The road to revenue is paved with good data – 99% of marketers agree

Analytics   |   
Published April 22, 2016   |   

“Every day, three times per second, we produce the equivalent of the amount of data that the Library of Congress has in its entire print collection, right? But most of it is like cat videos on YouTube or 13-year-olds exchanging text messages about the next Twilight movie.” – Nate Silver (Author & Statistician)
This quote pretty well sums up what a lot of marketers are feeling. There is a TON of data being produced every day, but there is so much of it. Too much in fact.
Marketers understand the importance of data. The 2015 Experian Data Quality Benchmark Report states that 99% of marketers feel that data is essential for success. You need to know who your customers are, what they want, how to reach them, and when they want to be reached. On top of that, you also need to predict what they are most likely to purchase next. But finding the right data that will really make a difference is somewhat like wading through a sea of… well cat videos and Twilight movie tweets.

Contact data

The Experian study revealed that 97% of companies suffer from data errors associated with contact data. The most common errors are incomplete or missing data, outdated information, and inaccurate data.
data errors
Data appending provides one of the most affordable and efficient ways to add this missing data to your customer database.

1. Email append

Did you know an average of 30% of subscribers changes to email addresses annually? Emails go bad and customers move and change their email. Or as is often the case, you may have a huge list of prospects and customers – you know their name, where they live but have no email address on file.
By using an email append service, you can add these missing email addresses to your customer file. Your customer records, which most likely already consist of names and postal addresses, are matched against a third-party database to produce a corresponding email address.

2. Phone append

According to research by the DMA Contact Centers and Telemarketing Council, “marketers continue to underestimate the effectiveness of telemarketing. With the vast majority of businesses surveyed – 93% – saying that it is effective, it is clear that telemarketing should be an essential element in B2C and B2B marketing campaigns.”
If you are missing contact phone numbers, rather than digging through the white or yellow pages or turning to Google, consider using a phone append service.
A good provider will provide phone appending or enhancement services such as:

  • Telco-sourced directory assistance, residential and business telephone numbers plus New Connect telephone numbers
  • Compiled consumer and business telephone numbers
  • Verification of existing residential and business telephone numbers
  • Reverse phone append to provide the name and address data for telephone numbers, premium, and standard options

3. Demographics

Knowing what your customers like and dislike is as important as knowing how to contact them. Marketers are using 1:1 hyper-targeting strategy to relate to consumers and are hungry for data in order to do this.
Some types of demographics to consider include gender, ethnicity, age, income, home ownership, education, employment status, children, location, vehicle ownership, marital status, magazine interests, lifestyle interests, and more.

Inaccurate data

In addition to having missing data, 85% of companies believe their revenue is affected by inaccurate data. On the other hand, 53% of companies with solid data management practices in place have experienced a significant increase in profits.
Implementing measures to remove duplicate and incorrect data on an ongoing basis will ensure you are always marketing with the highest customer data possible.
Companies are increasingly investing in customer experience and personalized marketing. Before long, companies will be competing based solely on who delivers the best-personalized experience to their customers. And the only way to get there is with plenty of good data.
This article originally appeared here. Republished with permission. Submit your copyright complaints here.