Fuel for Marketing: Data Management

Data is the fuel of all marketing activities. But data is not static – a collection of numbers in a database. It is a living, continuously evolving entity. Data Management is critical to being able to maximize your return on the investment.

Better Data Quality = Improved Marketing & Sales Conversions = Increased conversions

What is Data Management?

Effective data management is about incorporating best practices and processes to organize and manage data across the organization. It streamlines the way the data is collected, deposited and retrieved in an organization.

There are three steps of Data Management

1. Data Validation: Ensuring data is correct, complete and consistent in terms of:

• Email addresses that are valid & standardized
• ZIP codes that have at least five digits
• Incorrect or irrelevant data that is eradicated
• Phone numbers that are valid and are in right format

2. Data Standardization: Ensuring data is standardized in terms of:

• State and country fields that fulfill the International Standardization Organization (ISO) formats
• Values like job titles, industries, revenue, etc. that match the list

3. Data Enriching or Appending: Adding relevant information to existing ones in terms of:

• Company information that is missing or incomplete
• B2B & B2C e-mail addresses with more accuracy
• New contacts and accounts
• Demographic information that is valid and updated

Why you need Data Management?

As per a 2014 global research study from Experian Data Quality, “99% of companies claim to have a data quality strategy in place, but 91% of those with a strategy still struggle with issues surrounding the quality of their contact data.”

The common issues include incomplete & redundant data, including duplicity, inaccuracy and typos.

Unfortunately, organizations cannot see the value of data management – until they realize how much is at stake.

Managing data is important:

• To evade disorganized data
• To avoid data loss
• To avoid inaccurate, duplicate or redundant data
• To ensure up-to-date data backup
• To recover data in case of data loss
• To ensure accuracy of data
• To ensure easy access of data, particularly customer information
• To ensure accurate data analysis
• To ensure enhanced decision making

Best Practices for Data Management

Data Management plays a significant role in an organization’s ability to generate revenue, manage costs and reduce risks. Managing customer data effectively results in enhanced customer relationships, which eventually drive revenues. Best practices for Data Management include implementing data management to significant places which include:

1. Inbound data: Reduce the amount of bad inbound data on forms and lists, enhancing new data added to your database. You can do this by:

• Validating email addresses on forms
• Validating phone & address information
• Scrubbing data on uploaded lists

2. Inline Data: Constantly clean and enhance your database through instinctive programs and triggers like:

• Data quality programs
• Standard & custom cloud connectors
• Salesforce.com triggers

3. Outbound Data: Validate data before it is sent to other systems like:

• CRM Integration
• Marketing data warehouses
• List and data exports

How Grazitti can help you manage your data effectively?