With Christmas just over 60 days away, businesses are putting their meticulously crafted marketing plans into action. A significant proportion of marketing budgets will be spent in the run-up to the festive season – and rightly so.
And don’t forget about the time and effort that goes into it from the marketers. Blood, sweat, and tears will have no doubt been spilled as they push and shove through the crowd, trying to make their messages stand out amongst the seasonal noise.
It’s traditionally a busy time in the world of data, but I don’t think it’s as busy as it should be. My team will hunt me down for saying this, but I think we should be busier still! For me, many businesses are still on the naughty list when it comes to giving data the focus it deserves.
Why data should be at the top of your wish list
Though it was published last year, I think the 6% solution report written by Royal Mail & Data IQ still carries weight. While it does show that data is moving up the ladder in terms of being recognised for its importance to a business, it also shows that data quality and the thought process around it is an issue.
To me, it’s obvious – if your data is clean and accurate, it will work much harder for you and drive up that all important ROI. This sounds obvious because it is, and yet we still find data quality too far down many Christmas marketing wish lists.
Using data wisely
In this last month, I have personally received two pieces of marketing that instantly turned me off a brand, for two very different and easily avoidable reasons. The biggest offender is a Direct Mail piece being sent to an address that I haven’t lived at for nearly 18 years and yes, I’ve transacted with them fairly recently! Granted, they’ve had the misfortune of sending it to someone that specialises in this area, but I can’t be alone in thinking it’s poor form. As a result, it has directly influenced my decision making.
Taking steps such as validating names and addresses, deduping, removing poor or offensive data, and identifying inaccurate data such as home moves or deaths can make a massive difference – in fact such steps would have prevented my two recent poor experiences.
The savings that are on the table for businesses that clean their data are certainly not insignificant. There are plenty of studies that show poor data could carry a cost as high as 6% of a company’s annual revenue, while savings of up to £500,000 could be up for grabs through data cleanse alone.
Keeping your data neat and tidy
The difference in the cost of dropping or suppressing inaccurate data vs the cost to print, produce, and post inaccurate data is huge. By cleansing data, we have realised savings well in excess of the £500,000 for our clients time after time, one example seeing us save in excess £1 million per year. This demonstrates just how great data can help make campaigns more effective.
I read something a little while back that has stuck with me: “as important as great data is, on its own it will not produce a great response, but poor data will always result in a poor response.”
I truly believe that data is a fundamental part of all marketing. Edit has specialised in data cleansing for many years – it’s something we’re passionate about and we’re very good at it, if I do say so myself!
We’re more accessible than ever, we have a great team on hand to work with you and guide you through the process should you need us, and we’re also online.
For the more accomplished marketer, Pura, our online self-service data cleanse suite is available. Offering the same great products and options at the click (or two) of a button, visit www.edit.co.uk/pura to find out more.
So why not join the Christmas marketing nice list, add Edit to your Christmas wish list, and let us help you with your data. You’ll be pulling a cracker!
If you do want to get in touch, I promise to drop the puns – maybe!
T: 01225 480 480 M: 07879 661 218 E: [email protected]
