Big Data Can Be a Big Deal, If It’s a Big Mess

We create 2.5 quintillion or 2,500,000,000,000,000,000 bytes of data every day!

Data is available everywhere today, making it even more important to know:

• Why you need it, 
• How will it help, 
• Who will it help, 
• What it will cost to capture and analyze, 
• What return you can get out of it.

Big Data is invaluable information about your customers. This data is gathered from various sources such as social channels, ICT networks, videos, digital images, GPS signals, and basically any device or software customers use to interact with each other and brands. Big data is important as it provides an inside view of your target market, their preferences, behavior and opinions. 

There is no limit to the availability of information and harnessing huge volume of data can be a challenge. Creating a customer profile and goal based on every data source is surely not the way to go. The best way to tackle the beast is to set defined goals and objectives first. 

The mantra with Big Data is “If you don’t know what you are looking for, you will never find it.”

Make your business 

More Agile

More Flexible 

More in tune with your customers

With Big Data

Your Data Is Going Stale…Every Minute! Know if Your Data Stinks

As any other corporate asset, data is valuable and equally responsible for providing your business with a competitive edge. 

Data quality is not only about a score on accuracy or number of null entries in the database, or the number of fields and addresses that are incorrect. Data quality refers to the level of fitness it possesses with reference to the end use for which it was created. 

Think about it…

• A new business opens every minute,
• A CEO changes every minute,
• A company name changes every 2 minutes,
• A business closes every 3 minutes.

With business information changing by the minute, updating data is critical in determining the success of your marketing campaigns and strategic decision. The important aspects of data quality include accuracy, completeness, correctness credibility and currency.

Get to know if your data stinks….

Data Quality Checklist from InfoCheckPoint

Wish to see what results quality data can produce

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Wouldn't You Like to Improve Data Quality by 99% in 6 months!

• Boost marketing campaign conversion rates above industry standards to 8.5%
• Integrate 90% of external data through website forms, feedback surveys and registrations with your database.

Check out our marketing case study and get to know how you can improve data management, database segmentation, data quality and hygiene and marketing communications.

Marketing Case Study - Monetize Your Database from InfoCheckPoint

Info CheckPoint provides a centralized and segmented database, which is accessible, granular and integrated. Our advanced search option provides ease of navigation and intuitive search criteria.

Give customers not what they want 

Give them what they need 

Stay in sync to increase Marketing ROI

ASK US HOW

Don’t Know the DNA of Your Data Yet? Use a DQ Scorecard

Industry experts say that, “What is not measured is not managed”, and invariably what is not managed makes it difficult to maintain and improve. Data quality should be considered as a measurable metric with quantifiable scores and well defined data sets. Devoid of assessable tools, it is not possible to ensure data quality and assess the required business impact.

The Data Quality (DQ) Scorecard is a good way of identifying your data DNA. The scorecard helps in keeping check on data quality dimensions such as accuracy, completeness, consistency and compliance. In order to develop an insightful DQ Scorecard the following dimensions need to be considered:

Data Quality Dimensions 

• Available and Complete – To ensure that available data is complete and missing data is added. 
• Accurate and Recent – To establish whether data is updated and correct. 
• Consistent – To ascertain if data is related to other elements in the data set and coherent. 
• Compliance with Standards – to verify whether data complies with industry standards.

Data Quality Metrics “Should Have’s”

• Definition –metrics should have well defined target of business users and data quality rules.
• Relevant –metrics should define how it improves performance and have a business context.
• Measurable - scores should be quantifiable and measurable within a particular range.
• Controllable – metrics should define a controllable aspect of business processes. 
• Traceable – there should be a ‘time series’ to trace and track the results in order to measure improvements and provide insights. 
• Data currency – currency is defined as the extent to which data is updated in the real world context. Data currency is identifying the frequency at which data needs to be refreshed, or the ‘freshness quotient’.

To identify areas of improvement and maintain quality of data, well defined data quality dimensions and metrics should be developed. An important aspect to keep in mind is that quantifying and measuring data quality elements without qualified relevance (what is known as ‘so what’ metrics) is insignificant in developing an insightful DQ scorecard. 

