Grieben vs The Impact of Dirty Data

Here is a my Latest post originally in Quarry's Idea Exchange The Impact of Dirty Data (And What One Marketer Did About It)

Your marketing department runs on data. It’s like fuel for your demand generation engine. And the cleaner your fuel is, the more efficient your engine runs. Dirty data destroys your engine’s efficiency, reducing the impact of your campaigns—or in the worst cases, causes harm. Dirty data causes poor results when segmenting databases, and cripples support for dynamic content.

According to Judith Kincaid, author of Customer Relationship Management: Getting It Right!, contact data deteriorates at a rate of up to 30% per year. The longer incorrect records remain in your database, the more expensive it is to deal with them. (Consider the 1-10-100 rule: where Sirius Decisions says it takes $1 to verify a record as it is entered in the database, $10 to cleanse and de-dupe it, and $100 if nothing is done, as the ramifications of mistakes are felt over and over again by sales & marketing.)

How dirty are marketers’ databases? Well, Sirius Decisions research suggests 10 to 25 percent of B2B marketing databases contain critical errors (that’s 1 in 4!). These errors range from as simple as incorrect demographic data to vital as inaccurate information about current buying cycle status. Sending to an incorrect address is embarrassing and expensive, but having the incorrect name, marital status or (heaven forbid) accurate record of life or death could be relationship-destroying.

The road to repairing and maintaining your data is not easy, but ask a marketer currently walking that road and they will tell you it’s well worth the effort. Those who get it right are marketers who have shifted focus from one-off projects and have established policies and processes that maintain the quality of your data over time.

We recently worked with one such marketing team, and helped them create a ‘Contact Washing Machine’. For those who don’t know, this is an automated data cleanliness program that standardizes and normalizes data within the company’s marketing automation platform.

The problem:
The client realized non-standard free text fields and blanks had made it incredibly difficult to segment or prioritize their Prospect and Lead database. They needed a solution that could standardize field values to increase the clarity of reporting and ease of segmentation for all the users of their database.

The process:
1. Assess:
a. Identify all fields commonly used for segmentation and reporting.
b. Standardize a list of values that data in each field should adhere to.

2. Automate:
a. Use tools like Excel or GoogleRefine to segment non-standardized data to identify common incorrect values.
b. Create Rules-based program logic to find and replace incorrect values with standard values.

3. Adjust:
a. For non explicit matches, add exception rules to catch all non-blank values.
b. Program and test these rules on test data for QA purposes.

4. Audit:
a. Review program results and repeat steps 1-2 until all data is standardized.
b. Perform quarterly and yearly reviews. Asses if existing normalizations are still relevant or require updating.

The results:
Below is a snapshot of the impact the data cleanliness program had on the standardization of the client’s data points.

It also had the added benefit of making it much simpler for the sales team to calculate a lead score. Based on these normalized values they were then also able to more accurately show the quality of the leads they handed to sales.

With results like these, it’s easy to see the value of implementing a data quality program with its boosts in efficiency, improved campaign results and improved marketer morale.

How clean is your data? Could your organization benefit from a similar program?

Grieben vs Outbound Marketing

If you are an online marketer like me you hear a lot about metrics....every day....all day. I might not have been born an ops guy but thats where my life has taken me and hearing numbers tossed around is a regular occurrence in my day. Here is a list of the ones I hear more frequently.

• Email List Size 
• New Email List Subscribers 
• Unsubscribes 
• Bounce Rate 
• Open Rate 
• Click Rate 
• Conversion Rate 

The most notable thing about these metrics is they are all stimulus and response measures. How many can/cant I stimulate? (Total list size, new list members, conversions, unsubscribes) and what was their response to this stimulation(Opens/Bounces/Clicks).

This is an old media approach to outgoing communications, the same methods to evaluate TV/Newspaper/Magazine/Billboard ect. This type of thinking is great for evaluating individual vehicles within a channel, which magazine you want to choose for example. These metrics prove effective because you can measure the engagement of your potential audience based on behavioral data.

The value of such measures erodes however when improving the metric becomes your focus instead a tool to measure the success of the activity its related to. Its a subtle difference in peoples motivations that should be noted. It’s the distinction between quantity and quality, between attempts and wins.

There is one main difference between using these types of metrics on the above channels and using them in your outbound activities. The difference is implied consent. When you turn on your tv, buys a magazine, turn on the radio you have the expectation that in exchange for this content you will be exposed to adds. That expectation makes the exposure acceptable. Its acceptable because if you ever want the exposure to stop your inaction prevents it from continuing.

Marketers today collect names from a wide variety of sources and send communications over and over again until that name screams stop. If you have ever looked into the bounce-back/auto reply inbox for your company you will know those screams are loud.

Think about it as a user, they want to view your video/article/download and that action is worth the exchange of their email address. They think sure let you send me this recording and provide you with a place to send it. What they didn't intend is to sign up for unending steam of sales pitches. I don't know about you but the last thing I want to do is give the annoying guy next to me on the bus some money(Well unless he will shut up). Completing a call to action however usually only makes the volume of communication increase. Marketers have gotten so good at ignoring users, that those same users do everything in their power to stop the tsunami of content. Something as grassroots a creating a spam only account to have a just address to give out for junk email all the way up to lobbying for legislative protection. Its an endless game of cat and mouse.

CANSPAM and COPL are examples of this legislation, Do-Not-Call and Do-Not-Track is the consumers way of fighting back. For a fantastic summary of the laws check out Eloqua's Topliners Community Post.

If you don't want to hop over there I will summarize it for you with an age old saying, “Speak when Spoken to and not before”. Your Brand should be seen and not heard until sent for. This legislation is worded so that regardless of how you communicate, even methods that don't exist yet, will require prior consent. I don't know about you but a law forcing you to leave your prospects alone is a pretty clear message. If a girl gets a restraining order, stop asking her out.

There are of course exemptions in this legislation, like all legislation, but that's not the point. Seth Godin says, “If I think its broke, its broken even if its not.” Even though it might not be illegal, your list might think it is. The buyer/seller relationship is fragile and relies on trust so why risk being perceived as a spammer. Play it safe, when in doubt don't send.

Why not switch you efforts from outbound batch and blasts to an inbound strategy. I compare it to fishing, some people spend hours picking the perfect bait to attract exactly the right fish, and others toss a stick of dynamite over the side. You might have to wait for that perfect nibble, but you wont have to wade through a sea of fish carcasses either. Its much safer, authentic and less stressful for you and your prospects to position yourself as a subject matter expert. Offer them your expertise, your knowledge, make it available in online communities, in blog posts, create how to articles, videos, share slide presentations. Build content that shows what you know and leave your contact info. People will see your work, start nibbling and come find you when they are hungry.

If you put your effort into making yourself both attractive and easily found instead of actively ignored you will have your sales force answering real inquiries rather than begging for a close. Your Customers will be happier because you aren't acting like a needy brat, and your employees will be happier because no-one likes to be hung up on and hated.