Junk In, Junk Out

One of my jobs at Tooling U is to clean up the database. We are currently using Salesforce to organize all of our leads and contacts. CRM software plays an important role in our Client Executives’ everyday tasks, and as part of the marketing department it has been useful for planning our overall marketing strategy and campaigns.

There are many reasons why it is important to keep your CRM clean and up to date. As data is entered, it is not always double checked against existing records. Therefore, duplicate accounts need to be merged or deleted. Records also need to be updated frequently, as addresses may change and people frequently change jobs.

The data housed within the CRM helps sales and marketing to analyze data and prospect more effectively. There is no real way to measure marketing effectiveness, but if the lead source is correct for each record, we can determine where our customers are finding out about Tooling U. This helps us determine if we are advertising in the right magazines and websites and can also improve our SEO (search engine optimization) on sites like Google and Yahoo.

This year, we did a lot of research to determine the characteristics of our typical customer in order to prospect more effectively. This process involved quite a bit of database cleaning. Continuously updating and taking the time to put in the correct information can make running a report to find this information simple, instead of requiring months of filtering information.

For marketing purposes, another reason to keep your database clean is to make your direct mailing and campaigns much easier. It is time consuming to ensure every contact’s name and information is correct. When putting together direct mail campaigns, I have noticed names on labels that look like this:

Vincent Shay – Gone
Or like this:
Sean (scene) O’Malley

These are great examples of how records can be up to date and yet still clutter up a database. Vincent’s last name is not Shay-Gone. Vincent Shay happens to have left his company, hence, “gone.” And as for Sean, it is important that our staff does not mispronounce his name, but receiving a piece of mail with “Scene” is also a little offensive. It is important that all employees are writing this type of information in the notes or archiving old employees. The most important lesson? Since you can never guarantee correct names, always double check your address labels before you mail them.

For a database to stay continuously updated, it has to be an overall company goal. Training, making crucial fields required, incentives, and communicating the importance of why your database needs to stay updated can be helpful in accomplishing this goal.

Krista Maurer

Marketing