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

What’s Motivating Your Brand? Learn from the 'Billion Dollar Hippy'

We all have times when we are insanely motivated and times when we find every excuse to pin down our lack of motivation. The solution is to get started on that list of ‘things to do’. A small step every day towards accomplishing your goals will eventually lead to fulfillment.

Let us apply this to our brands. What is motivating your brand? What do you do every day, every minute  to make your brand a better experience for your customers?

The core of Info CheckPoint is data…and quality. What continuously motivates us is to relentlessly maintain quality and deliver accurate, current and relevant data to users. For us data is about:

• Accuracy – Contact details such addresses and phone numbers are verified and are associated with the person or business in the record.
• Freshness – Information reflects current details of the person or business.
• Completeness – All records are complete making it valid for relevant usage.
• Uniqueness – There is only one record per person or business and duplicate records are merged or deleted.
• Standardized – Information recorded follows a set format and standard.

For us Data Quality is a discipline not a task

It’s a statistic to state

It’s a practice we follow!

Access sales-ready prospects with Info CheckPoint on Salesforce

Or gain access to exclusive business profiles with a free trial!

Check out this beautiful BBC documentary on ‘Steve Jobs - Billion Dollar Hippy’ – nothing else can be more motivating.

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

Use Clean, Green and Lean Data this World Environment Day

In Ulaanbaatar Central Square, thousands gathered this week to celebrate World Environment Day (WED), 2013. The main aim of this day is to initiate positive environmental action. Hosted by Mongolia the theme this year is ‘Think.Eat.Save.’ 

While community clean-up drives have begun in full swing, we need to apply this in the B2B context as well. With data repositories getting bigger, it only remains to be seen how we can organize it to capitalize on all the information collected. Big Data is definitely a big deal today. 

Data being an integral part of any business process, quality should be of the highest priority; quality in terms of data accuracy, relevancy and being up-to-date. Data needs to be collected, compiled, organized and maintained in a way that it provides insightful information.  New processes and technologies have been developed to maintain ‘clean, green and lean’ databases. 

We provide data that is clean, green and lean.

• Clean as in verified and validated
• Green as in it allows for efficient usage and
• Lean as in it produces results tailor-made to suit the objectives of your business

The way forward is to integrate data quality management into business processes and enterprises. This World Environment Day, let’s make a pledge to:

Delete data dumps,

Obliterate data decay,

Nurture data quality,

For a cleaner, pollution free virtual space environment!

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

It Takes 1 Minute and 0 Dollars…

To get a sneak peek into your customer landscape.

Think about it, data is your most valuable corporate asset, equally responsible for providing a competitive edge!

Data quality is not only 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 refers to the level of fitness your data possesses in context with the end use for which it was created. The facets of data quality include correctness, accuracy, completeness, currency and credibility.

With changes in business information happening by the second, updated data is an integral part of quality. If you go to our home page, you will notice a scroll on the right banner of contacts updated and new records added in real-time. This is a useful gauge of the currency of our data.

Here’s how often we update data:

Here’s our Data Cleansing Process

And here’s a sneak peek into the number of active companies (region wise) as of February 2013 as per our file inventory:

• USA – 4,084,668
• United Kingdom– 271,422
• Canada – 215,294
• Australia – 78,443
• Companies with 5+ Billion Annual Revenue in the US - 95,534 companies 
• Companies with 10,000+ Employee Strength in the US – 76,997 companies

If you wish to connect with sales ready leads, you need to Sign Up for a Free Trial or gain Complete Access Through a Subscription.

Make the Right Move with Clean Data!

Don’t Let Dead Data Kill Your Campaigns!

• A new business opens every minute 

• A CEO changes every minute 

• A company name change occurs every 2 minutes 

• A business closes every 3 minutes 

• A new business files for bankruptcy every 8 minutes 

So, are you keeping up with these changes? When was the last time you updated and cleaned your database? 

In order to gain ROI on data investment, it should be accurate, complete, correct, current and credible. What poor data quality does is it increases your marketing and operating costs.  

We take our data seriously!

Find out the cleansing process we adopt to improve the ROI on your database!

Data Cleaning Process from InfoCheckPoint

All About Data and How We Do It!

25% of Your Data Goes Stale Every Year! Get to Know if it Stinks?

As MarketingSherpa states, 2.1% of contact details change every month. 

Regular data verification and quality control is essential in measuring relevancy, analyzing effectiveness, optimizing strategies and maximizing revenues and ROI.

Characteristics of Quality Data 

• Accuracy – Contact details such addresses and phone numbers actually exist and are associated with the person or business in the record.

• Freshness – Information reflects current details of the person or business.

• Completeness – All records are complete making it valid for relevant usage.

• Uniqueness – There is only one record per person or business and duplicate records are merged or deleted.

• Standardized – Information recorded follows a set format and standard.

Want to know why your emails are undelivered? 

Would you like to maximize ROI on data purchased? 

Would you like to spend marketing dollars on customers that count?

Get to know if your data stinks with this Data Quality Checklist!

Data Quality Checklist from InfoCheckPoint

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

• Only 12% of companies rely on intelligence from quality data, according to Forrester. 
• 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.

Data Quality Cheat Sheet from InfoCheckPoint

Let quality data provide you with competitive edge, make it your most valuable corporate asset! Access this quick Data Quality Cheat Sheet!

Spend Marketing Dollars on Data that Counts!

