What exactly is data hygiene and why is it so important for creators
In business, data reigns supreme.
Given the importance of relying upon data, it's easy to see that clean and accurate data is essential to a business's success. Unreliable data, also called dirty data can lead to unsuccessful attempts to grow.
There's hope! - the data hygiene.
In this piece, we'll explore the storage of data, what data hygiene means and what it's importance. Plus, data hygiene best techniques to keep your data squeaky clean and your business booming.
What types of databases store data?
- Contact information
- Demographics information
- Email marketing engagement
- Past purchases of your products or services
- Relevant information on their needs to your services and products
Bigger companies can use a more comprehensive business intelligence and analytics database to gain access to more information aspects about their businesses. For example, a clothing store could record its products' sales according to SKUs, an airline would have data on their flights, or a software-as-a service company would record data regarding how clients use different aspects of their software. In some cases, the data becomes more specific, and there are whole teams at large companies who manage databases and analyse the data.
Data hygiene is equally important for both scenarios. Since we're looking at authors in this article, we'll focus primarily on the data that is collected by a CRM.
What is data hygiene?
Data hygiene Data hygiene is an ongoing and continuous process to ensure the purity of the data. This means you're maintaining data to ensure that it's correct, consistent, and reliable. Cleaning data prevents companies, like your own, from having issues caused due to unclean data.
What do you mean by dirty data? It is considered dirty data if it shows some of the following traits:
- Data that has been duplicated
- Incomplete (think absence of contact fields)
- Invalide
- Incorrectly input
- Typos, misspellings, as well as multiple spelling variations
The most important thing to remember is that dirty data is wrong.
The scariest thing about filthy data is that it's too easy to introduce errors into the data you store. When you input data improperly or don't regularly update it or even make an unintentional change while updating your system, errors could be introduced anywhere in the procedure.
What is the reason data hygiene is important?
Let's look at the ways that data with dirt could be harmful to your business, which are the very reasons why maintaining excellent data is vital.
- Then you'll be wasting both time and money.
Data that is not clean will cost you. In the U.S. alone, businesses are losing around $3.1 trillion each year because of poor data management.
It's not just money that's lost, it's also time. A Study by LeadJen study found that sales teams wasted on average 27% of the potential selling time utilizing dirty data. The wrong phone number or calling the wrong person is not an enjoyable experience for anyone.
But, as we all have learned, time equals cash, and so following poor data is an assured method of losing income.
- Emails and other marketing initiatives won't be tailored to the right audience.
In the event that your data isn't current and current or inaccurate You could send prospective buyers messages or other content that don't correspond with their current position on the buying process.
Such mistakes have the power to damage your relationship with customers as well as your brand's reputation. This is a double blow.
The worst part is that mistakes like these may result in an increased the rate of email churn. Unsubscribes, spam reports, and hard bounces are an option if you don't tailor your content according to the needs of your target audience. All too quickly you'll start seeing your email lists diminishing.
- There is no an accurate picture of your selling funnel.
Without regularly monitoring and maintaining your database, it will be difficult to get information about the effectiveness and effectiveness of your funnel to sales. Due to this, you won't be able to answer queries such as:
- What number of qualified leads are there?
- Which leads are you supposed to remove from your sales funnel?
- What's your churn percentage?
Being able to answer such questions will assist to determine the best places to put your marketing and sales efforts. It is possible to make OKRs (objectives as well as key performance indicators) from your own information!
Dirty data defense: data hygiene best practices
It's clear that the negatives of having dirty data can be, well absolutely devastating to the business. However, don't worry the best practices for data hygiene can be found here. No matter if your company is one-day or even a few years old the best practices for data hygiene can be applied at any time in the life of your enterprise. Let's get to it!
- Begin with an audit.
An audit will give you an understanding of your data's big picture. It helps you ascertain what data is useful, and what's not useful and what information is more harmful than is helpful. With an audit, you'll be able to address questions such as "Which metrics are required to be collected?" and "Which areas are in most need of improvements?".
Essentially, the audit should determine where problems exist within your data collection and regularization.
- Review and enhance data collection methods.
In the course of the audit or following is a great opportunity to look at each source and the method through which information enters your systems.
A second consideration is to minimize manual data entry. Automation tools don't just cut down on data-entry human errors but also allow time to do other tasks that are more crucial - such as making your next famous TikTok (kidding or is it? ).
- Pay attention to tiny particulars.
When we live our lives it is our goal to not worry about the little things, but it's not the case with information. Small errors in data can rapidly lead to major problems, like the basis of a marketing campaign based on inaccurate data. Yikes!
In data collection, ensure that you are doing these things:
- Standardizing mailing addresses
- Verifying email addresses
- Standardizing common abbreviations and numbers
When you are aware of the tiny little details, you'll be able to identify larger and more impactful error. If you discover a handful of either, you could realize that you need to implement more standard operating procedures, or even simple guidelines for capturing and entering data.
- Develop an ongoing data cleansing process.
Sorry to say it, but your data-hygiene journey doesn't end after the initial cleanse. This is a continuous procedure that requires the commitment of a person and their determination. Be aware that dirty data can be easy to introduce into systems , so it is important to be on the lookout for it with a keen eye.
An excellent way to keep dirty data at bay is to create continuous maintenance and consistency procedures. Below are some of the ones that we would recommend:
- Data entry standardization. Every single data item on your system needs to be entered in a uniform way (especially in the case of manual entry).
- The handling of data errors. Create rules (even if they're just for yourself) which clearly define how errors will be managed. As an example, how do fix duplicate or inaccurate entries?
- Preventing dirty data in the beginning. In practice, this may look like adding essential fields to your data collection forms and eliminating non-essential fields. In addition, you can conduct a data audit regularly to ensure dirty data isn't getting back into your company - by using an outdated lead generation template, for example.
Data hygiene's bottom line
Solely having data isn't enough to expand your business, or direct sales and marketing efforts.
To ensure that you don't lose revenue, time, and customers, and even jeopardizing the reputation of your company Your data must be free of errors. Maintaining your data with proper hygiene procedures ensures that you've got actionable insights your business can utilize with confidence!
At , we believe that data is the key to success. information, and not just for large multi-person businesses, but for our favorite kind of company - the ones operated by one-person, enthusiastic entrepreneurs. We're talking to you!