What's the definition of data hygiene and why it's so important for creators
In business, data reigns supreme.
With the high stakes that are dependent on data, it's obvious that clean and accurate data is crucial for your business's growth. Inaccurate data - known as dirty data - could lead to a failure in attempts to grow.
The good news is that there's a remedy for data hygiene the data hygiene.
In this post, we'll explore the storage of data, what data hygiene is , and why it's important. Plus, data hygiene best techniques to keep your data squeaky clean and your business flourishing.
What types of databases can store data?
- Contact information
- Demographic data
- Email marketing engagement
- Your past purchases of products or products or
- Information on their needs relevant to your services and products
Larger companies may make use of a larger business intelligence and analytics database for accessing even more data details about their company. For example, a clothing store could record its products' sales according to SKUs, an airline would have details on their flights or a software-as-a service company would record data on how customers utilize various aspects of their software. In some cases, the data becomes granular as well, and there are entire teams at large companies that maintain databases and analyze the information.
The importance of data hygiene is equal in both cases. However, since we're focused on authors in this article so we'll be focusing on data collected through a CRM.
What is data hygiene?
The process of ensuring data hygiene is an ongoing and continuous process of ensuring the cleanliness of data. That means you're ensuring that your data is maintained to ensure it's accurate, consistent, and reliable. Clean data can prevent companies such as your own from having to deal with problems caused due to dirty data.
But, what exactly do you mean by dirt data? It is considered dirty data if it shows some of the following traits:
- Information that is duplicated
- Incomplete (think missing contact fields)
- Older
- Incorrectly entered
- Typos, misspellings and multiple spelling variations
The bottom line - dirty data is not right.
The scariest thing about dirty data is that it's all too easy to introduce errors in the data you store. When you input data improperly or don't regularly update it or accidentally make a modification while you're upgrading your system, problems can be introduced at any point in your processes.
What is the reason data hygiene is crucial?
Now, let's explore how dirty data could be harmful to your company. These are just a few of the reasons why keeping excellent data is vital.
- You'll waste your time and money.
Poor data can be costly. In the U.S. alone, businesses suffer losses of around $3.1 trillion each year because of ineffective data management.
There's more than just money wasted, but also time. An Study by LeadJen study found that sales teams wasted on an average of 27% of their potential sales time using incomplete data. Making the wrong call and reaching the wrong person isn't fun for anyone.
As we know, time equals money , so relying on bad data is a guaranteed method of losing revenues.
- Emails and other marketing efforts won't be properly tailored.
If your database isn't up with the latest information or has been erroneously updated, you may send prospects emails or content that doesn't correspond with their current position in the buyer process.
Such mistakes have the power to damage your relationship with customers and your company's image. This is a double blow.
What's worse - missteps similar to these can result in an increased frequency of emails being re-subscribed to. Unsubscribes, spam reports, as well as hard bounces are an option if you do not tailor your email content according to the needs of your target audience. You'll soon begin seeing your email lists diminishing.
- There is no an accurate picture of your sales funnel.
In the absence of regularly reviewing and maintaining your database, it will be difficult to get information about the effectiveness of your sales funnel. Due to this, you won't be able to answer questions like:
- What are the number of leads that are qualified out there?
- What leads should you remove from your funnel?
- What's your churn percentage?
Knowing the accurate answer to such questions will assist you decide where to put your marketing and sales efforts. You might even make OKRs (objectives as well as key performance indicators) from your own data!
Dirty data defense: data hygiene best practices
As you can see, the negatives of having dirty data could be, downright devastating to your business. However, don't worry that the most effective data hygiene practices are here. Whether your business is a year old or a day-old and these practices are applicable anytime in the life of your enterprise. We'll get started!
- Begin by conducting an audit.
A thorough audit can give you an understanding of the big picture. It helps you ascertain what metrics are useful and not useful and what information is worse than beneficial. With an audit, you'll be able to tackle questions such as "Which metrics are required in order to make a decision?" as well as "Which areas are in most need of improvements?".
The audit must identify the areas where there are issues in your data collection , and the normalization.
- Improve and assess data collection methods.
In the course of the audit or following is a great moment to examine at each source and the method by which data enters the systems.
Another thing to consider is how you can reduce the need for manual data entry. Automated tools do not just reduce the human error in data entry, but they also free up time for other tasks that are more crucial - such as designing your next viral TikTok (kidding or is it? ).
- Be aware of tiny specifics.
While in life, we try not to sweat the small things - however, this isn't the case for information. Small errors in data can quickly lead to huge issues , such as creating a marketing strategy based on flawed information. Yikes!
In data collection, ensure that you're doing the following:
- Standardizing mailing addresses
- Verifying email addresses
- Common abbreviations, numbers and common abbreviations
By noticing the small details, you'll be able to catch larger, more impactful errors. If you discover a handful of both, you may come to the realization that it's time to incorporate more standard operating procedures, or even simple rules for collecting and inputting data.
- Establish a continuous cleanse of data.
Sorry to say it, but your data-hygiene process isn't finished following the initial clean-up. It's an ongoing task that demands commitment and perseverance. Remember - dirty data is easily introduced into your systems , so it is important to be on the lookout for it like a hawk.
An excellent way to keep clean data from being a problem is to create ongoing maintenance and uniformity methods. Below are some of the ones we recommend implementing:
- Data entry standardization. Every single data item on your system needs to be manually entered in a uniform manner (especially in the case of manual entry).
- How to handle data-related errors. Make procedures (even when they're not intended to yourself) with clear guidelines for how errors will be managed. As an example, how do fix duplicate or inaccurate entries?
- Preventing dirty data in the initial place. In practice, this may include adding important fields on your forms to collect data and removing nonessential fields. In addition, you can conduct a data audit regularly to ensure that no dirty data is getting back into your company through an old lead generation template, for example.
Data hygiene is the most crucial aspect
Data alone isn't enough to grow your business or directly promote sales or marketing.
To avoid losing revenue, time, and customers, and even jeopardizing the reputation of your company, your data needs to be free of errors. Making sure your data is maintained with good hygiene practices ensures you have useful insights that your company can utilize with confidence!
We at iData are believers on the value of data, and not just for huge multi-person corporations however, we believe it is essential for our favourite type of business , those operated by one-person, enthusiastic entrepreneurs. We're here to talk with you!