Data dominates the world today, and we all produce a ton of data on a daily basis. For instance, by taking a glance at your LinkedIn profile, people can have an idea about your professional expertise and other interests. What about the other social media platforms? Facebook gives updates on your whereabouts, and Twitter reveals the posts you loved via the re-tweets.
The significance of data in business today
Analyzing data and strategizing a plan of action based on it is essential for every business today. It is imperative for organizations to respond fast to the shifting consumer demands and other environmental and external conditions. It is also crucial for managers to understand big data before arriving at smart decisions. That is where the efficient business intelligence tools can help managers to come up with informed decisions.
Business data in organizations usually gets saved in various, disparate software applications and databases. The business intelligence (BI) tools collate and process this data from different sources. Furthermore, they generate reports based on this data to maximize the know-how of the decision makers. Advanced BI tools help organizations to recognize the scopes of growth, have a clear understanding of customer preferences, and also maximize competitiveness.
Today, the B2B marketers do not have proper access to data concerning decision makers. The majority of business houses and organizations have incorrect, incomplete and outdated data systems. As an entrepreneur or business owner, do you want your business database to bring about growth and expansion? If yes, then here are 7 tactics to go about the same:
1. Start customer data audits
Have a big picture of your consumer data. After that, you can start an audit and concentrate on pertinent questions. For instance, you can focus on what traits your customers share. What information you are missing. Do you have all your contacts updated? Do you have an ideal prospect in mind? There are many other questions like these that you can add to the list.
2. Organize your data
Placing organizations in the marketing section is useful in your reporting and the marketing campaigns. In addition to that, also trace which phase of your sales cycle your customer is presently at. Majority of the CRM systems will own a standard process for tracking sales.
3. Choose what data you want to collate
The objective here is to establish a constant image of your prospects and consumers. Keep all your focus in only collating the data that is practical and relevant so that it can add to the marketing and sales process. Also, use the drop-down menus wherever possible.
In addition to that, ensure that these rules help you to correct errors. Today, there is professional help available for all this. You can partner with companies like remotedba.comif you want expert guidance on the subject.
4. Fill in the necessary gaps
Usually, the expert data companies provide many services. It includes augmenting the business database with missing information. It includes contacts, SIC codes, telephone numbers, employee numbers and email addresses. The services also help by assigning flags for recognizing companies that have subscribed to Telephone Preference Service or Mailing Preference Service.
It is crucial to know that even expert data providers might not possess the information that you might require. Hence, you might have to work to collect all additional data that you need.
5. Increase your database
It is crucial if you want to drive the business towards success. You can expand the business database by supplementing it with the following:
- Information from all the sales interactions and other data collated by sales teams
- Bought-in data
- Useful and relevant social data
- The campaign generated data such as the new subscriptions to your email list
6. Establish a daily maintenance program
It is noteworthy that business data can decay at a pace of 25% every year. Any idea what happens if you do not check your data for as long as 18 months? It has a chance to be 40% outdated. Today, most companies end up ruining their marketing initiatives because of inadequate data maintenance.
Wondering what the solution is? It is opting for a program update! It will enable the data to get updated every six months. It gets done through email or phone. Furthermore, many applications send out daily requests to consumers to confirm their contact information.
7. Blend marketing and sales with each other
Let us consider that you have already decided to go for a CRM system. Having a stable CRM system is critical to enhancing the marketing and sales procedures. If your CRM system is not apt for either marketing or sales, then it is a wise call to have it changed or substituted for an effective one.
Let’s shift from these systems. You can realize that social media propagation indicates that marketing is no more able to control conversations the way it did before. Hence, it is crucial both for marketing and sales groups to work in complete cooperation. They should work with the shared objective of identifying, procuring and keeping customers.
Is your business presently expanding? If yes, then keeping track of the ever-increasing bulk data can be challenging. Having an efficient database system will enable you to monitor all the mission-critical data of your business safely and securely. It will enhance your success rate.
Also, do you need more staff as your business grows? If yes, then having well-maintained data helps. It tells you what is lacking in your team, and what you need to add. It also enables you to simplify all the HR tasks, expedite the data processing and automate all the other routine work. As a result, you can focus on expanding your business entirely without any diversion.
It is data that is running the world. In business, you ultimately have to depend on all your critical data to make the best decisions relating to business expansion and other strategic changes. Hence, having a systematic business database is crucial. If you are wondering how to create it, follow these tactics and sort out your business database.
