Data is an integral part of many businesses.

Whether you’re using data to streamline operations for your SaaS company or are using customer data to help a targeted marketing campaign display the right product to your customers, having a broad, deep repository of customer data can be the difference between good business and excellent business.

If you’re looking to deepen the type of data you collect from your customers, here are three surefire strategies to help you get more data from your leads.

How To Get More Data From Your Leads And Customers

1. Incentivize customer data

One of the simplest ways to help get more data from your customers when they’re filling out a lead generation request is to incentivize them in giving you specific data.

Oftentimes you see this with email addresses and opt-in checkboxes which promise customers online coupons and other incentives in exchange for permission to send other materials to their inboxes.

For example, LadyBossBlogger offers free courses in exchange for people’s emails:

While this is a common tactic, you should also consider other ways to incentivize other useful information. For example, if you’re interested in knowing a customer’s age, consider collecting their date of birth and promise them some sort of birthday reward.

A simple coupon emailed to them on their birthday is easy enough to automate in many email platforms and in return you’ve gained a deeper understanding of the customer’s age and demographics.

To entice people to actually give you their information, make sure you give them enough information! For example, LadyBossBlogger lists out what they will be receiving in their inboxes every day so they know what to expect.

2. Use a third party service

Another way to get better information is to use a third-party service for consumer data leads.

These sorts of services are worth their weight in gold since they are custom-tailored to a variety of sales industries and are really designed to help businesses of all sizes find and capture high-quality leads.

For example, you can perform searches for leads based on a variety of criteria in order to find the right match for your business. Everything from gender and marital status to home value and hobbies can be used as criteria.

Imagine being able to target leads based on homeownership status or whether or not they have children. These sorts of details open up entirely new possibilities when it comes to attracting and appealing to new customers, and they’re all possible thanks to companies like Salesgenie that offer databases full of leads to other businesses.

Best of all, you can even target leads based on geography, going far beyond typical limitations of city or zip code to target specific neighborhoods.

A great way to keep track of all your customers and leads is to use Hubspot’s FREE customer relations management tool (CRM).

3. Use inbound marketing tactics

Another way to capture good leads is to use inbound marketing tactics. Put simply, inbound marketing appeals to customers through the use of useful, engaging content, and helps invest them in your brand or market.

According to HubSpot, this sort of marketing creates a win-win situation for companies and customers alike. They share that “when good-for-the-customer means good-for-the-business, your company can grow better over the long term.”

It’s this sort of growth that makes inbound marketing so beneficial because the customers are truly learning valuable information as a result of your company and its products.

When you consider how many Google searches are performed daily, having inbound content on your company’s website that helps customers and gets them invested in your brand is a no-brainer.

Customers are vital to any business, whether you perform auto body repair in Lincoln City or sell hand-poured soap in Jersey City, but even so, it’s important to know a thing or two about your customers.

When you understand your customers’ demographics and interests, you can better appeal to them and continue to attract similarly-minded customers at the same time.

Having quality sales leads is one way to do this, whether you’re attracting them via a robust database or using inbound marketing strategies and incentivized tactics.

Most importantly, leads don’t just help you attract new customers; they help you retain them, too.