1. Start at the beginning
Data cleansing starts at the point of entry. Inaccurately
entered data affects quality and will result in the expense of cleansing later
on. So ensure your data is entered correctly at the beginning.
2. Calculate the cost
It’s estimated that 30% of B2B data is out of date within 12
months*. That means 30% of your direct marketing could be missing the target
and wasted.
Calculate 30% of your direct marketing budget – that’s the
potential figure wasted due to unclean data. Perhaps it’s also the figure you
should be spending on data cleansing?
3. Ignore recently contacted data
You may not need to clean your entire database. If you
recently contacted a segment of it you can assume it is already up to date.
Concentrate your efforts on data that has not been contacted recently or that
has not responded.
4. Cleanse data close to action date
B2B data can go out of date quickly, so there is little
point in cleansing 12 months before it is due to be used. Cleanse close to the
date of use, but ensure you have the resources to do it on time. On average,
one person can cleanse 30-60 records per day using telemarketing to confirm the
details.
5. Ping emails
Checking if an email address is still ‘active’ is a great
way to highlight data that may need attention. But you don’t have to go to the
expense of paying for an email campaign. There are tools that will ping email
addresses to validate them. If the email comes back as invalid you can
concentrate your effort (and limited budget) on correcting that data.
6. We are all LinkedIn
There are also tools available that will tell you if one of
your connections on LinkedIn has updated their position. Tools, such as
JobChangeNotifier, will email you if there is a change. A great way to ensure
you stay on top of changes to your key contacts, such as a new job title or a
move to a new company.
7. CTPS check
In addition to being a legal requirement, checking your B2B
data against the CTPS register makes good data cleansing sense. The CTPS
register contains the telephone numbers of companies that have requested not to
receive any sales calls.
Cleansing your data against the list means you do not waste
your valuable marketing budget contacting companies that are less likely to
respond.
8. Bonus tip
Telemarketing is by far the best tool for accurate data
cleansing. An undelivered email may not tell you if an executive has changed
their name or who replaced them if they have left. A mail shot that is returned
to sender may not tell you where the company has moved to, or if it’s only the
executive that has moved on.
Telemarketing can be more revealing. Interviewers can elicit
more complete and substantive answers, as well as ask for clarification and
elaboration on responses. In short, it delivers better quality data.
Article From: b2bmarketing.net
