How to get more out of your database?
If you look at all the successful companies, you will find that they all have one thing in common, and that is that they use their database properly. We live in a data-driven era where data owned by the company is given higher priority than profit and sales. It is data that enables companies to turn relationships into customers.
With a proper B2B relationship database, you can easily track all your customers, understand their buying behaviour and segment customers based on the sales they generate for your business. This will help you to get to know your customers well, but it will also help you to target customers in a more personalised way, increasing your chances of winning business.
So with all these benefits, it becomes crucial to learn how to get the most out of your database, such as a B2B contact database. That's what we're going to cover in this article.
Determine what is essential to capture
One of the first things to keep in mind is that you should only capture what is relevant to your business. If you keep adding unnecessary fields to your B2B database, it will only increase the size of the database while making the analysis more complicated and lengthy. For example, if you are going to launch an email campaign, you should only include important fields such as name, email address, contact details, product of interest, and that's it.
Simplify the fields
If you're using any B2B database, you need to be prepared for overlap between different departments, and this is one of the most common problems most companies have to deal with. For example, there can be overlaps in the contact details you need, and so you need to start with simplicity. Do you need different fields for office, business and home phones? Make them simple and harness the power of databases.
Assign a class owner
Always find out who works in a particular department, or at least find out who within the company is responsible for that type of activity. What happens when a new field needs to be added to the database? Which person should you contact and what will be the correct procedure?
You will need to update the department regularly and assign the appropriate department contact for each contact.
Set up a protocol for values
If you use a drop-down menu, there is a maximum chance that this will reduce variations in the way data is recorded, but you should also establish a protocol for how data is recorded so that searching and analysis is a piece of cake for everyone. If you normalize the data and then find what you need from the data, you can save time.
Regular review for accuracy
No matter how experienced and skilled the people working on databases are; there will always be room for human error. That's why it becomes crucial to put in place policies that make it easy to identify who will be responsible for eliminating duplicate fields in a contact or duplicate contacts.
Segmenting the list
You should take advantage of marketing automation to create dynamic lists, as this will help you to automatically segment your contacts according to filters. It also eliminates the need for manual segmentation, which is both time-consuming and complicated. If you use this process, segmenting your data will take care of your data as it will be clean and clear for your company's employees. You should even use this approach when purchasing data from B2B data providers.
Document
Get into the habit of documenting standard operating procedures that help outline custom properties, i.e. who to contact with change requests, property definitions and more. If you have any type of data silo and manual import process in place, you'll need to make sure that data frequency is recorded regularly, even if you're purchasing data from B2B data providers.
Having an extensive database alone will never be enough for growth, as you will also need to master the art of using the database. Use the tips mentioned in this article and make the most of the database you have.