifically to serve health professionals with business cards coordinated, letterhead, postcards and reminders of follow-up appointments for new patients. You made some of these packages for customers who are doctors and chiropractors, and you know this is a service of almost any health professional in private practice could use. But how big exactly is your potential market?
InfoUSA and MelissaData are just two of many sites that direct mail can help you get a basic count within your target market. When accessing your business listings, you can find the number of physicians, chiropractors, naturopaths and massage therapists located in your area. This will give you a sense that not only number of businesses in this specialty package might generate, but what kind of advertising budget you need to reach your target market.
Serving business market can also help you achieve a potential consumer market. Say, for example, you are a provider of a new filtration device air. Sure, your potential market is anyone who cares about their health and make enough money to pay for the device-and certainly would make sense to know how many people region in terms of adjusting consumer demographic.
But by focusing on businesses that are in special need of indoor air health, such as medical clinics, senior centers and nursing homes, health clubs and yoga studios, to name a few, could be a better place to start in terms of marketing. If you offer a discount to these businesses that are willing to bring their brochures and marketing materials, may be the best way to reach its consumer market, too.
Start by using a direct mail site to find out how many companies in its target demographic are within their region. You not only have an idea of the size of its market, also save time and effort to find out which group of companies comprised the largest segment of that market, which adjusted its tone (and sales letters) accordingly.
As another example, say you're considering a new location for your business mailing. You have two showcase venues as possible, comparative rents, visibility, traffic, etc. If these two potential sites exist in different zip codes would make sense to use a direct mail site to find out how many other mailing companies existing in the same areas, which using the database tool to assess their competence. After all, with a company that acts as a basic necessity, comfort is key: is more likely to get the companies if the location is one of the only businesses that serve this niche within a given area.
These are just some examples of the ways you can use direct mail searches to determine the characteristics of your potential business market. Familiar with the search parameters at each site of direct mail, and put them to work the way it works best, given your particular business and circumstances. If you arrive when you want to go ahead with direct marketing to its target demographic through a mail campaign, thanks to them through the purchase of this list at the site of your choice direct. And as an added appreciation for these direct-mail houses to thank you for your business, some of them even offer 100 more potential customers without installing the parameters of your list.
Therefore, be sure to do some research on these sites as part of their current marketing plan. The benefits of using their services could be beneficial in the evaluation and communication market.
About the Author
Michele DeKinder-Smith is the founder of Jane Out of the Box, an online resource dedicated to the women entrepreneur community. Discover information, networking and marketing opportunities for women small business owners by joining Jane Out of the Box for free at www.janeoutofthebox.com
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