60% of Companies Reviewed Their Data in 2023 - Learn Why

Spring cleaning usually describes the practice of thoroughly cleaning a house in the springtime. However, in marketing, it also applies to the data that you might use, analyze, and store to plan out your successful marketing strategies in a specific market. For example, when you market in Europe, all your collected data needs to be GDPR compliant. This not only keeps you safe from having to pay high fines but as a recent MDR report on the risks of dirty data discovered, cleaning up your database could boost your company’s revenue by up to 66 percent. Let's go deeper into the how...

New season, new audiences

The new year is also a good time to think about the audiences you are targeting with your products and services. Maybe you ran a campaign or two last year that didn’t reach the levels of success you had hoped for. Revisiting your buyer personas might breathe new life into your marketing campaigns by ensuring that you are communicating the right message to the right person.

Understand the impact of "dirty" data

Data quality is the foundation of any good marketing strategy. Analytics, campaign management, user experience, and reporting are all underpinned by data quality and can have a significant impact on your organization’s efficiency, competitiveness, and brand awareness. Without quality data, a large proportion of your campaigns won’t reach the intended recipients. In most cases, dirty data can result in lost opportunities, reduced sales, and wasted marketing budgets.

Each year data degrades by 20%, which means that if your database is just a few years old, a large proportion of your data is likely to be outdated and your budgets are being wasted. 

Consider a Digital Data review

1. Focus on Your Key Metrics

Collect all of your goals and key metrics in one place, so you get a sense of the overall accomplishments you’re looking for in the next year. When possible, avoid vanity metrics like the number of followers, unless you can show that they are closely related to achieving what actually matters to your business—like conversions.

The data being collected by Google Analytics and Google Search Console is priceless. Make sure the CRM system you are using is connected to your website and tracking properly.

2. Analyse all of your marketing strategies

Create a list of the strategies and platforms you’re using to spread your digital marketing message, including. If you are running any digital ads or pay-per-click campaigns (such as using Google Ads), make sure you are checking in on them regularly and tweaking them accordingly:

• Email marketing
• Content marketing
• SEO
• Your website
• Webinars and live events
• Blogging
• Podcasts
• Social media channels

It's important to evaluate the ROI you get for each when it comes to the market your focusing your energy on. For example, while Twitter might be a good marketing channel in the US, in Europe you'll find countries where it is seldom used. Also, some forms of digital advertising prohibited in the EU, such as Google Analytics and LinkedIn messaging ads, which might sway your strategy into marketing areas your team is not as accustomed to.

3. Review what are your competitors doing

After conducting your Spring Cleaning, you will find that now you have free resources, in time and money that you can reinvest elsewhere. Why not use it to check what's happening with your competition and see if they are investing somewhere you aren’t? Start with just your top three competitors. Check out their website to find out where they are active in social media and which other digital media strategies they are using.

What Did We Learn?

• We recommend at least a quarterly audit. Some businesses have information changing more regularly than that, such as shops. Others don’t see much change over the course of a year, but checking in every three months will get you in the habit of being more aware of your digital presence and more apt to update your information as soon as it changes. 
  
  
• Your website should be the most reliable source of information about your business, so make sure it’s up-to-date with all the relevant information: hours, products, services, menus, prices, contact information, location, and more. Make sure your website is functioning as it should be and is in good health.
  
  
• Look into whether social media platforms have accidentally, or by default, been given permission to access other sources of data. Go through your company apps with a fine-tooth comb to ensure that you’re only intentionally cross-connected with accounts, passwords have recently been changed, passwords are secure and unique, and that old employee users have been removed.

Want to better prepare your marketing strategy in the next quarter? Connect with us.

Sources: VAB, The Verge

About EuroDev

By developing a digital marketing strategy tailored to Europe, we enable you to gain a foothold in the European market. We are the experts in Europe, you are the expert in your business. Together we will achieve success. We are convinced that digital marketing is not an "afterthought", but a crucial investment needed to get a foothold in an increasingly complex sales landscape. That's what we believe in. 

Discover more about Digital Marketing services provided by EuroDev.