Out with the old and in with the new — old data, that is. Since 30% of data becomes outdated each year, performing a database cleanup at the beginning of the New Year is a smart move. Bad data can seriously reduce your marketing campaign efforts through an array of negative consequences. Companies that don’t routinely update their data face financial consequences: money spent on fruitless campaigns on average results in a 12% loss of a company’s annual revenue, and aggregate totals equal to an estimated $3 trillion loss for U.S. companies, according to a 2016 IBM survey.If you don’t prioritize data cleanup, you could end up paying the consequences in both money and time: marketers lose about 550 hours a year because of bad data. Businesses waste hours of time creating marketing campaigns that fail to yield successful results. Sales teams then try to work off of those bad leads, resulting in more wasted time.

An outdated database can also affect companies’ sender reputations— last year, 21% of companies suffered reputation damages resulting from bounced emails. Companies who use send lists with excessive invalid email addresses risk low sender scores from ISPs. Low sender scores increase the likelihood that your messages will get marked as spam. You can avoid the consequences of bad data by performing a list health check this month and get 2022 started off on the right foot. Below are four database cleanup recommendations to help you get started:

1. Review Bounced Emails

Bounced email lists provide a good opportunity for a list refresh. Compiling a list of bounced emails is simple since Campaign Monitor automatically identifies and removes invalid email addresses from your send lists for you. However, instead of merely dismissing your bounced email list, use it to your advantage and uncover new opportunities.

Share your list of invalid email addresses with your sales team. This provides two valuable benefits: reps will have a way to get their foot in the door with companies since they’ll have a reason to reach out and either ask for a decision maker’s new contact information or to introduce themselves to a new individual, and they can then update your database with any information they’ve obtained.

2. Segment Your Contacts

Easily refresh your contact lists through list segmentation. Any contacts in your email list with 12+ months of inactivity should be segmented into a separate list from engaged contacts. By creating an unengaged segment, you can then re-engage and remove contacts accordingly. As a result, you’ll end up with high-quality lead lists with clients who want to hear from you.

3. Append Email Database

Email appending is a useful way to find and fill in any missing important pieces of information from your prospects’ accounts. Appending is a method where missing customer data found in other sources (such as email) is added into those matched accounts in your database.

The key to email appending is to look for any automatic “out-of-office” responses you receive after sending out emails to your lists. Many businesses often overlook the valuable information found in the automatic out-of-office reply. You can usually find missing data in those emails such as extra key contacts or different phone numbers. Ensure to validate the new data with a quick introductory message or phone call before adding into your database.

4. Add New Contacts to Your Email List

Make sure to bulk up your list after removing unengaged contacts and unsubscribers. Replace those deleted contacts with new ones through your company website. A simple way to do this is by offering a gated piece of compelling lead generation content (such an ebook) on your website; leads who want access must enter their email addresses on a form in exchange for permission to download the content. 

Forms for surveys, demos, and consults on your site are also easy ways to collect new subscribers. Ensure to include subscription terms and conditions on your form so that customers know that they will receive marketing communications from you in the future. 

Short on Time?

If you feel that a database cleanup would take too much time or if you have large amounts of data, you could also outsource the task to a database cleanup company. These companies take your data and automatically clean it, handing the data back in much better shape than before. Hiring a database cleanup company can save you a significant amount of time, allowing you to focus on other areas of your business in preparation for the new year.

Get a Head Start this New Year

Make sure to set yourself up for success by also adding a subscribe button or form on your website. This database best practice will help your email list stay healthy on an ongoing basis. Clean data can be a crucial determining factor of a company’s ROI and bottom line. Start the New Year off on a positive note with a database cleanup; your entire company will get motivated for 2022 with the exciting opportunities that a simple updated database can bring.

To learn more about how Extu can help boost your marketing campaigns, reach out to our team via our IT partners or brokers program page.