The success of your marketing hinges on the quality of your data. In our recent research, we found that 60% of marketers face challenges when it comes to improving data quality. The good news is that these marketers are also placing it in their top priorities for 2024. 66% of marketers say improving data quality is a top priority in the year ahead.
High-quality data builds data strategy confidence
One of the cornerstone findings of our 2024 B2B Marketing Outlook report is that confidence in data strategy is directly correlated with improved results. In fact, Marketers who are highly confident in their data strategy are 3x more likely to have had a significant increase in revenue in the last year. High-quality data is essential to any data strategy.
On the other hand, poor data quality can have unsavory effects on your business. From declining brand loyalty to inaccurate analysis and loss of revenue, you run a risk of bad business performance if you haven't invested in the quality of your data.
But don’t worry. We’re here to help you conquer these data challenges.
Ways to improve your data quality
To improve data quality, examine all of the components of your database. If you’re just getting started, begin with performing an annual data audit to identify gaps where information is lacking and outdated information can be adjusted.
Remember that as data ages it becomes less accurate. Over time, people change positions and companies and new contacts join those companies so keeping this information current is vital to your success.
As you audit your data, here are a few steps to take:
Address data hygiene
- Postal Hygiene – You’ll want to make sure you have accurate, deliverable, and standardized addresses to reach your contacts. You can check your data by using resources like National Change of Address (NCOA), DSF, and CASS.
- Phone Hygiene – Relevant phone numbers change often. Check the numbers you have in your database to identify disconnected phones as well as any do not call phone numbers.
- Other services to consider - Deceased suppression and out of business suppressions. A data provider can help you identify contacts who have died and companies that have gone out of business. Out of business suppression can be particularly important if you have contacts at businesses that have only been in business for 3 years or less as they’re more likely to go out of business during this timeframe.
Check your email data
- Deliverability: Check on the status of your contacts’ emails. Make sure they are deliverable. If not, you’re not only missing out on reaching your audience, you’re also potentially harming your email health and making it more likely that the emails you send will be marked as spam.
- Unengaged contacts: Sometimes you’ll have the right email address, but your contacts still won't be engaged. At this point you need to evaluate if it still makes sense to email these contacts. You don’t want to keep emailing an uninterested prospect.
Some unengaged contacts might just be unengaged because of the type of content you’re sending them. You can look at other data points about these contacts, such as intent data, to see what they may be interested in and conduct a reengagement campaign. If you successfully get them to reengage keep the email address in your database but be strategic about how you message them. If they don’t reengage, flag the contact and consider removing them from upcoming campaign initiatives. - Fill in the gaps: Are you missing any email addresses? Work with a B2B data provider to append your email addresses to your data.
- Glean further insights utilizing Domain and deliverability scoring. One way data providers do this is by examining domains to make sure they are current and not a redirect to a different domain.
Data profiling & licensing
- Profile your data: Profiling the data you have can provide you with a lens into what industries your customers are focused on and the size of those companies. Pair that with any insights you have into your personas and further layer on additional data points like firmographic information. This helps you better understand your customers and prospects.
- Identify look-a-like opportunities: After you profile your data, you can look for similarities and find potential look-a-likes to license and extend your reach into other companies and contacts not included in your current database. Work with a trusted data provider to identify the best ways to expand your audience.
Append your data
- Data appending: To see a full picture of the companies and contacts you are working with, add additional data points to your contacts. You can append various firmographic and demographic details along with contact and site level information to segment your data better and to learn more about buying contacts in your database.
Keep the momentum going
Remember that data hygiene is an ongoing process. To ensure you maintain your data to the highest quality standards, you’ll want to continue running these data hygiene best practices regularly.
