By Karla Sanders, Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing
As B2B marketers, we often hear how vital customer data is and how data is king. We all hold personalization and data-driven campaigns to a high standard. The risk of “bad data” disrupting our marketing initiatives, muddying our reports, and obscuring our perception of our ideal customer profile (ICP) has never been higher. But how many businesses actually get worthwhile consumer data and use it properly to advance their operations? You might be surprised that the answer is not many.
Utilizing Data to Fuel Effective Marketing
Data enables organizations to better understand what customers buy, when they buy it, how they buy it, and other factors. This information can reveal performance problems and help identify the most effective marketing and sales tactics. Effective marketing relies heavily on data that is accurate and regularly updated. Utilizing data that has precise user information and metrics can help B2B marketers to tweak and optimize marketing plans. B2B marketers can be a lot more nimble, receptive, and targeted when they know what works and what doesn’t based on the data that you gather and maintain in your system.
Data Quality Today
Validity recently published this year’s state of CRM data health report and found out that CRM users have unfounded confidence in the accuracy of their data, which is detrimental to their bottom line.
The study revealed that poor CRM data quality costs businesses new sales, and 75% of respondents said inadequate outreach driven by poor data made them lose clients.
Why is Data Accuracy Important?
- According to 52% of businesses, inaccurate data is costing them more than 10% of annual income.
- 68% believe that bad data is causing redundant, ineffective outreach that is costing their business customers.
- If data quality doesn’t improve, 71% of employees would think about quitting their jobs.
3 Key Questions to Ask When Working with Data
- Question #1 – Where does it come from?
- Question #2 – Where does it go?
- Question #3 – How is it used?
How to Build Your Data Profiles
- Know that not every field is needed in your profile
- Data profiles do not need to be complicated
- Involving stakeholders is key
3 Things to Keep in Mind When Prioritizing Data
- Urgency – Determine how urgent the inquiry is
- Reliability – To ensure quality, be aware of the controls in place at the source
- Frequency – Determine the source’s frequency of data delivery
How to Prevent Data Decay
- Between 2018 and 2022, data decay rates increased from 22% to 37.5% yearly
- Creating a great Data Profile should come first.
- Assess
- Determine your data quality’s current state
- Identify any Data Profile gaps that may exist
- Recognize the current impact
- Standardize
- Determine required formats
- Capitalization
- Long vs short formats
- Specific structures
- Identify formats that are being received in your system
- Determine required formats
- Deduplicate
- Data Profiles = Duplicate matching scenarios
- Not just a one-time task, there should be a regular cadence for data audit and clean up
- Starting off strict, then gradually easing up with the process of deduplication to enforce data accuracy in your system
- Verify
- Make sure the data can be used.
- Collect verification details
- Reverify frequently — every three (3) months
Healthy Lists & Segments Checklist
Before each campaign, make sure to check the following:
- What information (data points) is being used
- The most recent time the Data Points were updated or validated
- Additional details relating to those data points
- Be sure to confirm consent
Your data should indicate: Gaps in data capture points
- Every interaction your customer has had
- Additional ways to approach your customer
- Actual statistics are not fabricated
In Summary
Data accuracy facilitates better decision-making. You can enhance your marketing and sales processes by using B2B data solutions that are accurate, valid, and trustworthy. Businesses can make logical, data-driven decisions thanks to reliable B2B data. B2B marketers should always be mindful of how they can gather and maintain valuable customer data to provide their customers with superior products and services.
Effectively profiling your data, identifying reporting vulnerabilities, and pinpointing opportunity areas for your sales and marketing teams are crucial habits to becoming a full-fledged data-driven marketer. Remember that managing and maintaining your CRM to combat “data decay” and building healthy, effective data lists and segments are important aspects that can accelerate your sales and marketing strategies.
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