Why a bought list goes stale, and what to do about it

A list feels solid the day you buy it. A year later it's wrong in ways you can't see, until you're on the phone.

What changes

• People move. The director you emailed in January isn't there in October, and their address now bounces.
• Numbers die. A line is cut off, a business moves, and the number rings out.
• Businesses change. A firm files a new trade, renames itself or moves office, and nobody tells you.
• Some stop. A company is struck off, or enters administration, and your list still says it's trading.

The cost isn't just a wasted email

A wrong number costs you a call. A bounce hurts your sending reputation. Writing to someone who left in March costs you a reply and a little of your name. It adds up quietly, because most of it never gets reported back to you.

A list is a photograph

That's the trouble with buying a file. It tells you how things were on one day, with no date on each detail. You can't tell the number checked last week from the one that was true in 2022.

What to do about it

• Ask when each field was last checked. If your provider can't tell you, treat every field as old.
• Re-check before you use a list. Our Enrich now button checks a record again, and a changed value needs a second independent source to agree.
• Watch for changes. A new director or a move is a reason to get in touch as well as a reason to update the record. That's what Adapt Insights is for.
• Keep the history. When a value changes, the old one should stay, with the date, so you can see what changed and when.

It's why every field in the book shows its label and when we last checked it. See how a record shows its working.