Why You Want Affinity-Based Prospecting vs. Buying Lists

In one way, nothing could be easier than buying a list for your prospecting. You buy the list. Send out a couple emails or mailers. See what happens. It’s been the backbone of digital fundraising for years… but there’s a better way.

See, there’s nothing wrong with buying or trading lists. But it’s just like buying up a storage unit or a foreclosed house — you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get.

That’s why we recommend affinity-based prospecting instead. It saves you time, money, and effort — and it’s the wave of the future when it comes to digital fundraising.

With affinity-based prospecting, every lead becomes a warm lead.

Remember Glengarry Glen Ross, where Alec Baldwin stomps around the office shouting about how coffee is for closers and dangling those hot Glengarry leads in front of the sales team?

Affinity-based prospecting turns all your leads into the Glengarry leads. You know so much more about the prospects you’re working with, and you can instantly sort out the people who aren’t going to be a fit and only focus on those who want to raise their hands.

There’s no more guesswork in your marketing and engagement, because these potential donors have already as good as told you what they want via their data points.

It only gets better over time

Lists have a short lifespan — once you market to it a couple of times, chances are it’s kicked. 

But with affinity-based prospecting, you have much higher engagement rates to begin with (because remember, you’re only talking to the people who want to hear from you), and those rates stay good over time because you get darn-near real-time feedback about what’s working and what’s not.

Using a high-affinity, AI-curated prospect list allows you to connect with those who are most likely to act from the get go. Once you send your campaign messaging out to them, you’re already ahead of the game because you have so much more information than you would have using a cold list.

And every action those people take in response to your campaign is another data point. The more data you have, the more the affinity-prospecting AI can refine itself, and the even more nuanced your prospect engagement can get.

It’s a beautiful little cycle — and you can get it going in your organization so much faster than you think.

We’ve got you! Schedule a quick chat with us to dive into your needs and desires, and we’ll show you just how boodleAI can help!