Marketing with Your Database

7. Keep a Clean Database

Investing effort to improve the quality of your data is essential if your marketing campaigns and analysis are to be effective.

7.1 Removing duplicates is vital, whether it is done automatically or by manual checking.

• Customers are irritated by duplicate mailshots - and you waste money.
• Undelivered mail that comes back to your return address and that you then remove from your database saves you money next time.

7.2 Update your data often. An unmaintained list is generally unusable after two years.

• Set clear rules about when and how information is updated and who does it.
• Get feedback. Encourage recipients to correct errors in their name and address details or to say no to any further contact.

7.3 Devise systems to check data for errors.

• Spot checking by eye is surprisingly effective.
• Use software that automatically generates an address from a postcode and checks the spelling against Royal Mail's files, (details from Royal Mail, 08457 740 740).
• Give each customer a URN (unique reference number), which goes on the letter and the envelope. It ensures every update is matched to the right record.Every database can use URNs. Sort orders by URNs, rather than names, and you can be sure that nothing has been duplicated.

7.4 Give employees credit, and make them accountable, for the data they have entered.

• Consider tagging information, so you can see who entered how many records each month and reward good performance.