We’ve talked about cleaning up your inbox as well as spring cleaning your business, but one of the most important things your business can do is clean up your CRM database.
The Truth About Your Database
A CRM database is one of the most important assets for sales and marketing teams. Ensuring that the information within the database is accurate is critical to successfully communicating with your leads and customers. But if left unkept, that information goes bad in a hurry. In fact, conservative estimates show that data decays at around 30% a year. There’s vast importance to keeping your database updated.
Where to Start
The first step is removing your contacts that have unsubscribed from your communications. This is important because if you continue to email unengaged contacts, you may become blacklisted and internet service providers (ISP) could potentially send all communications from your IP address to recipients spam or junk folders – not ideal.
Then filter those who have stopped engaging. Most CRMs will let you see the last time a contact opened an email or the last time a contact replied to a member of the sales team. After you filter out those who have stopped engaging with your company, you can remove them.
Create a Process
After you’ve rid your database of unengaged contacts, it’s time to put in place some standard operating procedures for those who input information into your database. Identify what fields are required for all manual contact record creation. If your contacts are created from form submissions, add fields to the form that you feel are essential for contact records.
Scheduled Cleanups
The frequency of your scheduled database cleanups depend entirely on the size of your database and the clarity and execution of your processes. Some companies may be able to get away with a once-a-year cleanup effort while others may need to do it on a monthly or quarterly basis. Remember, data decays rather quickly so once you create a schedule, make sure you stick to it.
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