by Jessica Lively, KHQ Account Executive

Want to go out on a data tonight?  (sorry)

It seems to happen a couple of times each month that I receive a piece of mail either addressed to an old roommate (11 years ago old) or to the people who used to live in my house (7 years ago).  And it never ceases to amaze me that some company’s information could be that outdated.  Do they spend any time on that address list before wasting all that money on direct mail? Is the company’s product or service equally as antiquated? 

Take the time to make data cleaning a routine.  What does that mean?

1.    Data cleaning shouldn’t be a once-a-year task. If you’ve been neglecting your database, your entire marketing strategy could be affected. In fact, 72 percent of companies feel that data quality issues impact consumer trust and perception. 
2.    Successful marketing relies on data-driven decision making. If your data is inaccurate, your decisions won’t be much better. It has been said that less than half of organizations globally (44%) trust their data to make important business decisions. Talk about opportunity lost! 
3.    Ensure your marketing strategy is as targeted and on-point as possible. Both clean data and a clear marketing plan go hand in hand.

Solution:
•    Set a calendar appointment with yourself or someone you trust to go through your customer list every week and work through it.
•    Make sure your listings online are accurate and exactly the same across different search engines
•    Check email addresses, accurate logos, accurate pricing, shows and statistics. 
•    If you are missing important categories, add them in
•    If there are categories that are no longer relevant to your operation, get rid of that waste.