My Best Advice: Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Data Integrity

As a Strategic Account Manager for 10 years, clients often rely on me for information and insight about how they are marketing compared to their competitors or peers in the high-tech industry. I’m always grateful for their confidence in my experience and always willing to provide my candid observations. So it’s in the spirit of “knowledge transfer” I’d like to share with you a common observation.

I’ve found that that the most recurring flaw in effective marketing programs is a lack of attention given to the marketing data – the contact records that comprise the foundation of the marketing campaign. It’s quite common to receive a client’s data that is either missing key information or that contains inaccurate information. Examples include data we receive from responder campaigns where it’s typical to receive records populated with “John Doe” who attended an event, or the name “Mickey Mouse” in a record for someone who has downloaded content from the clients’ web site. And more often than not we find clients are marketing to non-purchasing locations or contacts who are not involved in the decision-making process.

Best-in-class clients are often looking at the data in aggregate to identify buying patterns and opportunities to segment that information in order to create a more informed marketing strategy. My personal review of over 150 client marketing programs that were implemented in the last 90 days revealed a yield of a much greater ROI and overall results in cases where a data quality improvement or data enrichment program (including standardization and cleansing) were implemented before the marketing campaign began. This seems so sensible yet often campaigns are rushed to execution despite the lack of data quality.

Many of our clients tell us that data quality improvement is a top investment priority for 2010, and my hope is that this priority is not ignored in-lieu of the rush for quick results. This is something I continue to advise my clients about. Accurate data is critical to making certain that a targeted program or message is actually reaching the right customers and prospects.

Please share your thoughts on the importance of data integrity.

Next discussion…”Buyer preferences and the importance of a nurturing strategy.”