6 common business data problems and how to avoid them

24 October 2019

The impact on any business of poor quality company data comes in many guises. How data is collected, stored, updated or used can all contribute as a point of failure within your business.

Now that GDPR is in place! You should ensure that you take responsibility for your data and how it is sourced & secured, because using poor quality data can cause significant problems for your business.

#1 The big one….GDPR!!

It may put fear in the hearts of marketeers, but it shouldn’t just be laid at their door. Ideally your business should assign a “privacy champion” who organises co-operation between all departments – HR, Operations & IT, because they all need to be involved in ensuring GDPR compliance.

GDPR in simple terms is about data protection & security – understanding the data you have, why you have it and creating a structure to manage your data responsibly. There is a myriad of information out there about GDPR and the new regulations that took place in May 2018. It is therefore important to make sure you are GDPR compliant and understand how it might affect your business and put plans in place immediately to ensure your compliance.

#2 Inaccurate targeting & segmentation

Failure to focus your sales and marketing efforts by targeting the wrong customer segments is both inefficient and generates a poor ROI. According to the DMA, segmented & targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue. This statistic speaks volumes and demonstrates the importance of identifying the right companies, data profiles, location and business size as well as their activity or interest to ensure successful customer engagement.

When sourcing new B2B sales & marketing data, be it for the UK or overseas, it is important that you use not only a credible & compliant data provider, but one that enables you to target & segment your prospect lists to ensure the best results.

#3 Poor response monitoring & measurement

With 53% of marketers saying that half or more of their marketing budget (BrightTalk, 2015) is assigned to lead generation, your ability to track lead successes and failures efficiently is vital in measuring how well your campaigns have performed.

One handy way to track your online marketing campaigns is by using UTM parameters in Google Analytics. It is important to remember if you can’t monitor the effectiveness of your long term sales and marketing strategy, it is likely to be less productive and future sales could be affected.

#4 Incorrect email & mailing data

Not only does this reflect badly on your company, your marketing budget will take a hit – it can prove to be a costly experience, spending more money than you need to by sending direct mail to duplicates or businesses that no longer exist.

42% of B2B marketing professionals state that a lack of quality data is their biggest barrier to lead generation (BrightTalk, 2015), so whether your marketing campaigns are direct mail, print or email it is important to ensure you have good quality of data in the right numbers.

#5 Causing conflict & demotivation in your sales team

Whilst nearly half of companies using some sort of CRM to store lead data, according to Hubspot around 40% of salespeople still use tools like Microsoft Excel or Outlook to store their lead & customer data.

Aside from the issues of managing data in different places, the problem is that inaccurate and poor legacy data is difficult for any sales team to work with effectively.  Causing issues with follow up calls and limiting the co-ordination of customer touch points.

Wasting valuable time and resource by following up poor data leads is a common problem that is both ineffective and discouraging, resulting in a frustrated and negative sales team. For the customer too it appears that the company approach is chaotic.

#6 Risks to your reputation

Not referencing the right information be they a contact, company or their products or services could potentially damage your company status. Aligning your brand with inaccurate data is risky and can reflect poorly on your business reputation and can be a contributing factor that affects customer retention.

Potentially it can also impair future B2B growth opportunities when looking to win new business.

Here are some key ways to help keep your database clean & up to date:

·  Keep it centralized – try to avoid holding multiple data sources – that way there is only one place to search and update. Of course that is easier said than done, but tools such as Zapier can be used to link & share data between web based apps.

·  Keep it segmented – implement segmented target groups – based on buyer personas and campaigns sent, as well as their relationship with you (prospect, existing or lapsed customer)

·  Keep it updated – add new data immediately as well as updated campaign results

·  Keep it clean – keep an eye on email results & make sure you manage opt-outs & bounces responsibly

As business data specialists Kompass have been in the B2B data industry for over 60 years – it’s what we do best. Our goal is to help businesses understand customer data and how it can be used effectively. With business data available from 70 countries, focused searches can be created on specific sectors, using our uniquely detailed 55k product & service classification system.

We are a global data provider with locally sourced data through dedicated data integrity teams in each country, which ensures you will have access to very best quality data which in turn can help give you better long term sales results for your business.

Contact Us: #seetrybuy for a FREE 14 day trial to Kompass EasyBusiness – our market-leading global B2B directory online.

Disclaimer: Please note that this blog only contains general information and insights about legal matters. The information is not advice, and should not be treated as such. Kompass.com