When you spend a lot of time, as I do, reviewing how legal organisations’ marketing efforts are performing and working with them to make those efforts more effective, one issue really stands out across the board.
Their contact data is defective.
I appreciate that dealing with data is generally considered pretty dull. It just isn’t up there in most people’s top 10 (probably top 50) work activities that they enjoy. Perfect data is also probably a pipe dream. However, good and reliable data is absolutely vital to all areas of a business – not just the marketing department.
Why good data on contacts is essential to a successful business
If you do not have accurate information on who your contacts are and what their interests are then:
- How are you going to reach the right people when you have something you want to tell people about? Sending out irrelevant information to contacts will be completely ineffective and could even be counter-productive – encouraging people to unsubscribe, for example.
- You will definitely not be able to set up a targeted list unless you do this manually or by manually updating an initial list off the system. Both are extremely time consuming and to a large extent unnecessary if your data is good.
- If you don’t then update the system, the next time you want to reach the particular segment you have spent hours putting together, you will have to reinvent the wheel.
- You will be increasing mailing costs as most digital mailing systems charge you per person contacted.
- You will be unable to interrogate your data to provide business information.
Some of the big “no NO”s
Some of the behaviours that I have observed which prevent good data being captured are:
- Inputting generic information simply to ensure that the system allows you to input a contact. What do I mean by this? For example, inputting abc@abc.com because you don’t have the email address to hand. If you have to do this for some reason initially, you should always go back and add it in. As this will never get done 100% of the time, running regular reports to pick it up is a good idea.
- Taking some information off the system, spending time updating it and slimming it down to suit a particular target area but then not going back and updating the base system.
- Never reviewing the data on the system. This means that you will not be complying with your organisation’s own privacy policy (eg removing data after whatever period you have set for inactive contacts).
- Not dealing with bounce backs. It is almost impossible to run a mailing without encountering bounce backs. However, if you don’t keep on top of them, they build up to epidemic proportions.
- Running mailing lists through Outlook and blind copying in all the contacts. As spam mail often uses this device, your contacts’ mail filters will often prevent such emails passing through to the intended recipient.
What do you need to do
Here are some top tips on how to improve the quality of your data:
- Investigate whether it is possible to do any automated data cleansing. Lex, for example, will be able to do this for barristers’ chambers.
- Review how data on contacts is logged. What fields are mandatory? What information do you collect? Has the contact input template put sufficient thought into collecting data for marketing purposes? Or is it being input to track what to bill and then invoice that?
- Set up systems so your organisation regularly reviews data. This can be a task shared amongst different teams.
- Train those who are inputting the data so they are aware of why it is so important for them to input contacts consistently and accurately.
- Ask clients to whitelist the email from which your marketing comes (if you use a central email such as events@).
It is never too late to get on top of your data! And the longer you leave it, the bigger the problem becomes.