As you prepare for your marketing campaign, your data list is more than just a compilation of records to send your advertisement to. It’s a list of households and individuals who may or may not be interested in what you have to say. It’s full of potential and possibilities. The data you select presents the opportunity to place your brand in front of prospects who might just become some of your most loyal customers. Do you want to risk your results with bad data? Your data quality matters, and here are 4 questions you can ask to enhance your records.
1. Is It Accurate?
The first step to using high quality data is making sure your data is clean and accurate. If you move forward with poor quality data, you’ll end up with inaccurate results. Some signs that your data quality might be lacking are the file contains old information, inaccurate information, typos, inconsistent formatting, duplicate records, or it’s missing data points.
You can increase the quality of your data by running it through a data hygiene process. Merge and remove duplicate entries. Update the formatting, so every record is using the same style. Run your records through NCOA and CASS processing, so your postal addresses align with what the USPS has. You can also ask a data provider to append missing information, allowing you to reach your prospects across multiple platforms.
2. Did You Select the Best Individuals?
When choosing your data list, you can canvas an area and target everyone within a 5–10-mile radius of your store. The problem with this method is that not everyone who lives near your store is a good prospect for your brand and product. This method often leads to large amounts of wasted advertising dollars.
Instead of saturating an area, work with data scientists to identify who your top prospects are. Our team created MicroModeling® which is a tool that analyzes your top customers and finds other prospects in your area who look just like them. Each household is scored and ranked, so you can select the best records for your offer and focus your marketing efforts on the individuals most likely to buy from you. By choosing to target your top prospects, you can increase your ROI because you are getting in front of people who want to hear from you.
3. Who Responded?
If you only measure a campaign’s success by how much you spent on advertising and how much revenue you brought in, you won’t know what’s working. You might be able to repeat that success a time or two, but when your results start declining, will you know why? At every transaction point, capture responder data. When you know who is responding, you can determine if you are targeting the right people. This information will aid you in building out strategic marketing campaigns that offer repeatable success.
4. What Did We Learn?
After the campaign is over and you’ve identified responders, it’s time to analyze the data list. What can you learn about your responders? Who are they, what do they like, and where do they come from? Now compare that information to your marketing list. How are they similar? What differences do you see? Use your response data to help you refine your prospect universe and hone in on more qualified prospects. By analyzing your responders and applying your findings, you can increase the quality of your data for the next campaign.
Next Steps
Who you target matters. The success of your marketing campaigns and the growth of your business depend on you getting your offer in front of the right person at the right time. Don’t miss opportunities to reach your best prospects by using poor quality data.
If you want to know more about why data quality matters or how you can increase the quality of your files, give us a call. We love helping businesses reach their top prospects.