Data Cleansing and Appending

What is Data cleansing (or scrubbing) and Data appending?

It may sound complicated with words like scrubbing and appending – but it is as simple as throwing away a can in the bin. We all clean our houses at regular intervals or we like to give away useless stuff lying in our garage. Isn’t it?

B2b data cleansing and appending is similar to that. It is all about deleting incorrect, duplicate or corrupt information and updating it with correct information which is easier to comprehend.

Whether it is you or us, every business needs more business to grow. For business to grow, you require qualified leads (Marketing qualified or Sales qualified). For qualified leads, you need to have targeted marketing strategies. For targeted marketing strategies, you need to know your prospects. To know your prospects, you need data. To have structured data, you need a clean database.

So, it is very important that you have accurate and clean data to ensure you have maximum click through rates and qualified leads through any of your marketing strategy. Owning a huge database might not get you any of these as much as a small database with accurate information can.

All you need to do is to accept the fact that your database might be dirty or unclean  with inaccuracies, typos, missing information or outdated information.

Must Read: Data Hygiene: Mastering CRM Data Cleansing for Optimal Performance

Did you know that the data of every organization gradually decays for around 20-22 per cent every year due to recipient’s job change or location change?

While you may keep adding missing information to your database and updating it, it will only grow the corrupt or incorrect data alongside which will not drive any business results.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to you, if your sales team calls up a lead only to realize that their contact information has changed or they send out targeted emails to see that a number of them have bounced back.

You not only wasted efforts but with each of this – you lose money!

Hence, data cleansing and appending is the core of any telemarketing and e-mail marketing strategies.

That gets us to our next question?

What is data appending and enhancement?

You are launching a new business in your area and decide to send personalized invites to your prospects. You have their names, but the ZIP code of their address is missing or you do not know their exact last name or you do not know whether they are the decision makers.

In such a scenario, you will not be able to send them effective invites which can ensure they would come to your launch. Makes sense?

Like every medicine has an expiry date, like every software needs updates and like every food product has a shelf life – every database has limitations too.

You cannot carry out an effective marketing strategy without having all the relevant data. ‘Relevant’ being the key word here.

And hence, the database needs to be updated and appended with missing information like e-mails, addresses, phones etc. which will help you understand your customers.

Must Read: What Is Data Cleansing, Why Is It Important, And How Can You Do It?

What are the benefits of Data cleansing and data appending services?

There are numerous benefits of Data cleansing services. However, we would say

• It helps in effective marketing which drives real business results.
• It helps in personalizing content because you know the relevant information about your prospect.
• You can easily keep a track of your prospects changing details.
• Your e-mails will be sent (and received) successfully. It will increase your CTRs.
• You will understand your prospects and will be able to carry out analysis/research which is effective.
• You can plan and execute campaigns with accuracy.
• Clean data helps you segment information properly.
• Data cleansing and data appending services help you avoid duplicate leads. We are sure you understand that sending an e-mail to the same person twice in 5 minutes can be very harsh on your credibility and reputation.
• Helps you get maximum ROI.
• Minimized wastage of resources.
• Increase Your Marketing Campaign ROI – Data appending services allow email  marketing campaigns to extract maximum value and revenue.

Data cleansing services not only helps you grow business effectively, it also helps to boost the morale of your sales team. After all, every answered call and every opened e-mail has chances of bringing in more conversions

A bad database not only damages your reputation and throws you in spam, but it is also a lost opportunity and loss of credibility.

Now, that we understand the dangers of being dirty, let’s list a few benefits of data appending too.

• It helps create a single window to understand your prospects completely: You are most likely to have all the required information about your prospects but it is all scattered. Across people, databases and systems. It gets lost and doesn’t translate into a valuable database information which possesses the capacity of turning quality leads. Data appending helps you bring all the information together.
• Having a single window insight will help you use the actionable information to draw quality initiatives/strategies and ensure best customer experience
• This, in turn would help you improve efficiencies, streamline efforts and maximize revenue opportunities.

What is the process for Data cleansing and appending?

Build a plan: You need to figure out the priority data and segments needed for developing effective marketing techniques.

Analyze the gaps and figure out the missing information and redundant data in the present database

Identify resources who can help you clean the database manually. The higher quality of database you seek, the higher amount of time and intervention these resources will need to give. Track the process and mechanisms used.

Build processes and written guidelines around it.

Automate the process making it a must do

Append missing data – You can approach it via 3rd party append sites or contacting the prospects directly or extensive stalking (yes, you read it right!) on platforms like Google, LinkedIn etc.

Monitor – You need to closely watch the results. For example, if a prospect hasn’t opened any of your e-mail for last 3 months you can decide to dig deeper on what’s going wrong. Is he still the decision maker, for example?

Change your processes as and when required and conduct regular reviews/analysis to make sure your database is clean.

What Only B2B offers and why you should hire us for data cleansing services?

1. Data Cleansing and Appending Services

We can help you clean your database and append it with useful information including first name, last name, job title, job function, phone number, direct number, email address, address, city, zip code, country, website and much more.

We have a two-step authentication process:

• Step 1: Our Data team researches and gather the required information which is then passed through advanced software. These software have the capability of checking validity for e-mails.
• Step 2: Out telemarketers call these 100% verified leads to ensure that the other information gathered holds true.

Did you know that 63% of businesses append third-party demographic or behavioral intelligence.

Because a significant percentage of email addresses inevitably become bad over time (from 20% to 30% on average)

72% of organizations believe that data quality issues impact customer trust and perception (Source: 2017 data management benchmark report)

85% of organizations have seen improvements in timely and personalized customer communications by improving data quality (Source: 2017 data management benchmark report)

Let’s save your money and clean your database.

Must Read: What Is Database Cleansing and Why Is It Important?

Vikas Bhatt

Vikas Bhatt is the Co-Founder of ONLY B2B, a premium B2B lead generation company that specializes in helping businesses achieve their growth objectives through targeted marketing & sales campaigns. With 10+ years of experience in the industry, Vikas has a deep understanding of the challenges faced by businesses today and has developed a unique approach to lead generation that has helped clients across a range of industries around the globe. As a thought leader in the B2B marketing community, ONLY B2B specializes in demand generation, content syndication, database services and more.