Therefore, through an organized and well defined approach, appropriate assessments and relevant improvements can be created, to build a strong foundation for businesses, which is Quality Data!

Measure not because you can, do it to manage data relevantly

Analyze not because you should, do it to gain business value

Track not because you need to, do it to know what you can do better

Let the DNA of your Data Speak Volumes

Spend $1 on Quality Data than $100 on Bad Data!

• 80% of companies have phone records with “risky” connectability 
• 60% of companies had an “unreliable” score of overall heath 
• 25% of companies have inaccurate B2B databases

Source: - Sirrus Decisions

According to Forrester, only 12% of companies rely on intelligence from quality data. And this could cost companies an estimated $8.2 million a year, according to Gartner. Would you rather spend $100 on correcting bad data or $1 on verifying the record before getting it entered?

Data quality is subjective!

It need not necessarily be about the number of incorrect fields, the percentage of addresses that are incorrect, a score on accuracy or number of null entries in the database. It is about the level of fitness it possesses in context with the end use for which it was created. Data quality is about correctness, accuracy, completeness, currency and credibility.

It’s no secret, here’s how often we update our data:

Every Minute 

• New contacts are added and updated, 
• 1.2 million records are televerified, 
• Social media links are added, 
• Contacts with duplicate names are removed from the database (1 million records)

Every Month 

• 160K direct dial numbers are added, 
• All 20 million records are verified and results are updated, 
• Ping test for all 20 million is done to ensure there are no spam traps and syntax errors, 
• Email campaign results (click rates, open rates, opt-in, opt-out and bounce rates are updated with the date of verification)

Let quality data provide you with competitive edge, 

Make it your most valuable corporate asset!

Increase Marketing ROI with Data Quality!

Infographic on Data Updation and Quality from InfoCheckPoint

B2B Haiku Bots Mining Poetry Now!

Inspired by Haikuleaks, Jacob Harris, senior software architect of New York Times, rolled out an algorithm that captures fragments from stories published. Times Haiku, as Harris notes may be ‘a machine with no aesthetic sense’ but the ‘algorithm is its muse’. It basically is a script built to mine stories for ‘haiku-friendly’ words and then rearranges them to form poetry. While some haikus drudge along, the interesting ones are picked by the editors and published.

Automation is creeping in at a greater speed, much to the discomfort of marketers. If bots are used in a right way and sensitively, the outcome can be great. A Twitter bot that automates and schedules posts is beneficial only if the tweets are original, if the content is not relevant; it automatically is categorized as spam. 

While it is inevitable to automate, marketers today cannot escape the magic of personalization. With customers becoming more conscious, demanding, vocal and powerful, keeping it real may seem the only way out in the future.

Whatever said and done, the Times Haiku is an interesting initiative. We couldn’t resist trying it out. Here’s our streak of Zen on data mining: 

Data mining hurricanes

soothing seas of the P2P touch

gold and dollars rain.

While content marketing is going bots, we also need to keep it real, keep it simple and keep it relevant to our target audience. ‘The Big Marketing Activity Coloring Book’, is an interesting example of unadulterated marketing, where having fun is serious business.

P.S. - Fingers crossed that bots don’t become the only ones writing, as our essence is hard to replace!

Look at “Big Data in a Human Context”

What story does your data narrate?

While most B2B organizations look at data visualization in the sense of infographics, there are innovative iterations of how we can visualize and draw stories from data. Here’s an interesting ‘did you know’ moment:

In the 9/11 Memorial, the names are inscribed not alphabetically or in a grid, they are streamed in what the architect, Michael Arad envisioned as “meaningful adjacencies”. The names were placed “according to where people were and who they were with when they died”. Jer Thorp (the artistic designer of the 9/11 Memorial Algorithm on for the placement of names) said it is a, “meaningful framework; one which allows the names of family and friends to exist together”.

With the question of “Is Big Data, the New Oil?”,  visualization can prove to be a great tool in engaging with characters in your data. Data visualization from Jer’s perspective is not about the result or outcome, it is about the process. By breaking down the process into 'sketches’, distinct characteristics can drive specific solutions, to make engagement efforts more relevant.

