Marketers lose crucial opportunities as they rely on inaccurate data which is made available to them as a result of insufficient follow up or misleading information. Marketing organizations need to be empowered by acquiring key data at all levels of customer reach i.e. demographic, social and company base. Marketers need to ensure to have an update on incomplete information such as email id, business contacts etc. which might otherwise lead to losing a crucial lead. Thus a strategic approach to data management can solve these problems and empower marketers to optimize key phases of the revenue process, including:
Lead Generation: To engage prospects, marketers need accurate contact data with relevant information about their solutions and services. It’s also critical to target the right prospects within an organization, and quality data allows marketers to ensure that their messaging resonates with the right target personas.
Quality data helps marketers understand their prospects’ business objectives, which can then be used to craft messaging that interest and motivate prospects.
Nurturing: The success in creating buyer personas and defining need-based objectives depends on the depth of the information available. A better understanding of the behavioral and consumption patterns of the target buyers can also be gained. All of this knowledge can be utilized to refine and optimize the ongoing nurturing processes for repetitive success.
Measurement: In revenue generation, marketers are called upon to play an increasingly significant role; thus it requires the ability to measure and attribute their revenue contributions. Data provides vital measurement points, in order to align campaign and brand messaging with target personas and to ensure that the resulting leads are generating the amount of revenue an organization expects to gain.
Scoring: Marketers enlist scoring mechanisms to recognize and understand their most “ready-to-buy” prospects. This helps them prioritize appropriate follow-up engagements. Quality data provides the foundation for a successful lead scoring process and for refining that process over time.
Ranking: Marketers are assigned leads followed by ranks. The marketers can follow up the leads based on the lead ranking priority. Some of the popular sources of demand generation are:
| Online Advertising | Trade Show | Virtual Trade Show |
| Webinar | Website | Survey/Polls |
| Blog | Direct Email | Referral Source |
Marketing approach from the top of the funnel requires a clean set of data that matches the target criteria. But marketers face the challenge of gathering data from multiple sources, including in-house databases, tradeshow interactions and other sources that can compromise the cleanliness of an organization’s data. The data collected from a clean database deplete quickly, leaving little room for visibility in a new program with clean records.
An organization needs to implement comprehensive data management and quality strategy to eliminate such problems and also set the stage for maximizing the value of its marketing automation investment. Marketing automation excels with respect to integration of core digital channels such as website, email, social media, blogs, search engine optimization etc.
Organizations that combine technology with strong surrounding processes and an investment in data expect higher volume of inquiries and better conversion rates, and around 23% of deal closures. However, organizations that do not invest on data lose out in gaining the desired results.
