Data Hygiene: Upgrade Your Company's Greatest Assets

When Data Goes Rogue

Dirty data aka rogue data is a term used to describe inaccurate, incomplete, and inconsistent data.

The Reality of B2B Data

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that having a wrong phone number can be an obstacle that will keep you from reaching a particular person.

Now imagine what happens in the business world: every year thousands of people change jobs, phone numbers, get married, divorce, move, and their lives take all kinds of different directions.

“Data decays over time. People change jobs, and companies are bought and sold. The result is outdated contact information that creates inaccurate targeting and erodes marketing returns, deliverability and reporting.” – Camile Turner of Valvoline

30%

of people change jobs every year

43%

of people change phone numbers every year

25-33%

of email addresses become outdated within 12 months

62%

of organizations leverage inaccurate marketing/customer data

The Business Data Situation

A study released recently by the Marketing Technology Industry Council found that marketers ranked “Data Management” as the aspect of their jobs they enjoyed the least (no kidding).

And the longer you leave the problem, the worse it will get. According to research by SiriusDecisions, at any given time, between 10-25% of an average B2B organization’s customer and prospect records “include critical data errors ranging from incorrect demographic data to a lack of current disposition.”

The report further observes that the average B2B company sees its prospect and customer data double every 12-18 months. And of course, the amount of critical data errors multiplies exponentially along with it.

Consequences of Inaccurate Data

There is no greater asset to your organization than your B2B database. However, when your database becomes cluttered with outdated, incomplete or inaccurate contact information, it can prove to be a costly obstacle along your route to success.

1

Marketing Impact

Dirty data can have an insurmountable impact on all areas of your business from marketing, lead generation and customer relationships.

2

Sales Obstacles

Data decay is a natural outcome of the ever-changing B2B landscape; professionals are constantly changing positions, titles, locations and places of work, rendering data useless.

3

Revenue Loss

Even if you don’t see the direct impact of dirty data to your bottom line, there is no question that your sales and marketing teams would perform even better if your contact data was regularly cleaned and optimized.

Hidden Costs of Poor Data Hygiene

✓
Low MQL-to-SQL conversion rates
✓
Missed pipeline goals
✓
Distrust between marketing and sales
✓
Compliance violations from unverified opt-ins

✓
Wasted media spend
✓
Inaccurate targeting and eroded marketing returns
✓
Poor campaign performance
✓
Reduced confidence in data-driven insights

Benefits of Email Hygiene

Today, ISPs look at many different variables when determining whether to deliver one of our marketing emails to one of their customers.

Accurate Analytics

Clean data ensures your analytics provide reliable insights for decision-making.

Better Open and Click Rates

Accurate contact information leads to improved engagement metrics.

Enhanced Deliverability

Clean lists improve email deliverability and sender reputation.

Increased ROI

Target the right people with accurate data to maximize campaign returns.

Reduced Costs

Eliminate waste from sending to invalid or outdated contacts.

Faster Delivery

Clean data ensures your messages reach recipients without delays.

BENEFITS OF LIST AND DATA HYGIENE

✓
Increase the efficiencies of CRM applications with higher quality data input
✓
Improve customer service with more complete, accurate, and relevant customer records at customer touchpoints
✓
Improve brand penetration by enabling stronger identification of cross-sale opportunities
✓
Lower overhead costs through more incisive fraud detection and higher employee productivity

✓
Boost the value of existing technical assets, leveraging local systems for enterprisewide benefit
✓
Support effective tactical and strategic decision making through more accurate analytics
✓
Increase revenues through knowledge that could not otherwise be realized
✓
Improve the efficiency of system functionality

Clean Up Your Data

Data hygiene is the process of continuously cleaning, validating, standardizing, and de-duplicating marketing data to ensure it remains trustworthy, usable, and compliant.

Data Hygiene Best Practices

Prevention Strategies

1
Govern data before ingestion – implement hygiene controls at the point of data entry
2
Assign data owners to be accountable for database quality and compliance
3
Automate validation to verify emails, fields, and standardize formats in real-time

Maintenance Practices

4
Monitor key hygiene metrics like duplicate rate, decay rate, and compliance rate
5
Conduct regular data audits and cleaning to check for errors and outdated information
6
Segment based on engagement quality rather than vanity metrics

Data Hygiene: Upgrade Your Company’s Greatest Assets