Business-to-business databases have never been celebrated for their cleanliness. For starters, B-to-B data is complex and fast-changing. Customers conduct transactions through multiple channels, and they often provide conflicting information. People leave jobs. Then there are the faulty legacy systems maintained by many B-to-B marketers.
What can you do?
We asked some experienced database professionals to share their most serious challenges. We then set about finding practical solutions.
DATA PRIORITIES
I don't know which of my data elements is the most important. Which fields have the most impact on sales results?
The best way to find out is to model your data using multivariate regression. Make sales the dependent variable, and let the other elements sort themselves as the independent variables. You will have your answer fast. But there are two caveats:
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A model costs real money to build. You'll need to budget north of $20,000 for this exercise.
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MISSING DATA
Models have a shelf life. You'll want to redo the model at least annually.
The plus side? You'll know which data elements are most important to maintain and keep fresh. And if you find some elements with negative correlations to sales, you may be able to use these fields as a negative predictor — a suppression factor — for saving money on fruitless campaign targets.
I don't have access to important data elements. Where can I acquire them?
Start digging. There are plenty of unusual data sources out there; you just need to use creative ways to search for them.
SMALL DATA FIELDS
Some tips:
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GARBAGE IN
Look for highly targeted, industry-specific compilers. For example, Amtower provides lists of government buyers. Complete Mailing Lists has unusual categories like aviation, mining, and real estate. Harte-Hanks offers the computer intelligence technology database; Judy Diamond Associates compiles directories of insurance and health benefits administrators; and DM2-DecisionMaker has an agricultural database.
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Look for private databases that normally aren't available for rent, like those of industry and professional associations.
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WHITE MAIL
Make deals with trade magazines in your industry. Controlled-circulation publications tend to have very rich data on their readers.
My database was set up in a different era. With today's requirements for foreign words, long words, NAICS, ZIP+4, Internet addresses and other new data elements, my files just can't accommodate the data I need to maintain.
Bite the bullet. The old marketing database architectures that allow only 30 characters in data fields are no longer adequate. The only solution is to modernize. Whether your database is managed in-house or outside, it's time to get it upgraded with either a complete redesign or an entirely new platform.
JOB CHANGES
Many people — from sales to customer service to product management — need access to our database. So we inevitably have quality control problems. Often, we find that users are entering garbage data that isn't dirty enough to raise a flag, but isn't good enough to use for marketing communications. “Just Joe” is a recent example of some content we found in a first-name field.
There's no software to clean this up, and there never will be. The job simply has to be done by hand. Resources? Hire a student intern. Or use employee downtime. Eventually, you'll build your own “house style” rules, which will serve as a suppression system. And don't forget Input Editing Standards, the rules that guide key entry. If you haven't put IES in place in your company, do it now, and do it consistently across all data-collection channels.
We have an ever-growing level of orders and inquiries that come in without source codes.
MISSING E-MAIL ADDRESSES
Take comfort. This is a problem that plagues all marketers today. There are two things you can do:
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E-MAIL VS. POSTAL ADDRESSES
Motivate your customers to use your source codes. Give them incentives. Make it easy for them to find and use the code.
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Use data match-back. Just be sure you budget for it. Depending on your key code structure, you may match at the site level and/or the contact level. If you use a multipart key structure, you may be able to track at the site level even if the contact that responds is different from the one you marketed to.
DUPLICATE E-MAIL ADDRESSES
We can't track our customers when they change companies.
We feel your pain. This is a problem that plagues everyone in B-to-B. Ultimately, what we need is some kind of new mover's file for business marketers. But until that happens, here are some steps you can take:
DECISION MAKERS
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Train your customers. Whenever you talk to them, remind them to keep you informed. Fortunately, business relationships tend to last over time, so a happy customer is naturally motivated to stay in touch. But you have to ask. “If you change jobs, please let us know.” Make it easy for them, with such techniques as a Web-based change of address form.
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Share data with your colleagues in your vertical industry. Everyone will be better off.
CONSTANT CHANGE
Our rates of e-mail coverage are disappointingly low.
Here is where we business marketers can learn from our consumer counterparts. First, get very proactive about asking for e-mail addresses directly from your customers. Make it easy, give them an incentive and ask them at every touch point. This is not a one-time project. Second, you may want to explore some of the opt-in e-mail appending services provided by reputable sources.
We have such a mixture of address data. Some of our records have complete e-mail and postal addresses, and others have only e-mail. So we are, in effect,maintaining two databases instead of an integrated one.
First, try motivating your customers to give you both addresses (see “Missing E-mail Addresses”). But beyond that, you have to deal with the situation internally. The solution is to develop two sets of deduplication rules in the same database — that is, set up separate rules for records with both postal and e-mail addresses and records with only e-mail addresses.
What do I do when multiple postal addresses with different contact data all have the same e-mail address?
Some companies used to insist that multiple employees share a common e-mail address, but fortunately it's not very common today. However, if you do run into it there are several options. First, give customers the chance to tell you this is how it works for them. If it is, you have to use the e-mail address they provide. If you haven't confirmed the situation, the best approach is to allow all the data records to retain the same postal address, but then contact the customers to ask for their individual e-mail addresses. Then develop rules for selection purposes so that you only send e-mails to targeted individuals. Very likely, you'll want to use title as the basis of selection.
We can't identify the decision maker at a site.
B-to-B data often is manually gathered and maintained. But it's worth the trouble. To track down missing data elements like a contact's role in the purchase process, take the following steps:
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Work with your salespeople, who are very likely to know this information about certain accounts.
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Identify industry colleagues who may have the data. Potential sources include associations and even competitors.
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Identify resources that can gather data more efficiently than you can. Trade publications are a perfect example. Collaborate with them for data discovery.
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Survey your customers.
The rules that affect data are changing constantly. How can I stay on top of fast-moving issues like privacy and hygiene?
It's your job. Enlist the help of other interested parties in your firm — those in the legal, corporate communications, customer service and sales departments. Then make sure that your systems are flexible enough to keep up. Change is inevitable, so make the business case for investing in a database solution that will give you the support you need.
RUTH P. STEVENS (ruth@ruthstevens.com) consults on customer acquisition and retention, and teaches marketing to graduate students at Columbia Business School. She is the author of “The DMA Lead Generation Handbook” and “Trade Show and Event Marketing.”
BERNICE GROSSMAN (bgrossman@dmrsgroup.com) is president of DMRS Group Inc., a marketing database consultancy in New York. She is past chair of the Direct Marketing Association's B-to-B Council.
The authors wish to thank the database professionals who helped them research this article: Blair Barondes, Sean Clemmens, Brendan Edgerton, Louise Guryan, Jeff Harvey, Dave Higgins, James Johnson, Leo Kluger, David Knutson, Anthea Louie,Carol Myers, Al Rosato, Tom Tweedie, Monica Weaver and Vin Wilhelm.
