Marketing is advertising your products or services. It’s a simple definition, but anyone who has ever touched a marketing campaign knows that it is far more complex. A good marketing campaign involves strategy, statistics, brand awareness, design, copy, results analysis, a thorough understanding of your target audience, and many more elements. But what aspect is the most important? What will destroy your campaign before it even starts or give it the opportunity to be a huge success? The answer is a good data list.
You can send out average copy or a mediocre design to people who are interested in your product or services and the likelihood of you still doing well is high. But what happens if you have a strong strategy, well-written copy, eye-catching designs and put your marketing in front of people who are not interested? Your campaign has no chance of succeeding.
Every aspect of a marketing campaign is important, but they cannot succeed without a good data list. So, what does a good data list look like?
Elements of a Good Data List
Cleaned
A good data list has been cleaned. Data often arrives from a variety of sources which means duplicate records, different formatting, and missing information can occur. Messy data will deliver inaccurate results, so it’s important to spend time tidying up your data.
Some of the ways you can do this is by deduping (removing duplicate records), checking against the National Change of Address List (updating addresses), and suppressing deceased records (removing deceased individuals). You might also merge or reformat information.
Enhanced
After data has been cleaned up, it’s time to enhance it. Data is enhanced by adding in missing information. If you have only addresses, you can add names, so you are targeting individuals. If you have names and addresses, you can append email and IP addresses, so you can find your targets online.
The more information you have on your targets, the better you will understand the people you are advertising to. It will also be easier to determine which channels to use to get your message in front of them.
Modeled
Good data has been modeled and the records have been ranked. Not everyone in your target audience will be a good fit for your products or services. Modeled data ranks your prospects, so you know who is most likely to respond. This is also a great way of determining who you are going to send direct mail to, place in your omni-channel marketing plan, or keep in your digital only plan.
By using data that has been cleaned, enhanced, and modeled, you give your campaign the highest chance of success and enable your other carefully thought-out marketing elements to shine.
If you would like to know more about how you can secure a good data list or how we can enhance your current list, contact our team.