As the year winds down, businesses naturally start thinking about what comes next.

New budgets are being planned. Marketing campaigns are being mapped out. Sales goals are being established.
But before you start building next year’s campaigns, there is another important question to ask:
Is your customer and prospect data ready for another year?

Over time, databases naturally become outdated. People change jobs, businesses move, email addresses stop working and duplicate records accumulate. If your company has been using the same database for several years without a thorough review, Q4 can be a good time to clean things up.

Here are five signs your database may need attention.

1. You Have Duplicate Records

Duplicate records are easy to overlook, especially as information enters your database from multiple sources.

You may have the same company listed more than once or have multiple records for the same customer because of differences in spelling, addresses or contact information.

Duplicates can make your database larger without making it more useful. They can also create confusion when employees are trying to determine which record is current.

A database cleanup can help identify and consolidate duplicate records so your team has a cleaner view of the information it actually needs.

2. Contact Information Is Outdated

Business information changes constantly.

Employees leave companies. Companies relocate. Phone numbers change. Email addresses become inactive. Businesses open, close or change their operations.

That means a database that was accurate when it was created may not remain accurate indefinitely.

Regularly reviewing and updating contact information can help your marketing and sales teams avoid spending time working with outdated records.

3. Important Information Is Missing

Sometimes the problem isn’t incorrect data. It’s incomplete data.

You may know a customer’s company name and address but not have an email address. You may have a business phone number but not know the appropriate contact or job title.

Missing information can make it harder to segment your audience and determine how to approach different groups.

Data enhancement and append services can sometimes help fill in missing information and provide additional details that make an existing customer or prospect file more useful.

4. Your Data Isn’t Consistent

Take a look at how information is entered throughout your database.

Are phone numbers formatted consistently? Are company names entered in different ways? Are ZIP Codes complete? Are state abbreviations standardized?

Small inconsistencies can become bigger problems when you are sorting, filtering or exporting data.

Standardizing your records can make your database easier to manage and make future marketing activities more efficient.

5. Your Lists Are Becoming Difficult to Segment

A clean database should help you answer questions about your customers and prospects.

Can you easily identify customers by location? Industry? Company size? Customer type?

If your team has difficulty creating basic segments, it may be a sign that your database needs more structure or additional information.

Better data can give marketers more flexibility when creating targeted audiences for different campaigns.

How to Get Your Database Ready for the New Year

You don’t necessarily have to start over with a brand-new database.

A better approach may be to evaluate the information you already have and determine what needs to be corrected, removed, updated or enhanced.

A basic data cleanup may include:

1. Removing duplicate records
2. Correcting inaccurate information
3. Standardizing fields
4. Verifying email addresses
5. Updating mailing addresses
6. Adding missing information
7. Suppressing records that should no longer be included

DatabaseUSA offers data cleansing and data enhancement services designed to help businesses clean, validate and improve existing customer and prospect files. Services include email and address hygiene, data append, merge/purge and other data enhancement options.

Make Data Cleanup Part of Your Year-End Routine

Data cleanup may not be the most exciting item on your year-end checklist, but it can be an important part of preparing for next year’s marketing.

Before building new campaigns, take a look at the information those campaigns will rely on.

A cleaner, more complete database gives your team a better foundation for organizing customers, creating targeted audiences and planning future outreach.

If your database hasn’t had a thorough review in a while, September and October can be a good time to start.

Complete the form or call us at 877-831-0101 for more information about our Database Services.