When developing the customer intelligence that’s critical to making good business decisions, data plays a defining role. But although most businesses are well-versed in the power of data as well as the value of marketing automation, they often overlook the ways in which data hygiene can shape results. According to the 2016 MarTech Data Report, an annual study conducted by data-automation vendor Openprise, data scrubbing, a technique that detects inaccurate data, and data deduplication, the art of deleting redundant data, pose major challenges for 49 per cent of businesses that responded. Here’s why doing your data-hygiene due diligence can seriously improve your business growth.
Using data to your advantage
There’s no point using data to make decisions if you’re not sure whether you’re working from information you can trust. That’s why investing in data-scrubbing tools or introducing regular procedures to maintain the integrity of your data can influence everything from customer relationships and major purchases to future planning and hiring decisions. If you don’t scrub your data, you also miss out on the chance to cross-sell your products or understand what your customers really want. Inaccurate data can also create unwanted silos between departments.
Focusing on what counts
Data deduplication refers to the act of eliminating extra copies of data in your data set and analysing patterns to identify single files. It’s important to note that the process retains one copy of the relevant piece of data. It also preserves the indexing so that you can retrieve data down the track. Data deduplication:
- Enhances the run times and performance of software and storage systems
- Drastically reduces storage costs
- Frees up crucial space.
By erasing duplicate data, it lets you focus on the figures that count.