Don’t Just Mine Data, Mind It and Make It Work!

Are contacts and email addresses verified and validated?

Is data contributing to the success of your campaigns?

Any data intensive business will need to answer such basic questions to make better decisions and gain a bigger picture. With data quality, some of the ‘should have’ metrics are definition, relevancy, currency, measurability, traceability and controllability.

The objective of assessing data quality is not necessarily to identify errors. Quality teams can spend months designing rule books and error reports, however the real ROI from assessment initiatives is justified by developing a data quality scorecard. By creating scores for each data quality dimension, measurable metrics can be identified to add value to data quality management.

As they say, “the devil is in the details”, a clear approach in defining data quality metrics is:

1. Identify and select one aspect of business impact related to bad data quality.

2. Assess data dependencies related to that aspect of business impact.

3. List related data expectations of business clients related to each data dependency.

4. Determine data quality dimension for each data expectation.

5. Specify business rules to establish conformance of the data quality with expectations.

6. Ascertain a process of measuring conformance and establish an acceptability threshold for each business rule.

What a data quality scorecard does, is it provides an analytical tool to determine ROI on initiatives as well as the cost of bad data.

Measure it, Manage it, Maintain it and Make it Better. Develop an insightful Data Quality (DQ) Scorecard.

Poor B2B Data Costs the US Economy!

Think data is free? Do you know how much poor B2B data costs the US economy?

A staggering $3.1 trillion a year!                                              Source: A recent report by Artemis Ventures

It may be difficult to foresee changes in the economy, but your data can make predictions for your business! With quality data you can measure relevancy, analyze effectiveness, optimize strategies and maximize revenues and ROIs. 

Quality data is the foundation for making critical business decision. Any data intensive organization will agree with that! However, how many assume that their data is of good quality without measuring it with quantifiable metrics?

There is a famous saying that, “What is not measured is not managed”, and what is not managed is surely not possible to maintain or improve. To begin with you need to know your data quality dimensions and metrics.

Get to know how you can measure data with the Data Quality (DQ) Scorecard. 

Don’t let Data Quality affect your Bottom Line. 

6 Commandments of Effective Email Marketing

 Email marketing campaigns that use permission-based email IDs, are usually able to convert visitors into buyers. It also strengthens your relationship with your customers. If your email content is good enough to convince your target audience, your product or service is bound to be a big hit.
   
Owing a verified email list is always better than owing an unverified one. People these days has become choosier and pickier than before. They want quality stuff and don’t like wasting their time on things that don’t interest them.

Your email should have a certain level of interesting readability that will enhance your reader’s interest and will help you proceed further. To sell your product or services successfully online, you need to catch your target audiences’ attention with attractive subject lines and good content.

In fact, choosy consumers are making email marketing more technologically advanced. People are coming up with new techniques to improve this marketing medium. However, to conduct an Email Marketing campaign effectively, you need to be aware of a few basic rules. Given below are SIX essential rules that is bound to be fruitful.

Possess a flawless list
You need to be equipped with a fully prepared list of email addresses of your prospective and target audience. This list needs to be updated every now and then as this list will be the key to your success. You should see to it that the names and addressees are recent, and of course they have agreed to receive your mails.

Smart subject lines
Once your email lists are ready, you need to prepare an eye-catching subject line that will compel your target audience to open the email to read further. Separate subject lines should be set aside for first batch of emails and follow up emails. You can even come up with a set of three to four email subject lines and run a test to determine the best.

No room for typos
Your email should be free of typos, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Make an impression with a neat and flawless mail.  

Call-to-action placement
Apart from clearly telling your email recipients what you want them to do with your email, place the call-to-action where it will be noticed. Don't make your target audience search the entire email for the call-to-action.

Options for Opt-in subscriptions
No one likes to be bullied. Your target audience should be given a free reign to choose whether they want to subscribe at all or not. This option will help you to reach out to those people who are truly interested in your products or services.

Never run campaigns during the holidays
During the holidays people hardly check their emails. Don't waste your email marketing campaigns by sending your emails during holidays like Christmas or New Year. Most probably your email will remain hidden under a pile of other unread emails. Chances are all but the most important messages will be deleted in a rush without a even second look. 

Successful email marketing is more about availing the best possible response from your target prospects. You can have a winning email marketing campaign only when you can turn these prospects into customers.

Answer 10 Questions to Know Your Data Quality

Gain High Email Deliverability | Get On To That ‘White List’ | Increase Email ROI

According to MarketingSherpa, 2.1% of contact details change every month and almost 25% of your data goes stale! Utilize data quality tools, techniques and tactics. Maintain high hygiene of your data.

Try this simple exercise. Answer just 10 questions to know the quality of your data:

1. Is data in your database verified and validated?
2. If Yes, was verification done in the last 6 months?
3. Have you appended your email database in the last 6 months?
4. Have you removed “toxic” email addresses from your database?
5. With multiple emails per user, do you know the “best” email address of your customers?
6. Do you have double ‘opt-in’ options in your emails?
7. Do you have an “opt out” policy?
8. Have you tested your email campaign before going live?
9. Are you weary of honeypots and spamtraps?
10. Is the size of your database more important than an authentic target audience?

The score here is not important, however the answers to these questions are! We are curious to know the results, aren’t you? Let us in on the insights

Psst: - ‘Think Green, Think Blue’, Make the Internet Devoid of Data Junkyards!