An unforeseen outcome of the downturn in the economy is that companies are focusing far more extensively on marketing intelligence than they did in the benign noughties’. Rather than being content to see increasing revenue levels as a primary objective, a greater understanding of customers is now being demanded.
This, in turn, has lead to much greater focus on the quality of data within their own systems. At the most basic level, auditing the fill rate, integrity and accuracy of data within the customer base is something that is now a core requirement within many corporates. Drilling down to separate business units, or sales teams, to identify particularly good data stewardship (or the opposite), can help companies to instil in employees the belief that data quality is everyone’s responsibility, not just for the data marketing team.
More than financial expenses at stake
The specific impact of recession on the rate of data decay is also a key issue for business-to-business marketers. As the speed at which a company’s fortunes can change increases, the frequency of revisions needs to keep up. Companies entering insolvency or downgrading to smaller premises means models need to
be more effective than ever in identifying changes. Companies who supply and update business-to-business data need to continue developing their models with the aim of providing clients with the most up-to-date information available and an ultimate goal of daily or even real-time updates.
With the wealth of sources where information can be gleamed from, such as Companies House, Yell and Experian’s GoneAway monitoring process, there’s no reason why the most recent changes shouldn’t be reflected in your database to ensure your data is unrivalled.
Many businesses lose money in direct marketing due to inaccurate data. Cleansing and enhancing your data will help you to better target your customers and prospects. It will ensure accurate contact information and offers that are most relevant.
An all together different expense could be encountered with dirty data’; it could cost you your reputation. Not keeping up with organisational changes in clients’ businesses leaves you looking out of touch and disorganised: a significant brand risk in today’s world where customers expect more intelligent use of data. While sales teams may be aware of changes, and possibly communicating regularly with new contacts, mail addressed to their predecessors may still be landing on their desk. So ensure any outsourced cleansing systems run parallel with internal guidelines on keeping information up-to-date to prevent the annoyance – and in some cases offence – that this can cause.
Accurate data benefits you and your clients
You and your business are not the only ones who will benefit from accurate records, as incorrect data can also cost your clients dearly. You can reduce the risk of fraud by ensuring that address data is accurate and up-to-date. Sending communications to clients that have changed address – particularly if the mail is of a financially sensitive nature – leaves them vulnerable to fraud, a danger that is easily avoided.
Ensuring clean and accurate data is clearly of huge importance in every aspect of client interaction. But it is also necessary for the internal marketing intelligence to be credible and also to allow real intelligence to be harvested from the customer base. The enhanced match rates that are possible from cleaner customer data will then, in turn, lead to better insights into customers, and how they should be serviced.
Ensure that your data cleansing needs are set out from the start. Your provider should be able to offer everything you need and it’s important to be flexible and willing to adapt to deliver a truly customised approach. Every business is different, with databases encountering varying levels of decay, so a bespoke service will always be the more efficient and successful option.
Rather than leaving all data cleaning and enhancement to an annual spring clean, it should be considered a core responsibility of everyone in the company, and a regular service provided by your data partner. Ensuring that your marketing databases are fully cleansed and enhanced is paramount to your marketing reputation and success. Identifying incomplete, incorrect, inaccurate and irrelevant data, correcting it and then making the most of that data, is key to maximising your communication and sales opportunities.
