Digital Doughnut Contributor 12 June 2014 Categories Content, Research, Search Marketing Share: Data Lists Are for Life, Not Just for Campaigns Keeping your existing B2B data lists in good shape will pay dividends in your marketing campaigns. Keeping your existing B2B data lists in good shape will pay dividends in your marketing campaigns. Your B2B data lists are the lifeblood of your sales and marketing campaigns, so you need to be sure they are fit for purpose. Because if you don’t, the returns on your efforts will be far lower than expected. 4 out of 5 businesses conduct marketing campaigns to generate sales leads, whilst two-thirds use the exercise to grow their customer database. – Marketscan research. 1. Is it accurate? Accurate data is crucial to segmented marketing. Without accurate data you will be unable to split your database into B2B data lists for fine-tuned campaigns. You will also experience: A high delivery failure rate. A reduced conversion rate. A rise in unopened messages or failed calls. Simple tasks like checking names and job titles will help improve overall data accuracy. 2. Is it complete? As your sales team rushes to capture new customer data, key values are often overlooked or mistyped. Just like inaccurate records, those left incomplete will also be of lesser value when the time comes to segment the database for marketing. For best results, your team needs to: Identify contact records that are incomplete. Encourage the contact to supply the missing information. Update the database with the extra details. Having a complete contact record helps to create a complete overview of the contact, making it more useful to your marketing team. 3. Is it fit-for-purpose? If the data you have is out of date or incomplete and there is no prospect of creating a useful record from it – archive it. Keeping useless data: Wastes resources – storage, postage and phone calls are all wasted when chasing up non-existent contacts. Skews your results data – calculating ROI or campaign success will be impossible if it is full of false bounces caused by dodgy contact data. Get rid of the useless data to set the baseline for a better contact set that can be segmented to create powerful B2B data lists. 47% of survey respondents claim the most difficult part of running a marketing campaign is measuring success. – Marketscan research. 4. Is it sufficient? Does your contacts database allow you to perform the campaigns you want? To reach the new prospects and create new leads? If not, you probably: Have the wrong details stored about your customers and leads. Do not have enough records with which to work. Obviously your business needs to work hard at growing the mailing list organically, but to get things moving more quickly, you could buy some reputable B2B data lists to kickstart your next campaign. Just 8% of marketers do not purchase B2B data lists to assist with their campaigns. – Marketscan research. 5. When is the next clean due? Because your B2B data lists are in a state of constant flux, you need to clean them regularly. Choosing to carry out cleaning every quarter makes it a far quicker process to complete properly than if the data is left for years between refreshes. Plan a cycle and stick to it! Nearly a quarter of all businesses admit their marketing data has not been cleaned at all in the last 12 months. – Marketscan research Getting your B2B data lists ready To keep your B2B data lists in shape ask yourself: Is it accurate? Is it complete? Is it fit-for-purpose? Is it sufficient? When is the next data cleanse due? Learn how to deep clean your data list until it shines: Download the eGuide ’Five Steps to Cleaner, Happier Data’ Please login or register to add a comment.