Build a Strong Marketing Foundation With High Quality Data
Quality data is the foundation of good marketing. How does yours stack up?
Whether it is a highly targeted static campaign or a fully personalized one, great data is the foundation of every highly effective marketing effort. So how well is your data performing? If you were a teacher giving your data a grade, would it deserve an A? Here are seven factors to consider when assessing your data quality and its usefulness for your targeting and personalization efforts.
Is your organization data-driven?Great data starts at the top as a company priority driven by the owner or upper management. If you don’t prioritize your data, why should your employees?
Do you follow a set of data policies? Great data doesn’t happen by itself. It takes policies and procedures around data collection, management, and usage. It also takes having someone inside the organization responsible (and accountable) for overseeing these efforts.
Do you cleanse and enhance your data regularly? Ideally, your data should be cleansed and updated every three months. However, if you are doing this annually or bi-annually, you’re still in good shape.
Do your salespeople find the data useful? Can your salespeople use the data to develop insights on their clients and prospects? Or do they have to do a lot of the work themselves, such as tracking down missing information or correcting data?
When purchasing third-party data, do you know if the provider has validated it? Reputable data sources will provide information on their validation process and verification frequency. It’s important to know whether the data you are receiving is clean and accurate.
Do you have a process in place to locate and fill in empty fields? You can’t deploy highly successful marketing campaigns if your data looks like Swiss cheese. Ideally, you should regularly supplement your first-party data with third-party data from reputable providers.
When you send a marketing email, do you get a lot of unsubscribes or spam complaints? If you see an immediate uptick in unsubscribes, your email list might need some work! Your hard bounce rate is another indicator of data quality. Shoot for no more than 10%, but ideally, less than 2%.
Data is the foundation of any successful marketing strategy. You wouldn’t build a house with a poor quality foundation, so don’t build your targeted messaging with poor quality data either!
| Last Updated: 7 March 2023
