With that said, poor data quality is not just a monetary problem, it can also damage a company’s reputation. Assumptions about the state of your data can lead to the continuation of experiencing inefficiencies, high costs versus ROI, compliance risks, and customer satisfaction issues as a result.
Each of these poses a threat to the success of your organization, your Return on Investment, and your Reputation both as a Brand, but also in terms of your Deliverability (Domain Reputation, Sender Reputation, and also affects the Sending IP Reputation).
As we're all aware, data quality and list hygiene are the apex contributors to the success of any digital marketing campaign. It is paramount to keep your Dynamics environment clean and efficient. Below, we'll share a few ideas that may help you along this path.
Here are some points to help get your team started on revising your data quality, and process innovations on potential automations that may help bring the costs down to your organization.
- Identify Duplicates & Eliminate and/or Merge records into one.
- Set Up Dynamics Alerts/Campaigns (EG: set up a process to identify duplicates continuously)
- Remove Inactive Contacts (based on company engagement criteria; sunset users after last-chance campaigns, etc.)
- Check for uniformity (data values to be uniform where possible)
- Eliminate Junk contacts (Remove unengaged leads/contacts over 9-12 months - the BEST senders reduce this to as far as 3-6 months)
- Fix Data Formatting & Errors (Keep your data up to date, and importantly valid, remove any invalid syntax, remove hard bounced addresses)
- Utilize Email Validation Product Offerings - This can currently be accomplished via Third Party Product offerings.
- Utilize Email Validation on Forms where possible, always ensure you have a Captcha on your forms to avoid bot submissions.
- Utilize Double Opt-In (And remember - PERMISSION, PERMISSION, PERMISSION!!)
Additional Note regarding Re-Engagement Attempts: Try not to attempt to reengage unengaged contacts/leads. (But if you do, and they stay unengaged, never try it more than once, remove them from your lists)
Benefits of Good-quality Data:
Decision-making: The better the data quality, the more confidence users will have in the outputs they produce, lowering risk in the outcomes and increasing efficiency. The old “out with the old, in with the new” adage is true, as is its inverse.
Productivity: Good-quality data allows staff to be more productive. Instead of spending time validating and fixing data errors, they can focus on their core mission.
Compliance: In the Email industry where regulating bodies govern relationships with certain customers, maintaining good-quality data can be the difference between compliance and millions in fines. Compliance must be an ongoing focus as new regulations continue to evolve in regions around the world and wherever a company conducts its business.
Marketing: Better data enables more accurate targeting and communications, especially in the omnichannel environments many organizations are striving toward. Right Time – Geolocation Scheduled Sends, Right Place – Inbox/Promotional Inbox, Right Audience (Correctly targeted lists) = Success.
Costs of poor-quality data:
Reputational damage: This can range from small numbers of complaints that cause reputational damage to large brand Public Relations issues such as GDPR-based fines that could lose your customer's confidence in your brand.
Missed opportunities: Your company may miss a great opportunity or offer due to your Domains mailings not reaching the inbox and could lead that customer to a competitor with a more mature understanding of data, who will capitalize upon it if given half a sniff.
Lost revenue: Poor data can lead to lost revenue in many ways—communications that fail to convert to sales because the underlying customer data is incorrect. Example: Incorrectly collected data, failing email address syntax, addresses not validated, purchased lists causing a spike in complaints and your reputation falling with your end recipients' Email Clients, and much, much more.
Next: Deliverability Best Practices - Authentication:
- Ensure you have each of your Sending Domains set up correctly for Authentication Purposes:
SPF Authentication - DKIM Authentication: - Can be set up using the self-service Email Sending Domains feature
- Using DMARC with Click - Please review this article prior to implementing your global DMARC policies.