With increasing goals and static budgets, there is a mandate for B2B marketers to get the most out of every program they fund. Learn why clean, complete, and actionable data is the key to success and how you can implement a solid data management strategy.

1. VTH E FIVE PILLAR S OF A SOLID
D ATA QU ALITY FOU N D ATION

2. MAKE OR
BREAK
With increasing goals and static budgets,
there is a mandate for B2B marketers to get
the most out of each and every program they
fund. The key to success?
Clean, complete, and actionable data.

3. THE JOURNEY
The objective of this guide is to provide
B2B marketers with actionable steps and
best practices as it pertains to data
stewardship. Use it to consider new
tactics and compare what you've tried in
the past.
WhatYou’llLearn

4. KN OW YOU R BU YER
Programs should be targeted directly at the people who are most
likely to buy from you. The best way to obtain this information is to
look at past purchase data for trends. Try to identify demographic
and firmographic criteria like titles, industries, locations, and
company size that buy most frequently. Isolate those who tend to
make large verses small purchases and are repeat buyers. Then,
compare them to the contacts you have in your marketing database
and prioritize those contacts.
I

5. DIG INTO
any behavioral trends you can see in your response data. You will often be able to
group your contacts into influencers or buyers. Study how each group typically
responds and at what stage of the buying cycle. Lastly, ensure that your database
has enough of each of these profiles in it to help meet your goals. Develop
targeted outreach programs with messaging specific to the needs of each
audience to ensure maximum success of your programs.
K N O W Y O U R B U Y E R

6. SC R U B YOU R D ATABASE
SiriusDecisions has determined that the average
amount of usable records in a database is 75%, with
90% considered best-in-class. For those looking to
improve their database, the best place to begin is by
conducting a thorough cleansing. Remove records
that aren't your target buyer or don't influence a
sale. Normalize your data in terms of formatting of
fields such as phone, title, etc.
II

7. SETUP FOR
SUCCESS
Remove or append information to incomplete records. Get
rid of records that have bounced or unsubscribed. None of
this is easy, and can be time consuming, but starting with
the cleanest list possible will make your life a lot easier,
and will set your campaigns up for success.
S C R U B Y O U R D A T A B A S E
I

8. B U I L D F R O M Q U A L I T Y S O U R C E S
III
When you're actively cleaning out bad data, you
may find yourself with less target contacts than
you'd like in your database. Hitting your goals is
a numbers game. Use a marketing funnel or
calculator to determine just how many leads
you'll need to hit your goals.

9. E N S U R E A N D
M A I N TA I N
If you plan to purchase data, check
that your vendor has a dedicated
process to ensure and maintain
quality. Validated data may cost a
little more, but it pays off in the end.
The vendor should be able to tell you
how good the data is that you're
purchasing and you should be
offered a guarantee.
B U I L D F R O M Q U A L I T Y S O U R C E S

10. KEEP IT C
Okay, so everyone knows that data is
never 100% perfect. But, by looking at
all the ways your company obtains
marketing data, you may be able to
mitigate potential quality issues.
IV
K E E P I T C L E AN

11. For example, if you are gathering information
from registration forms on your website,
consider employing progressive profiling. This
is a proven methodology for creating a better
browsing experience by getting them to engage
in multiple offers while allowing you to gather
bits of information over time.
Plus, by keeping the number of fields per form
low, you will not only increase conversion rates,
but you will also decrease people's natural
tendency to fudge the answers.
PROVEN METHODOLOGY
KEEP IT CLEAN

12. R I N S E A N D
R E P E AT
V
You may have started out with a clean
database and apply best practices for
bringing in new data, but it won't stay
that way for long without continuous
hygiene practices. In fact, studies show
that data decays at a rate of 2% per
month or more.

13. nsure you have a way to keep track of the state of
your data on an ongoing basis. One method is to
remove hard bounces from your database as they
occur. Sometimes, auto-reply emails will provide
contact information for the new prospect, as well as
their company. Take advantage of the windfall by
providing a welcome message to introduce prospects
to your company and encourage them to opt-in.
E
RinseandRepeat

14. Much of this type of activity requires
significant manual effort, so you may
want to take a more scheduled approach
for cleaning your database or consider a
solution that can help automate the
process.
Scrubbing your data against third-party
sources can remove the personnel cost
of doing this internally, provide improved
campaign performance, and help keep
your overall email deliverability rating
high as it reduces hard bounces.
R I N S E A N D R E P E A T

15. NEXT STEPS
By supplying your teams and technologies with the
right data for every step of the buyer’s journey, you
can grow relationships at a speed and scale never
before possible. Dun & Bradstreet’s sales
and marketing solutions deliver a unified view of
your customers, deep insight into their needs, and
seamless integration with partners to make the most
of every interaction.
Visit dnb.com to learn how we can help.
ABOUT DUN & BRADSTREET
Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE: DNB) grows the most valuable relationships in business. By uncovering truth and meaning from data, we connect
customers with the prospects, suppliers, clients and partners that matter most, and have since 1841. Nearly ninety percent of the Fortune
500, and companies of every size around the world, rely on our data, insights and analytics. For more about Dun & Bradstreet, visit
DNB.com.
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