5 Ways to Make Your Marketing Reports Trustworthy

How can you trust the stats from your latest email newsletter if “bad” records are dominating your database? You may not be getting the kudos you deserve.

According to a 2017 State of Pipeline Marketing Report, only 6.6% of B2B marketers believe their prospect data is complete and updated.1 Integrate says an average of 40% of B2B leads are invalid, incomplete, or duplicate. The TCI Marketing Services Research Team spoke with thousands of B2B technology buyers for our 2016 Survey and learned:

  • 41% of buyers plan to change jobs in the next 12-months.
  • 81% of buyers say they use false information to download content, “often.”

Marketers can’t trust program performance statistics if database accuracy is a mystery. Dormant email addresses can drag down open rates. Conversion or pipeline stats get thrown off by incorrect phone numbers. These skewed stats can paint the wrong performance picture for an otherwise skilled marketer.

So how do you solve these problems and make sure your performance data actually reflects your work?

  1. Train your colleagues on data standards early and often.
  2. Create data rules to control what users enter in CRM and marketing systems.
  3. Dedicate resources to regular database cleaning, vetting, and updating.
  4. Commit to a sustained lead gen effort that connects with prospects as they change jobs.
  5. Have a disciplined process for reporting and removing bad records after every program.

An accurate database will generate trustworthy performance stats for your latest project, giving you the ability to capitalize on success, or overcome messaging challenges more quickly.

Do you have any tips on how to make sure you can trust your reporting? We’d love to hear about them and add them to the list. Please share them with us at letschat@tcimarketingservices.com.

1. State of Pipeline Marketing Report, Bizable, Heinz, Uberflip, Radius, LinkedIn, 2017.