Data science and marketing have become increasingly intertwined, but not all data is equally useful to you. When adding data enrichment to your sales and marketing mix, watch for these challenges to overcome.
Drawing Fuzzy Lines
There’s nothing warm and fuzzy about imprecise market segments. With inaccurate or insufficient data, you’re left guessing about where and how to reach your audience. You need a clear picture of who they are to market to them effectively, and that means better segmentation. Some audience segments are easier to define, such as geographical location or age. Others are naturally more complex because they rely on contextual cues or rapidly shifting data points to draw them. Good data enhancement adds clarity to market segments and cleans up the fuzz.
Neglecting Data Hygiene
Data decays at a rate of about 3 percent per month, on average. In other words, you could be missing the mark with one in three of your leads if you drop the ball on data hygiene for a year. What’s more, the longer you wait to correct the problem, the more useful information could be lost. Data hygiene may not be the most exciting task your marketing automation system performs, but it’s arguably the most vital. There’s no better time to institute a regular data cleansing policy than now.
Going with Guesswork
Marketers have traditionally trusted their instincts, but there’s something better than instinct now – gut feelings plus data. Don’t guess at how your market segments should be drawn or who your best customers are; know the answers by enhancing and analyzing the data. When you build your marketing strategy on facts instead of feelings, you’re laying a firm foundation for future success.
Skimping on Data
If data is accurate, there’s no such thing as knowing too much about your prospects. Even data that seems irrelevant may reveal patterns to sophisticated marketing automation analytics – patterns that show you where your next big untapped market is. Having sufficient data also prevents false conclusions from creeping into your market research. If, for example, you only knew location data without buying histories, you couldn’t create a useful heat map of your market saturation and best leads.
Thinking Small
Data enhancement works best when you work with the largest and most complete database available. Effective data append results add 20 to 25 percent more information to your existing records, but only if you’re getting the new information from a database large enough to provide these new details.
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