We often see online marketers relying on risky assumptions about CRM data in their data decisioning processes. We’ve come to refer to these assumptions as “CRM Data Myths.” More on that in a moment, but the bottom line for everyone is clean data performs better.

It is true that using data to drive exceptional marketing outcomes is a mixture of art and science. Unfortunately, marketers put their programs at risk when questionable data is used to identify, target and ultimately populate Email campaigns. The most common pitfall is not totally understanding existing threats and how they can easily be avoided.

Hygiene, in the case of email, refers to the ability to identify email threats in a CRM database. The total body of these addresses is continually changing as emails come into the marketing mix from existing trusted sources, or from new entries on your own web properties. Poor data quality, particularly as it relates to email marketing, can cause damage to your Sender Reputation, inbox delivery and the efficiency of your campaign conversions.

Good data hygiene also translates into better performance for your data onboarding efforts. One immediate benefit brands see is increased match rates. Achieving the highest accurate match rate is important because it directly correlates to the size of your qualified audience for a given marketing program.

The process to increase the data quality of your CRM is straightforward but first you must dispel what we’ve come to refer to as the “CRM Data Myths:”

Myth: Bad data is easy to find

Myth: I don’t have bad data because all my email addresses are from my website

Myth: Spamtraps can’t be detected

Myth: Hygiene isn’t necessary because we have an in-house list cleaning process

Experience has shown that a reliable, repeatable hygiene process finds:

Sender Reputation Threats (spam traps, honey pots, etc.)

Inbox Delivery Threats (bots, content spammers, spelling and typos, etc.)

Customer Conversion Threats (zombies, bogus usernames, profanity, etc.)

Dirty data is incredibly harmful to your future email campaigns. Beyond spam complaints, email service providers are calculating opens, clicks, unsubscribes, and inactivity. ISPs are stricter and more discerning than ever. And bad email addresses are a quick path to bad sender reputation and SPAM folders. Inbox placement is your pot of gold as a sender and email hygiene services identify and solve many problems associated with dirty data.

Clean email lists perform better. Keeping your email data healthy by proactively managing your new and existing subscriber information should be a critical part of your marketing efforts.   It’s particularly important prior to initial mailings to a new list and should continue as you review your data sources and how they enter your email marketing programs.

Join us, along with LiveRamp and Acxiom, for a webinar on Wednesday, February 4. We’ll explore in-depth, the common myths about email data hygiene and share best practices to help you extract the most value from your CRM data.

Article From: liveramp.com