Data visualization should be considered more than an image, graphic, or substitution for a sentence. By putting pieces of ‘data in a human context’, you not only understand customer histories you build empathy for people in the system. And this in turn, as Jer says is, “it builds fundamental respect, which is missing in a large part of technology. And we start to deal with issues like privacy. They carry weight”

While we may not be ‘there’ yet, our process of drawing narratives through data visualization has only just begun. What about you?

Jer Thorp is a ‘Data Artist-in-Residence’ at The New York Times. Take some time out and watch how he puts data in a human context.

Get Cured of MHAFBD With Good Data!

We’ve heard about a drug doing the rounds in the market - a drug for ‘marketer’s headache from bad data’ or MHAFBD.

For those marketers who feel they have been infected, it has been discovered that they have not been looking in the right places for good data.  To access data that is verified, accurate and updated, a credible source is the panacea. Think about it,

• A new business opens every minute 
• A business filed for bankruptcy 
• A CEO has changed
• A company name has changed
• A person has shifted jobs

How do you keep your database updated with these changes?

• Imagine you had an option to - add new contacts, get 1.2 million records televerified and remove duplicate contact details of 1 million records – every minute!
• Imagine you could - add 160K direct dial numbers, email verify 20 million records and ping test them, and get detailed email campaign results - every month!
• We have 100 Data Specialists - For appending, for cleansing master files, for managing IT data, social media and telecom data initiatives. 
• We have 400+ Data Specialists - For televerification, for master data management (MDM) and 400+ Data Associates to service data requirements of customers.

We believe that marketers wouldn’t need a drug for MHAFBD, if they had access to good data in the first place.

Get an Inside View on our “Data Cleaning Process”

Data Cleaning Process from InfoCheckPoint

Connecting With Your Target Audience Couldn't Get Easier!

Here's how you can use Info CheckPoint to reach your relevant target market:

Search - We have an extensive database that contains over 19+ million people, 20+ million companies and 18,000 industry sectors and thousands are being added every day.

Identify - Our advanced online search tool and well defined sections has in-depth categories from which you can effortlessly locate niche and targeted contacts.

View and Save Prospects - We understand the value of your time, effort and resources. We allow users to view and save potential contacts instead of downloading a whole dataset.

Exchange Contacts - If you have a database that you would like to share, we provide you with an option to exchange your data with credit points that can be used to gain new contacts.

Access Accurate Data - Quality is our highest priority and we ensure that contacts are updated regularly (every 90 days). Crowd-sourced data is verified and validated before being added to the database and users are encouraged to update details to ensure data is as fresh and updated as possible.

Contacting relevant contacts is just a click away

Get to Know How To Use Info CheckPoint

Think Teleprospecting is About Generating Sales, Think Again!

• Teleprospecting is not about how big your database is, it is about finding the right person to generate interest for your business.
• It is not about making sales; it is about connecting with decision makers. 
• It is not about HOW MANY people you contact; it is about WHO you contact.

Teleprospecting is most often wrongly considered as a channel that generates sales. It is in fact a channel that generates ‘sales ready’ leads. Like a prospecting channel.

Teleprospecting is about contacting, connecting, marketing, arranging appointments and maintaining data. And with information on why businesses are qualified, market intelligence is devised to create relevant initiatives.

Consider it as an elevator pitch. Even through a phone call, you got:

7 seconds to create an impression

14 seconds to generate interest

21 seconds to narrate your story

The focus (just like in an elevator pitch) should revolve around three main aspects of ‘who, what and how’:

• Who it helps
• What problem are you trying to solve
• How your business solves that problem - Value Proposition

When sales cycles are long, the best way to make it more productive is to pump the pipeline with highly qualified leads. Building a relationship early in the buying cycle provides your sales force with credible prospects, those who are genuinely interested in your business.

Pay Attention to Prospects

Convert Them to Customers

Use Teleprospecting to Generate High Quality Leads

Identify any target audience and let us know. 

We will customize your database to boost your teleprospecting initiatives.