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 needs to 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Identifying outdated or otherwise inaccurate data is a key component of effective data hygiene.
What is data hygiene?
Data hygiene in general refers to the workflows and actions that lead to reliable and clean data, as TechTarget explained. When it comes to 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 that focuses 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 major advantage. This approach allows marketers, IT staff and other key stakeholders to focus on core duties instead of spending significant time addressing data hygiene concerns.
Where does inaccurate data come from?
There are a number of sources of inaccurate data. Information entered by hand into a CRM platform might contain human errors. Existing records, which where wholly accurate at the time they were first added, can become outdated over time. Technical and formatting errors can make otherwise valid data inaccessible when staff search for it.
Identifying sources of inaccurate data is important for all companies and critical for those that handle data hygiene completely 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 role in a different school or district. Administrators, teachers and other professionals within the world of education frequently change roles.
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 by moving to a new one entirely. Even established and tenured college professors can stop teaching a certain 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 clear 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 it’s re-engaging inactive email subscribers or ensuring your next campaign can consistently reach new prospects, identifying goals is a crucial step in reaching 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.
