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With any direct campaign the data is the key to the campaign success. Even more problematic, if you don't have data, how can you run a campaign? No data, no campaign.

Without doubt the best quality data is your own carefully collected permission data from subscribes to your services, newsletter and customers who have opted-in.

But what if you want to extend your reach beyond this group? There are plenty of list brokers out there, just try a search. Unfortunately there is also plenty of poor quality data, that could give you a bad reputation or appear cheap and end up giving no results, no ROI.

So when you're buying data make sure it's the best available and fit for purpose.

The first rule about buying data can be just as easily applied to purchasing a second hand car. Be prepared to pay good money and go to a trusted / recommended source. And as with a car, check out the specs carefully before you buy.

Ideally you want to buy a very specific segment of data so the email you send can be targeted - rather than opting for a scatter gun effect. What are your criteria - income band, geographic area, couples, singletons...? The more targeted the better.

Then think quality not quantity. Your data provider should answer your questions relating to the data's origin, its age and how it was collected.

Also check the terms and condition of the purchase, not only in terms of how and how often you can use the data but what comebacks you have if you get high bounce rates, or a lot of spam complaints from the list you've bought in. If you're not using a email marketing solution that provides spam complaint statistics then start doing so, this is fundamental to knowing if you are harming your reputation.

Once you're happy with the data you're buying make maximum use of it: for example, by encouraging names to opt in to your in-house list. Getting them to subscribe to your regular e-newsletter is a useful hook for this. And make sure the mail you send is as relevant as it can be to the recipient by utilizing things like job titles (if known) as well as names.

When you use your data, extract every last ounce of benefit from it, not only in terms of what you want recipients of your emails to do (actions) but the information you can gather, such as what links they click on and where they go on your website. Then feed information back into sales process with CRM integration, triggered emails and online reports.