These 4 Critical Mistakes Are Ruining the Accuracy of Your Marketing Data

Modern businesses have realized the need to take a data-driven approach to marketing in order to better understand customers, refine their strategies and drive business growth. Data-driven companies generally experience greater profitability, increased revenue and optimized business processes. However, inaccuracy is a common issue that makes it challenging for marketers to get the most out of their valuable data.

A recent Insights for Professionals report based on a survey of 209 marketing professionals across a range of industries from the United States and the United Kingdom, highlighted that data accuracy is a significant problem for organizations. Around 73% of respondents said they were concerned about the accuracy of the data being used in their company, and only 4% were confident in their data’s correctness.

As data environments continue to evolve and increase in complexity, organizations must take steps to improve data accuracy as soon as possible to avoid falling behind.

The importance of data accuracy

With accurate reporting being the second most reported challenge, it’s important for organizations to consider how marketing ops can facilitate better use and application of data, and how actionable data can be shared effectively. When data is accurate, relevant and useful, businesses will realize the following benefits:

Better decision-making

Good quality data is a crucial component for sound business decision-making. With the right information, senior leaders can steer their teams in the right direction, meet customer demands and lower risk in outcomes.

Increased productivity

Bad data is a productivity killer. In fact, sales and marketing teams lose over 500 hours across the year due to bad data – and this equates to roughly $32,000 per sales rep. Collaboration between sales and marketing is more important than ever, and quality data sits at the heart of any successful partnership. If you get your data in order and share it with the right people, you can maximize productivity and output instead of wasting time finding and fixing data errors.

Reduced costs

Not only does improving data accuracy prevent wasted hours over fixing discrepancies, but doing so will help you make significant savings. Aside from eating into your time and making your teams less productive, data errors can negatively impact your brand in a much bigger way, as bad quality data damages your credibility and can remove the trust between you and your customers.

Higher ROI

It’s simple – good data leads to better marketing. Data accuracy is the key to delivering effective campaigns that hit the mark with your audience. With the right information, you can reduce time and cost, while also achieving better results, boosting ROI and nurturing the bottom line.

Critical data accuracy mistakes to avoid

Below are some common pitfalls to avoid in order to improve data accuracy within your organization.

1. Incomplete data

When identifying what affects data accuracy, 42% of marketers reported that incomplete or outdated data sets are the biggest issues they face. Not having enough data can lead to inaccuracies as analyses may be conducted based on assumptions or extrapolations.

Records that lack key fields will lead to incomplete data that doesn’t reflect your customers correctly and can prevent you from targeting marketing and sales initiatives effectively. Ensure your reports are comprehensive, regularly updated and have a consistent tracking approach throughout. This will help you ensure outdated information isn’t piling up and avoid disjointed data that doesn’t accurately reflect your customers.