Marketing to a mannequin: The faceless state of B2B marketing data
We’ve covered the importance of B2B marketing data in a previous Fresh Ideas post on key performance indicators, but it’s not enough to just have marketing data: It has to have good quality, too. Unfortunately, many B2B companies have marketing data that is so incomplete and inaccurate that they may as well be marketing to mannequins.
Demand generation company NetProspex released a report grading companies on the quality of their marketing data. The responses were… less than impressive.
Incomplete records
Most B2B companies covered basic lead information: first and last name, email address, and standard company information. However, these same companies ignored information like company size, industry, annual revenue, and more. Marketers could have used this data to segment leads and drive greater sales and marketing efficiency.
Inaccurate entries
When NetProspex examined the databases of the participating companies, it noticed that many of them contained outdated or inaccurate email addresses and phone numbers. This practice has a severe impact on automated marketing and sales campaigns. After all, how can you email an offer to someone with obsolete contact information? Unfortunately, many B2B companies struggle with keeping accurate records. This includes phone records.
Duplicate entries
The one bright note in this database review is that many organizations seem to know the value of clean data. Marketers do a good job eliminating duplicate entries from their database. This is likely because duplicate entries can be cleaned up almost automatically, whereas finding inaccurate entries can require third parties and be a more manual job. But prioritizing data needs can make marketers much more effective at their jobs.
If a B2B marketing team wants to be successful, they have to make sure they’re acting on the right information. Data maintenance and management is not as sexy or high-profile as developing creative tactics, but it’s no less important.
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