Does your Data Drive Results
It’s an ancient saying – “a marketing department is only as good as the data in its CRM.”
Okay, it might not be THAT old, or that profound, but it’s absolutely on-point, especially as we approach the end of the year. Marketing departments are busy evaluating previous campaigns and finalizing plans to deliver on next year’s goals, neither of which they can do without well-managed and clean data!
Let’s look at some of the things you can do to create a successful data management strategy, and most importantly, how building one can offer you a competitive advantage when it comes to planning and running your campaigns for the coming year!
Identify a Single Source of Truth
Hint: It’s not a spreadsheet or your sales team’s Outlook inbox.
You can’t manage data effectively if it’s spread across multiple systems, tools and platforms. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t be employing all of these things, but it’s critical that the data that you’re using comes from, and returns to, your single source – a CRM. A powerful CRM tool like Microsoft Dynamics 365 gives you power and control over your data and reduces siloes across your organization.
- Native Integrations: Connecting your CRM with tools like your email marketing platform, social media tools, and analytics software is key. Natively integrated tools such as Click allow real-time data transfer, removing the need for clunky APIs, keeping your data clean and providing real-time views, information, and results.
What Comes Out is What Goes In
It may sound backwards, but in the case of data within your CRM, it’s perfectly true. Consider where the data comes from. Which tools and platforms are integrated, do you have APIs for systems that aren’t reliable, and are there manual entry points that can be easily corrupted by users entering incorrect data? All of these things can contribute to poor data management!
- Third Party Tools: Try to avoid purchasing cheap data lists or allowing other parts of your organization to upload their own bulk data. If possible, utilize trusted and reliable third-party data tools such as Zoom Info and/or Dunn and Bradstreet.
Keep it Clean and Tidy
Keeping good data hygiene is as important as washing your hands for 20 seconds! You could spend hundreds of thousands buying the most expensive CRM on the planet – it will be utterly useless if the data it holds is dirty, corrupt, and outdated. Simple tasks such as standardized entry formats, scheduled cleaning, and automated entry validation will ensure that your data is as accurate and usable as possible.
- Regular Cleaning: Schedule routine manual and automated checks to remove duplicate records, correct errors, and update customer details.
- Standardize Field Formats: Use simple and consistent formats for fields like phone numbers, addresses, and job titles. Overcomplicated information is usually entered incorrectly!
- Validate at Entry: By validating inputs during collection and entry, such as ensuring accurate email addresses and telephone number formats, you can cut off bad data before it gets into your CRM!
Be Compliant at All Times
Remember that if you obtain, use and store data, it’s your responsibility to ensure that you comply with the plethora of data privacy laws, rules and regulations that are being developed across the world. Your data management and CRM strategy must adhere to legal standards like GDPR, CCPA, and others relevant to the regions that you operate in and market to!
- Consent: Ensure opt-ins and opt-outs for outbound marketing are properly collected, tracked, and respected.
- Secure Data Storage: Use the highest level of encryption, define access controls, and have regular audits to protect customer information.
- Be Transparent: Clearly communicate how your customer’s data is collected, used, and stored.
Train your Team on Data Entry
How boring! Everyone thinks they know how to use every CRM correctly, but to make sure that your data is entered correctly, used properly, and stored legally, it’s critical that you train every member of your organization that touches your CRM – from marketing to sales to IT.
- Don’t Overcomplicate Your Tools: Choose a CRM that’s intuitive to learn (if you use Microsoft, then Dynamics 365 is a good place to start) and is easy to use.
- Comprehensive Training: Offer regular, personalized sessions to help team members master the platform and drive adoption.
- Encourage Feedback: A good CRM should be a tool that is used across your organization. Listen to the feedback that you get and adjust your training accordingly!
Segment, Segment, Segment
Mass marketing without personalization is expensive, inefficient, and ineffective! Today’s consumers expect tailored experiences. If your data is clean enough, and you have a CRM system and marketing tools (like Click 😉) that let you segment your audience, you can create personalized marketing campaigns to drive better results. For example:
- Behavioral Segmentation: Group customers based on purchase history, browsing behavior, or engagement with past campaigns.
- Demographic Segmentation: Target based on age, location, income, or industry.
- Custom Campaigns: Use segmentation to deliver hyper-relevant emails, ads, and offers, increasing conversions and customer satisfaction.
Make Better Marketing Decisions
A CRM isn’t just a place to store data – it’s a goldmine of valuable insights. Using real-time data and analytics to educate and inform your campaigns will make them far more effective. However, in order to do that, you need to ensure that your marketing tools and your CRM are integrated at the highest level (remember, natively is best) and have the ability to drill down to the information that you really need, when you need it.
- Use Performance Metrics: Monitor email open rates, conversion rates, and real-time ROI to refine your campaigns as they’re running! Did you know the average email open rate is 21%.
- Customer Behavior: Use your analytics to identify patterns in customer preferences and behaviors to inform plans and campaigns.
- Predictive Analytics: Leverage CRM and marketing tools with AI capabilities to anticipate customer needs and trends.
Streamline your Marketing Automation
If you’re confident that your data is clean, a powerful marketing automation tool like Click offers features and benefits that will take your campaigns to the next level. By automating repetitive tasks, building customer journeys, and delivering personalized content, your marketing team can focus on strategy, creativity, and results. Used correctly, automation ensures timely and consistent customer interactions, both of which are key components of every marketing campaign!
- Email Automation: Set up workflows for onboarding sequences, follow-ups, or event reminders.
- Lead Scoring: Automatically rank leads based on their likelihood to convert, so your team can prioritize efforts.
- Triggered Campaigns: Launch campaigns based on specific actions, like sending a discount code when a customer abandons their cart.
Conclusion
Get your data management strategy and processes right and your marketing campaigns will deliver exponentially better results! Having clean and usable data provides so many benefits, from access to more powerful integrated marketing tools and a more engaged and responsive sales team, to the ability to analyze results and provide actionable insights in real-time. Good data management isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a critical part of your business!
