Although I always advise clients to keep their marketing moving forward during hard times, it’s no surprise that many marketers are now facing the prospect of budget cuts. As this occurs, high ROI and identifying and reaching the right prospects at the right time with the right offer is more critical than ever. And from my perspective, email – with an ROI of as high as $44 for every dollar spent, according to Campaign Monitor – is the perfect answer. Add in the fact that email open rates are now rising, and it’s easy to see that your email database just got way more important. Now, more than ever, the pressure is on to clean up your list fast.

I’ve written in Forbes about the power of deep database cleansing: it’s a practice that provides an important foundation for both acquisition and customer marketing. Today, I’m happy to share 4 important points from my Forbes article:

• Why Cleansing Matters: Low-performing email campaigns are the most obvious signs of a database that needs cleaning.  High bounce-backs and low rates of delivery and conversions lead to wasted time, effort and a lower return on your campaign dollars. In fact, studies show 40% of business objectives fail due to inaccurate data. Murky database can infect the health of your sender reputation if too many recipients unsubscribe or, worse, complain to their email service providers (ESPs), who can kill off your ability to email entirely. During this pandemic, that would be a massive hit to your marketing.

• Find and Fix the Problems: Forbes says B2B data decays at a rate of 70% every year. Why? There may be many reasons for an unhealthy database. Standard culprits include data entry errors, missing data fields, different data formats or simply outdated contact information. In addition, your data may be the culmination of records from various people and business entities – all in different formats. Like many companies we talk to, your database may be something you inherited when you accepted your current role. And while you didn’t cause the problems, it’s your responsibility to fix them.

• Modernize Your Approach: A common treatment for improving database health is to have an employee (or several) go in and try to fix the errors, fields and formats manually. But this remedy involves slow, tedious and painful manual data processes that likely introduce additional data errors. For larger databases, by the time the improvement is “completed,” the data is already outdated. Instead, today there are modern approaches that can accelerate database cleansing by automating the process of removing, correcting and replacing inaccurate data. This process requires specialized tools, technology and skillsets – it’s not something most marketing teams are set up to handle internally.

• Reap the Rewards: With a healthy, clean database, your email marketing campaigns will show a recognizable lift, with improvement in deliveries, opens and click-throughs, leading to more high-quality leads and maximized ROI for your marketing dollars. Further, the improved business contact data you uncover can be combined with other data sources to strengthen account-based marketing (ABM) by identifying those prospects who have demonstrated – through their online activities – that they’re ready to buy now. You can read more about that here.

If you haven’t yet modernized your approach to database cleansing, now is the time to get it done so that you can make sure the marketing you do now unleashes the greatest impact for your business. I hope you’ll take a moment to check out OMI’s automated data cleansing services. And as you consider changes in your marketing strategy, remember, it’s important to make sure your messages continue to be heard, even in challenging times. For many marketers, it all starts with deep database cleansing.

Outward Media’s proven data cleansing services and targeted, accurate email data can enable you to achieve better email marketing ROI and, ultimately, convert more prospects into customers. Take a look at our case studies to find out more.