Looking for Customer Acquisition Data? Know the 6 Cs of Data Quality

Most businesses looking to grow revenue and add customers in 2019 don’t have the right data – or even enough data -- to conduct effective customer acquisition campaigns. They will likely need to turn to third-party data providers to meet their objectives. In fact, studies show that the vast majority (79%) of successful data-driven marketers partner with B2B contact vendors to fuel their customer acquisition campaigns.

 

Reputable B2B business contact vendors offer not just names and email addresses but the intelligence and know-how to enable marketers to target specific markets, industries, companies, job functions, demographics, regions and much more.

 

Much has been said about how marketers can unlock data to drive revenue. But before approaching a data provider, it’s important to scrutinize your existing customer data to determine the makeup of your clients in order to then be in the best position to go get new ones. To get started, take a look at these “6 Cs” of data quality to determine where your information may be lacking:

 

1. Correct: The first element to examine is to what extent your data is correct. Is it free of errors or does it contain fake email addresses, SPAM traps or incomplete phone numbers? If you’re like most companies, you can spot many of these incorrect data points simply by eye, as they easily stand out. It’s important to review your prospect database regularly – keep it clean, maintain it and update it and you’ll see better campaign results. A good third-party data provider can provide support with this process beyond simply augmenting your list with new data.
2. Complete: The next data aspect to look at is completion – do all contacts have complete emails, phone numbers and addresses? If certain elements are commonly missing, this could negatively impact future marketing campaigns. For example, if your strategy is to follow up emails with phone calls from your sales teams in a targeted region, you can see how missing or incomplete data will leave gaping holes in your campaign execution. If your data is missing key elements, find a data provider who can support you in filling in the gaps as you work to achieve complete contact records.

 

3. Current: Another important consideration is how current your data is. You may have correct and complete records, but if your data is old, your contacts have likely moved on to different roles or companies, or they may have new titles. Studies show that 71% of all business people change one or more elements of their business cards each year, confirming the fact that data is constantly changing and becoming out of date. If your data is simply old (and this too is common with our clients), you’ll want to work with a data provider who is able to provide up-to-the-minute information.

 

4. Consistent: Another data element to examine is your contact information’s consistency. For example, you may have multiple records from the same company listed in several or many different ways, leading to confusion and campaign misfires. Compounding the issue is that your data may be compiled from different sources (e.g. CRM, Salesforce, etc.), in which different, conflicting data in myriad formats may be included, requiring it be normalized or corrected. This takes time to address, but it’s well worth the effort.

 

5. Coverage: You may in fact, have clean, accurate, current and consistent data, but it’s not useful if you’re trying to reach new geographies, markets or contacts. This is where data coverage comes in. We work with many clients who approach us for this very reason; they are looking to expand their business to a whole new realm or region, and they either need all-new data or incremental data to scale their prospect databases.

 

6. Cleanse: Deep database cleansing is a sixth tenet of data quality that OMI always recommends to our clients. When done correctly and consistently, it can serve to proactively address the above data challenges and, ultimately, enable you to gain stronger results with your marketing and sales campaigns. The point of database cleansing is to allow you to develop your audience as a business asset – including identifying the right targets and then enriching, scaling and optimizing your database over time. This is a service we provide at OMI and it is fast-becoming one of our most popular offerings. Our clients see big value in it – they are achieving increased email deliverability and engagement as a result. Add to that the fact that it is a time-consuming and tedious process that requires the right tools and expertise, and it’s easy to understand why it’s in such high demand.

 

Once you’ve made a thorough assessment, you may have determined that the data you have on hand may not be adequate to meet your customer acquisition needs. If that’s the case, I hope you’ll turn to a reputable data provider. At OMI, we pride ourselves in our services and the quality data we offer – as well as the results we achieve for our clients -- and stand ready to support your business contact needs.

 

Outward Media’s accurate, targeted email data can enable you to achieve better email marketing ROI by targeting your best prospects – including top-level executives -- and, ultimately, converting more prospects into customers. Take a look at our case studies to find out more.