Data Cleansing is a good idea

Recently I have been working with a client who has inherited an old database of names on their internal CRM.  A quick review by our digital team suggested that a lot of the names just did not stack up with over 50,000 records on the system.  We decided that a data cleanse was sadly overdue.  Using an integrated email verification campaign we look like only 20% of those names are worthy of being retained and maintained.  The result, a more effective data base from which to build our marketing efforts and to utilise for the promotion of our client’s products.  There are considerable savings in file space and memory costs. We will also have a far more effective benchmark for different offers and promotions that we develop.

Sadly, the pivot to online during COVID has seen many marketers expand their online database, but many of the addresses added are potentially bots or spam.  The challenge is that if you don’t do regular health checks on your lists, they can become cumbersome and difficult to manage, severely impacting your digital KPI’s.

The recent Optus data breach highlights the importance of online data security and the fact that the protocols around many websites, particularly for small business are sadly deficient.  If you have not had a good look at the gateways into your system and how you manage your data, it’s time to review.  Maintenance of small business sites is often sadly lacking with plug ins not being updated and creating in some instances very fragile online sites.