When You Don't Have a Good First Party List for Lead Gen, What Do You Do?
There are many sources for list building and lead generation outreach.
Categories of List Data:
First-party data is the type of list data you collect on your own, based on activity on your website, events, etc. Growing this data quickly is a catch 22; how do you create new visitors when you do not have a new prospect list? On your website, the only way to capture new visitors (when cookies are not looked at positively) is by asking visitors to fill out forms for things you are offering them, such as free trials, white papers, newsletters, webinars, blogs (like this one), etc. This approach is challenging to multiply.
Second-party data is someone else's first-party data. The accuracy and privacy can vary since it's coming from one source, but you do have to pay or partner up for it. Some examples are advertisers, associations, events, etc.
Third-party data collects multiple first-party data sources then aggregates it. These organizations are independent researchers and lists/data companies that are available across various sources. If this type of data/list is high quality, it is becoming more and more expensive, and the inexpensive have poor quality and are less and less effective.
More About Second-Party List/Data Sources
There are good advertisers, associations, events that offer their 2nd Party List/Data. You can not have the data; however, they provide marketing tactics exclusively for your marketing efforts. Because of the difficulty of adding new data/lists to your marketing outreach campaigns, I recommend beginning with testing Second-party data (if it seems like a good fit) to have more ways to reach prospects.
Your prospects visit more websites than just Google and Facebook. Exploring other paid media/advertiser lists/data gives you more tools to use to try and get users to your site and fill out your website forms. It would be best if you made an effort and researched what paid media targeting options may work well for your business.
Takeaway
Using 2nd Party List/Data can be your multiplier effect when you do not have your list. It is definitely an ongoing strategy to build your proprietary First-Party List/Data.