For any individual or business that generates revenue from sales activities. It can be an incredibly frustrating and difficult experience to rely on data that is incomplete or inaccurate.
The reason for this experience is that most businesses work with data that is either outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate.
This can be due to any number of reasons, such as using only an email hunting tool to generate prospect lists, without supplementing this tool with another that is designed to improve the quality of the data extracted.
For this reason, platforms such as LeadsChilly have gained popularity in recent years. As they offer complete end-to-end. And integrated sales systems that make the process of online prospecting extremely easy, efficient and accurate.
The purpose of this article is to give the reader an understanding as to what data enrichment is, how it can benefit them and the types of data that they should be holding.
What is data enrichment?
The first point of understanding that forms the vital foundation for understanding within this domain, is to define what data enrichment is.
From this perspective, data enrichment can be defined as the process of enhancing existing information by supplementing missing or incomplete data.
Typically, data enrichment is achieved by using external data sources, however, that is not always the case. From this definition it is easy to see that data enrichment deals with increasing the accuracy of the data that a business holds.
According to the national association of sales professionals, the biggest barrier to lead generation success is the lack of quality data. As detailed in the introduction, this hemoninon can be attributed to multiple factors.
However one of the most common is the use of an email hunter to create lead generation lists, without making use of a data enrichment tool to counterbalance the accuracy of the data obtained.
For example, the email hunter will pull email addresses from the defined online sources. However the exported data will be incomplete as it will not contain the persons name, their company name, or their position at the company. The data will need to be enriched in order for it to be valuable information for the company.
Benefits of Data Enrichment
It is obvious that data enrichment is a vital aspect of the lead generation and prospecting phase of making sales. Data enrichment is generally done via a subscription to an online database.
These databases contain millions of verified data points. That can be use to build out the data points that the business holds.
For example, the business may have used an email hunter to obtain a list of email addresses. The data enrichment database will add the missing data fields. Such as company name, persons name, position within the company and geographic location, amongst others.
Data enrichment holds a number of benefits for any business, these include but are not limited to:
1. Accuracy
Accurate data is the foundation of any successful sales funnel or campaign. The more accurate the data is, the better your chances of creating conversions.
2. Improved segmentation
Enriched and accurate data will allow you to better segment your audience along critical aspects. Such as location, demographics, psychographics and behavioral patterns. This in turn will allow you to reach them with the right message at the right time, in the right way.
3. Precise targeting and personalization
Personalization is an incredibly powerful way of engaging with your audience in a way that is most likely to move them down your funnel. Accurate and enriched data will also afford you the ability to more precisely target your audience.
4. Build better funnel strategies
Each stage of your funnel requires specific data in order to move your audience down towards a conversion. At each step, more accurate and precise data is need to ensure that you are able to build compelling propositions. That meet and resolve the pain points of your target audience.
5. Greater customer experience
Accurate data ensures that potential customers have the best possible experience with your brand in the sales process. Good customer experiences create good perceptions of the brand. That helps to build greater loyalty, and turns once off clients into repeat customers.
6. Improved ROI
Data is the basis of revenue. If your data is accurate, it allows for better experiences along your sales funnel. T ensures better experiences and ultimately improves the ROI of your sales and marketing efforts.
Four Types of Data that You Need
From this perspective of sales and marketing activities, it is obvious that the more data you have on a prospect, the more likely you are to convert them to a customer.
This is due to the ability of personalization that accurate data affords you. When you have the ability to personalize messages to the needs, wants and challenges of your target audience. You are able to streamline your communications for efficiency.
As a rule of thumb, there are 4 types of data that any business needs, as a minimum. In order to maximize their chances of sales success:
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Geographical
This is data that relates to the precious geographic location of the prospect, and includes information such as the country, the state, the city etc. having this data allows you to understand if you can market and sell to the prospect or not, given the resources of your company.
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Demographic
This type of data relates directly to the prospect and includes information such as age, gender, occup[ation, income level, education, religion etc. this data allows you to know if the prospect falls within you customer persona, and also what kind of messages may work.
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Psychographic
This type of data gives you an insight into the prospect as a personality, and includes information such as lifestyle, social class, personal values, attitudes and interests. This information helps you to identify the fit between your products and services and the potential needs and wants of the prospect.
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Behavioral
This type of data allows you to identify at what stage of the buying journey the prospect is in, and then develop strategies to lead them further down the funnel based on their needs.
Conclusion
Data enrichment is vital to be able to give you an expanded view of your prospect as a lead, and how to target them effectively.
You have the option to enrich your data manually, but that comes with numerous challenges and time-consuming activities. The best way to enrich your data is to use a data enrichment platform such as LeadsChilly.
LeadsChilly holds a database of over 700 million B2B and B2C data points, and is part of an end-to-end sales system, streamlining the sales process.
Leadschilly’s system includes a fully integrated email hunter tool, data enrichment tool, prospecting automation tool, and an email campaign management tool. And because it is a system of all four tools, it is available at a price point that is up to 75% cheaper than if you had to implement all of these tools individually.
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