But, it is observed that email marketing databases naturally degrade by approximately 22.5% annually. A recent study by Salesforce revealed that the average customer contact database contains 90% incomplete information. This often happens when professionals change jobs, contact information, and leave their inboxes unattended.
The data gaps thus formed need to be filled with utmost precision and care, as the missing information can make the existing database less representative, which can highly impact the decision-making capabilities. This is where the importance of data appending lies, which can refresh the contact base and help businesses access fresh and accurate information.
This blog provides comprehensive information on data appending, helping you find the right partner that offers such a service.
Let’s understand from the basics first and read along to discover more!
What is Data Append, and Why Does it Matter?
Based on your requirements, data append is available in different types, like contact append, demographic append, firmographic append, reverse append, and more. Whether you are planning to launch an email marketing campaign, conduct cold calls, or engage in SMS campaigning, enriching the data becomes integral.
The importance of data append lies in improving the effectiveness of marketing for every business. By enriching the results to create a more robust database, businesses can foster long-lasting relationships with customers and access personalized outreach, ultimately improving their ROI.
That’s not just it. Get to know the advantages of data appending.
Benefits of Data Append
As data append updates the existing database with relevant and accurate information, hassle-free marketing can be accomplished easily. This process can bring numerous added benefits to the business, thereby increasing its operational efficiency.
Some of which include:
- Accurate Targeting: Data append can enhance the chances of undertaking targeted marketing campaigns to highly qualified leads.
- Multi-Channel Marketing: As the database will be enriched with contact information from different media of communication, it will give a wide outreach.
- High Engagement Rates:The verified data used can deliver higher engagement with more open rates and fewer bounces..
- Cost-Effective: The data appending practices are less expensive compared to buying a new database
- Improved Data Quality:Appending enhances the quality of the data used with less chance of returning mails
Now, let us understand the best practices for data appending that would be the right fit for your business.
Data Append Best Practices
The data appending process involves a lot of detail and precision, as fetching missing data from an external database or source to be integrated into another list is not a straightforward task. Problems with mismatched data types, uneven formatting, and errors in matching logic can lead to inconsistencies, necessitating the implementation of appropriate measures. As the process involves various stages of trial and error, carefully executing each stage is necessary. Some of which include:
Before the Append Process
- •Define Your Objectives: Before starting the process, it is essential to identify which specific data points you need to add to your existing database, whether it is email, phone number, mailing address, or any other data element. This becomes integral as appending unnecessary data can clutter your list and further complicate the process.
-
Clean Your In-House Data: Structuring your database properly can help the service provider initiate the data appending process effortlessly. Formatting it by eliminating duplicate data points can largely determine the output result of the process. It is also advisable to maintain a backup database to recover the original data in the event of an error.
Understand the importance of data cleansing and data enrichment
- Choose Your Data Service Provider Wisely: As the data append involves the interchange of sensitive information, it is important to choose a service provider that can be trusted. Identify one with good experience, proven for using accurate data that adheres to various privacy regulations. Understand how they verify and vet the information, and also inquire about the sources for curating.
InfoCleanse is a trusted service provider with over a decade of experience in data appending services. It uses accurate and authentic sources to collate the information, which undergoes multi-tier verification processes. The data is verified using in-house AI tools and manual methods, ensuring that the records comply with international data standards.
Avail the best data appending services in the industry.
During the Append Process
- Ensure Data Provenance and Consent: When the service provider undertakes the appending process, it is important to identify whether they adhere to the contractual obligations to understand how they use and protect the data provided. To ensure transparency, review their consent management platform (CMP), where you have the privilege to manage and withdraw their consent at any time. Additionally, ensure they follow ethical data collection methods when appending.
- Request Confidence Scores:While establishing the agreement, you can specify to access the confidence scores for the appended data. It gives the opportunity to predict the outcome and the probability of accuracy. You can use an API for direct integration, and using the result, they can analyze the process and communicate any requirements.
- Implement a Data Governance Strategy:Constantly analyzing and governing the data appending process using a robust strategy can help you have an overall overview. Executing quality checks during ingestion can eradicate minor inconsistencies. Proper security measures must be implemented to protect the appended data from unauthorized access or breaches.
After the Append Process
- Verify the Data: After receiving the appended data, you need to undertake automated and manual validation. It is essential to understand data efficiency by scanning and analyzing newly acquired data. Running automated checks helps to ensure that it aligns well with the desired formats and the business guidelines.
- Layer with Initial Data:It is important to layer the appended data with the initial one, as it gives a holistic understanding of the new information. Layering merges all the new data and improves data accuracy by helping to fill in the missing information. This also helps to identify false results and update outdated details.
- • Implement Regular Updates:Based on the volume of data, regular updates and inspections need to be run to maintain the validity of the appended database. Different tools can be leveraged for this purpose with proper strategies and policies in place. Tracking data quality metrics helps to improve and maintain the freshness of the database.
Final Thoughts
Maintaining an updated database is no easy task. With the constant changing of contact information by the intended audience or prospects, staying up-to-date can be a bit challenging. Regular and consistent vetting is thus necessary, and the assistance of an experienced data service provider with extensive knowledge in the field becomes inevitable.
InfoCleanse is a perfect example of such a partner, as its state-of-the-art services are top-notch in the industry. While quality data can help you make informed decisions for business success, InfoCleanse helps you achieve this by providing the best data management services ever.
So, there it is! Smarter decisions are awaiting you if you make the right move now!
