One of the top challenges B2B marketers face in the US right now is their data. Whether it’s outdated, inaccurate, disengaged or simply not enough of it. The obvious solution is to gather more data that is accurate and relevant to engage with. However, data doesn’t stop at accuracy. How you manage and engage with your data is critical when running successful marketing campaigns. Here are the key issues and solutions to solve your B2B data challenges:
1. Nurturing & Follow up
Having strong creative, with an enabled sales team and accurate, opt-in data is only as good as the nurturing process you implement. Implementing the right nurturing process is the difference between quality, engaged lead data and a higher level of unsubscribes and opt-outs.
Don’t:
Do:
2. Inaccurate data
Typically this challenge starts to become clear when SDRs begin their outreach activities. If the data is recently purchased or generated, ask which channel and vendor it came from. Ensure there are unique codes or identifiers so that you can accurately track the time and source of the data. Most reputable vendors will not provide you with out-of-date data and should replace free of charge. If you find it happens regularly then it’s time to change vendors. Implementing an enrichment strategy can also have a positive effect on your data - Establish how many people/departments are accessing and updating data on a regular basis and develop a strategy for 1-2 times a year to sanity-check a sample. If there’s an increase of 10% or more each time, it’s time to expand the sample, analyse the source of the data and look to a third party who can help enrich and update your outdated data. Always use a reliable vendor with access to a large and accurate database that also gathers the relevant opt-in permissions.
3. Compliance/Opt-ins
Data compliance and opt-ins can be a minefield. Especially if you are operating in global markets. GDPR, CCPA, LGPD and POPIA are just some global and local legislations that Marketers are faced with and have to consider when performing outreach or utilising a global data and demand gen provider. Data without permissions can render it useless. Ensuring that any outreach consists of appropriate and compliant opt-ins is vital to ensure your marketing spend is generating data and leads that you and sales can actually use.
Have you critically assessed your available data? Data is not valuable if there is no engagement or signals that indicate an interest. By this, we mean there needs to be ongoing nurturing and engagement reporting on each account. Maybe you have an internal scoring mechanism within your Marketo or Salesforce instance. Understand where each account is. How often they are engaging with your messaging (or competitors)? Are they visiting your website? Engaging with social posts or opening emails and attending webinars. Look beyond the MQL or SQL and determine where else and how your target accounts are engaging. Understanding when and how they engage will build a deeper understanding and opportunities to personalise outreach to resonate and engage more effectively.
Takeaways:
If you have another question or challenge around your data - whether it’s how to gather more or how best to engage it, contact the experts at B2B Media Group. We'll show you how our data, marketing services and engagement platform will help you drive better marketing outcomes, from data through to pipeline opportunities.