Frequently Asked Questions

Our FAQ section has been produced to help answer the most common questions we’ve encountered through dealing with our client base. We recommend that every customer takes a few minutes to read through this section.

(1) Can you provide any other data than that listed for purchase on your website?
Whilst we have tried to make a wide range of popular data available for instant online purchase, we appreciate that not everyone's requirements will be met (e.g. international or consumer data, employee numbers, company turnover etc.) As such we have provided a List Builder in order to build a list specifically for your requirements from our extensive database.

(2) How is my order sent to me?
As soon as you complete the online order process you are provided with your Business Mailing account login information. The order is then sent to our accounts team for manual validation (UK Office Hours 9am to 5pm). Once approved you will be able to login and download your lists and print of your VAT receipt.

(3) Do all of your lists include the businesses telephone numbers and contact names?
Only our Premium Business and List Builder data includes telephone numbers and specific contact names, this data is therefore suitable for email, telephone and/or postal marketing campaigns. The lower cost Solo Business data range only includes the email data and can only be used for email marketing campaigns.

(4) How accurate is your data and where can I see a sample?
The data is sourced directly from the UK regional business directories, you can download samples below. The data is collated manually through our team of operators and the email addresses verified for validity through an automated SMTP relay system on a regular basis.

>> Solo Regional Email List Sample
>> Solo Category Email List Sample
>> Premium Regional List Sample

Remember that unlike other direct marketing companies Business Mailing will never charge you for defunct email records and they can be returned and credited to your account for use with future orders. Please click here to learn about our Bounce Buy Back option.

(5) Are your lists Opt-In or Opt-Out?
The owners of the email addresses on these lists have opted to list their primary company email address within the various UK regional business directories for marketing and advertising purposes. The email address may be specific (i.e. a named contact) or generic (i.e. department name) and no guarantees can be offered on the ratio of either within any given list.

(6) How does your verification process work?
Our verification process is automated and takes place on a quarterly basis. During this process we test the addresses in comparison to domain name and run a batch script to ensure the recipient is accessible. You should note this therefore means that some of the addresses will fail and you will receive postmaster errors and/or user has left company auto replies, though these will be in the minority. Our prices have been set at considerably low costs per record to accommodate this and no refunds will be offered. Remember though that unlike other direct marketing companies Business Mailing will never charge you for defunct email records and they can be returned and credited to your account for use with future orders. Please click here to learn about our Bounce Buy Back option.

(7) What is the difference between single and multi-use data?
When you purchase data you are provided with a Business Mailing usage licence. A "single-use license" permits you to only use the data for a one-time distribution. A "multi-use" license permits you to use the list on an unlimited basis. Please be advised that security measures are in place within each and every list in order to monitor that our data is being used in accordance with the terms agreed.

(8) What guarantees are offered against duplicate email addresses in the lists I purchase?
We can offer a 100% guarantee that no duplicate email addresses will be found in a single list purchased, as they are removed automatically during the verification process. However, you should be aware that companies will advertise in various regional directories and as such if you order more than one list there is a high percentage chance that several companies will be listed in both lists. No refunds will be offered on duplicate email addresses across multiple lists.

(9) How do I email the people in the lists I've purchased?
Firstly you may wish to consider our Fully Managed Email Broadcast Service, which means we handle the entire broadcast on your behalf. If you plan to run the broadcast yourself then the most common method is with Outlook or Outlook Express. You simply copy and paste all the addresses into the BCC field of the email you wish to send, using your own email address in the TO field. This will ensure the email recipients are not disclosed to everyone who received the email. The unfortunate thing about sending through a simple mail client like Outlook is that it does not offer reporting or automated removal systems and more importantly many leading ISP's do not permit the sending of email in bulk.  To avoid sending through your own ISP we recommend our own Fully Managed Email Broadcast Service or alternatively email distribution software solutions such as Group Mail.

(10) I’ve heard about December 2003 EU legislation to control bulk email, is B2B email marketing still legal?
Email marketing is legal and the 2003 legislation has been designed to protect personal email addresses and decrease spam (unsolicited email sent in bulk). Please click here to read more details on the legalities.You may also wish to download the following PDF produced by government agency Scottish Enterprise , which explains there understanding of the new legislation – download here

(11) Can I state in my mail campaign disclaimer text that I purchased the list from Business Mailing?
No this is strictly forbidden and we will have to consider legal action against anyone that does not follow this rule.  Business Mailing is a data broker, nothing more and we provide a service to help you market your company. Using our name in your communications associates us with your company and with the message you are delivering; this is not something we cannot possibly permit.  Also, clients that have been very happy to receive emails from the majority of our clients may suddenly wish to be removed from our data source as a result of a single email which advertises a service they have no interest in.  Our cost effective service cannot run efficiently if we were to permit use of our name within your email broadcast.

(12) Can you provide data for companies operating outside the UK ?
Yes our database does feature a selected range of International businesses, with data available from several other countries. However, only a very small amount of International Business Data is available for automatic purchasing on our website and you should use our List Builder in order to let us know exactly what you require.

(13) I am purchasing from outside the European Community, does your VAT at 17.5% charge still apply?
Since we only provide digital products and only offer our service to UK customers VAT is charged on each and every transaction.  Our automated accounting system is setup to only provide VAT based invoicing and should the situation arise where a company/organisation is not liable for VAT then we will be unable to assist with a non-VAT invoice and they will have to take the matter up with the relevant authorities after purchase in order to reclaim their VAT contribution.

(14) Is your data suitable for creating address labels or import into other office applications or database?
Yes our data is all provided in either text (.txt) or comma separated value (.csv) format within the archive (.zip) files that the data is provided to you in. You may wish to visit the links below for a tutorial on how to use mail merge within Microsoft Office applications:

Video Tutorials @ http://mistupid.com/tutorials/word/
Text/Picture Tutorial @ http://www.taltech.com/support/bckb/Merge_Word_2002.htm