The rapid adoption of modern go-to-market (GTM) is creating immense opportunity for businesses in every sector and vertical. As companies in highly competitive industries look for new vectors to drive efficient and sustained growth, they’re increasingly turning to global markets.
However, while the opportunities available in overseas expansion are remarkable, so too are the challenges of working with B2B data across international borders.
Privacy regulations, compliance requirements, and data retention policies vary widely from one country to another. For data providers such as ZoomInfo, this poses a significant, ongoing challenge.
From the Americas to Europe, from Africa to Australia, ZoomInfo aims to deliver the world’s best business data to our customers so they can make informed decisions that drive growth on a global scale.
Renewed Focus
North America is where ZoomInfo was founded, where we first grew and expanded, and where we went public. But our mission — to modernize go-to-market for all — isn’t confined to one region. ZoomInfo now has more than 35,000 customers around the world, and we’ve grown right along with them, establishing offices in 10 cities and five countries.
To ensure we were meeting the challenges posed by this rapid global growth, ZoomInfo connected with many of our largest customers to learn more about their needs and plans. Plans for international expansion — and a need for accurate, high-quality business data — were a consistent theme.
We took that feedback to heart and got to work. Today, we’re happy to share that our efforts have paid off in dramatically improved coverage. Specifically, since 2021, ZoomInfo has expanded its global data to include:
- 104 million company profiles — 6X growth
- 321 million professional contacts — 3X growth
- 174 million emails — 2X growth
- 94 million mobile numbers — more than 3X growth
ZoomInfo customers are already seeing the difference.
“We’ve worked with ZoomInfo since 2021,” says Patrick Scully, a managing director at international talent acquisition agency Kintec Global Recruitment, located in Manchester, England. “As a global business we rely on data to drive multiple business functions. ZoomInfo’s platform is fantastic — it’s the best tool for sales/cold business development. I’ve used it to close significant new business deals within my region. I rate the product highly and have seen valuable improvements in their global data coverage. I look forward to continuing to drive growth through our partnership.”
Here’s how our teams made such dramatic improvements a reality.
Increasing Visibility
One of the greatest obstacles facing any global data provider is the complex patchwork of regulatory compliance frameworks, privacy laws, and data-sharing provisions that make up the international market.
Due to robust data-protection initiatives such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there are legal limits on what data can be accessed by certain entities, how and when that data is accessed and retained, and the extent to which that access must be disclosed to end-users.
In practical terms, this means data providers often have data they can’t share, or that requires additional analysis to ensure sharing that data is both legal and ethical.
At ZoomInfo, we’re proud to adhere to best-in-class privacy and compliance practices. So when we set out to improve our coverage, one of our first steps was to comprehensively evaluate the international data in our system to ensure we both displayed as much relevant information as possible and adhered to international data policies such as GDPR.
Doing so allowed us to significantly improve both the accuracy and reach of our international data while maintaining the foundation of compliance that allows our customers to go to market with confidence.
Enhancing our Algorithms
At ZoomInfo, we’re constantly improving and adjusting our algorithms to ensure our data is as accurate and relevant as possible.
In the past, we emphasised complete contact records for companies and individuals that included data in all fields. In some instances, however, this resulted in records not being shown due to incomplete data.
By enhancing our algorithms, ZoomInfo is now able to display more complete records from multiple data sources, offering users more accurate, valuable information.
Leveraging our Contributory Network
Our contributory network has long played a role in buttressing our data foundation. Members of the network synchronize their business email with our database, sharing business contact information to add or validate records, which are accessible by other users.
ZoomInfo’s contributory network is much more than a data-sharing agreement. Many of our contributory network users are excited to share their information with us in exchange for access to ZoomInfo; our customers share fragments of data in the hope that ZoomInfo’s research will result in more accurate and complete profiles for them in the platform.
By contributing to the network, these users both gain access to valuable GTM tools and improve the dataset for others. Leveraging this network helped us verify and add significant volumes of B2B data to our platform quickly, cost-effectively, and in full compliance with GDPR.
More Coverage, Highest Quality
While increasing coverage into EMEA data has been a top priority for our team, data quality remains our North Star.
We know that quality, reliable data is the fuel that drives modern GTM, which is why ZoomInfo invests more than $250 million into our platform and data quality every year — more than the annual revenue of many of our competitors — with rigourous verification by sophisticated artificial intelligence technologies and our team of research specialists.
In today’s business environment, there is certainly no shortage of data, and everyone from CMOs to entry-level marketing associates is feeling the pressure to grow more efficiently. At ZoomInfo, we believe there’s a better way for businesses to go to market — and it starts with better data.
We couldn’t be more excited to bring ZoomInfo to more customers around the world, and we can’t wait for you to join us on the next stage of this exciting journey.