You might think your organization has a great deal of customer knowledge, but would your customers agree? A recent study by IBM revealed that nearly 8 out of 10 buyers believed brands didn’t have thorough knowledge of them. Having your customers’ demographic and firmographic data is just the first step toward truly knowing them. With data enhancement, you’re ready to go the rest of the way toward customer knowledge and get to know them before they find a competitor who will.
Where Do You Keep Your Data?
Is your data on a single database where it’s clean, well-organized, and easily accessible? Or is your customer information spread out among many siloed storage systems such as old spreadsheets, an isolated CRM, and unconnected databases? If the latter scenario looks more like your current data situation, it’s time to move up to a better information solution. Centralizing your database allows your data enhancement consultant to work with all your information at once. Having a single view of your prospects as they move through your sales funnel is critical to knowing them better.
Do You Have Enough Data?
It’s hard to imagine not having sufficient data, especially if you’re currently struggling to keep track of it all. Even with the flood of data coming in, though, you may not have enough that’s relevant, and records could still have blanks that must be filled in. Prospect records need phone numbers, mailing addresses, email addresses, and other key contact information. You might also be missing firmographic data that gives you insight into how and where your leads work. Data append services fill in missing knowledge, giving you a more complete picture of your prospects and customers.
Are You Relevant to Your Leads?
Relevance is the single biggest predictor of conversions, and it depends largely on good customer knowledge. When gathering data, don’t discount behavioral data that only a firm skilled in database marketing can give you. Getting a glimpse of previous buying habits and areas of interest are important to full customer knowledge. Analytics allow you to understand behaviors and put them into context so you know when, how, and why your leads make buying decisions. The even better news: The more you work with behavioral and contextual data, the more clearly you begin to understand your leads’ needs, which in turn becomes a central aspect of increasing relevance.
Are You Making It Personal?
It isn’t enough to know your prospects. You also have to put that knowledge into practice by customizing and personalizing your communications with them. They need to know you’re hearing them. When you treat your leads as individuals and respect their unique concerns, they’re more enthusiastic about becoming customers and more likely to remain loyal once they choose you.
Customer knowledge isn’t a static quantity. Markets shift and grow, making it vital for you to keep your data current and complete. Data enhancement services ensure that you get the deeper insights you need not only to understand your prospects but to make sure they know you understand them.
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