How You Can Understand and Improve Data Hygiene? Data hygiene is a critical aspect of effective outreach for marketers in the edtech industry. Whether your company has a select group of prospects it wants to connect with or plans for a much broader marketing effort, it must ensure its messaging reaches the right people. With a strong and consistent approach to data hygiene, your organization can eliminate dirty data and make more connections with the education professionals in your target audience.
Identifying outdated or otherwise inaccurate data is a critical component of effective data hygiene.
What is data hygiene? Data hygiene generally refers to the workflows and actions that lead to reliable and clean data , as TechTarget explained. Regarding edtech marketing, data hygiene is focused on improving and maintaining the accuracy of contact information, such as CRM data.
Data hygiene efforts can take many forms, from manually reviewing and changing existing information in-house to working with a third-party provider focusing on maintaining accurate records and following a rigorous update schedule. Because many edtech companies target a wide range of prospects in the initial phases of marketing, finding a dependable provider can be a significant advantage. This approach allows marketers, IT staff, and other key stakeholders to focus on core duties instead of spending substantial time addressing data hygiene concerns.
Where does inaccurate data come from? There are several sources of inaccurate data. Information entered by hand into a CRM platform might contain human errors. Existing records, which were wholly accurate when first added, can become outdated. Technical and formatting errors can make otherwise valid data inaccessible when staff searches for it.
Identifying sources of inaccurate data is vital for all companies and critical for those that handle data hygiene entirely in-house. One of the benefits of working with a trusted provider is knowing they won’t provide inaccurate or otherwise troublesome data for your marketing efforts.
Why is data hygiene important? Good data hygiene can make the difference between reaching out to active, relevant, and interested prospects and attempting to contact education professionals who have changed roles, moved on from the field, or taken a new part in a different school or district. Administrators, teachers, and other professionals within the world of education frequently change positions.
Elementary school teachers may move to a new grade level due to their qualifications and the needs of the school they work for. Administrators might advance their careers by taking on a new position within a district or moving to a new one entirely. Even established and tenured college professors can stop teaching a particular class and move on to leading other ones. And, of course, many education professionals retire or otherwise leave the world of education each year. With so much instability, data hygiene’s importance is evident for edtech marketers.
Data is a company’s most important asset when it comes to marketing efforts – as long as that information is accurate, current, and reliable.
What are your overall goals and expectations for data cleansing? Good data hygiene leads to better marketing results. Whether re-engaging inactive email subscribers or ensuring your next campaign can consistently reach new prospects, identifying goals is crucial in achieving specific goals.
Agile has the experience, skill and knowledge to supplement your data hygiene efforts by providing trustworthy, accurate and current educational marketing data whenever your organization needs it. To learn more, get in touch with us today.