Opportunities
- Target and Retain Customers
Enhancing datasets can provide a multitude of benefits: from identifying new customers and tailoring messaging and products to better retention of existing contacts.
Having more key customer information, such as market sector, business size and location, will help you to identify their problems and provide solutions at the right time.
Data enrichment will help turn leads into clients by making it easier to deliver relevant messaging. It is also beneficial in converting visitors into leads, as salespeople will have access to more quality data, enabling them to prioritise leads and have the ability to reach visitors via multiple channels.
The more businesses understand their customers, the better they can serve them.
- Organised, Accurate and Segmented Data
Data enrichment helps in organising data, which can then be used to find the products and services that visitors are looking for.
As businesses learn more about contacts, they can find opportunities to personalise their experience. Tailored marketing is far more efficient and effective than bulk messaging.
The accuracy that data enrichment can provide means less wastage in communication, as businesses can be in-depth in their strategy and expected outcomes. It also gives businesses the tools to know which pages visitors have looked at, for example, or how often they have visited the site.
- Locate More Potential Customers
From existing customer and contact data, you can build more sophisticated buyer personas. Having a deeper insight on your customers can help to improve acquisition strategies, allowing sales and marketing to be more efficient and cohesive.
Marketing and sales efforts are increasingly being focused on building a smaller, more in-depth set of leads as they have a greater chance of converting. Data enrichment allows businesses to make sure they are talking to the right people at the right time.
Risks
- Too Much Personalisation
When it comes to data, businesses must toe the line between using data to provide the best service they can to customers and using so much data that contacts feel their privacy is being invaded.
Customers expect the basic data they share, to be used to provide a better service. Using too much data early on in communications can lead to an adverse reaction.
Lawmakers are looking to reduce the amount of data that businesses can collect through policy changes such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This regulation will make it harder for companies to collect data as customers will have to opt-in as opposed to opt-out to receive certain communications. It will also mean that businesses must delete contact information if they choose not to be contacted, instead of being able to add them onto a no-contact list on their database.
- Poor Strategy
If the correct foundations are not built within the business, then there is a risk data will not be correctly used and utilised.
IBM estimates that poor data quality cost the US $3.1 trillion in 2016 alone, be that in flawed decisions, wasted time and resources.
For data enrichment to be effective it should be used as part of a data-driven strategy that leads business decisions.
- The Personal Touch
Although the power of data is almost universally recognised, it is not enough to secure the hearts and wallets of customers.
Bryan Kramer, expert marketer, bestselling author and social media guru, talks about H2H (Human-to-Human) instead of B2B. In this technological age where companies can do so much in their business and marketing efforts, a human touch can stand out.
B2B marketing and sales efforts should be focused on the humans within the business, not just looking at a business as one entity. People appreciate businesses that are invested in them, taking the time to learn about their problems, and being able to provide solutions.
It’s important to treat customers as individuals and give them as much communication and support as they need in their buyer’s journey.
Conclusion
Data enrichment is an effective tool if you are a data-driven company aiming to build trust with contacts on their journey to becoming customers. It helps provide a more complete and analytical view of leads and ensures the data you have collected can be used to its full potential.
Using data can be overwhelming and tricky – download our ebook to understand the simple ways your data can be empowered.
