Enhancing data is a regular thing for us at Blue Sheep. This is good, because we're experts at it.

However, that also means it's easy to forget what it's like to be new to the world of marketing data and had a head full of questions. How do I use data to find my best customers? What is a Single Customer View? What’s the problem with dirty data?

One thing that often causes confusion for the uninitiated is data enhancement. What is it and how do you enhance data? Why even enhance your data in the first place?

Think of us as Mr Miyagi from The Karate Kid. Your data (and by data we mean your customer or client records), have potential. But they're going to need serious work before you can enter the competition, let alone beat Cobra Kai.

At the moment, your customer records are dirty, disorganised, inaccurate and out-of-date. Having to use this data to find customers, personalise communications, and deliver a marketing campaign message to them will be about as effective as The Karate Kid Part IV (remember that one?) was in the Box office.

So, if you want a black belt in delivering precision marketing communications, step into Blue Sheep's data dojo to learn what to do next...

Undertake an audit

Completing a data quality audit is a great place to start. By conducting comprehensive analysis of your existing database, you can identify any inaccuracies and incomplete customer and prospect data. Plus, we can run your database against our UK Data Universe to show you all the extra things you could know about your existing customers.

Find and remove duplicates

When you collect data from multiple sources and devices, with customers and staff creating multiple accounts, duplicates are hard to avoid. Through data enhancement, you can get a true sense of how many customers you really have, by removing all the duplicated names, emails and contact details and merging them into a single record.

Wipe out typos

You can read more about the impact that human error issues can have with data quality but even tiny mistakes can have a big impact. A misspelled name could mean a peeved customer. But a mistyped email means no message arrives at all. Data enhancement ensured that names and details can be cross-referenced and verified for accuracy.

Screen and suppress

The record might be merged. The details could be seemingly accurate. This still doesn’t necessarily mean you can use it though. Screenings check your database against up-to-date records that ensure that address or job titles are current, their direct marketing preferences, if they are ineligible for you services (if you sell financial products, for example) and whether they are alive or not. There’s no avoiding it – the deceased have poor open rates and their relatives don’t like you sending them credit card offers.

Enhance and append

Daniel-san had his Crane Kick. You can have this. By appending your records with complementary data from third parties, you can build a more complete picture of your customers and prospects. This, in turn, helps you find more prospects, segment your customers with greater precision and send more targeted messages with an increased chance of response.

Now you’ve enjoyed your first lesson in our data enhancement dojo, we suggest you talk to one of Blue Sheep’s sensei’s to help your marketing data kick ass, too.

Want to Enhance your Data?

Call Blue Sheep about a Data Quality Audit: 01242 545 340 or email us for more information about cleaning and enhancing your customer data.