An accurate, segmented contact list can help you reach the right customers with the right content. Here are some tips for cleaning up your email database.

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5 Steps to Record Success
Clean up your contact database

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Challenges
Common contact database issues:
• Old, invalid email addresses
If you haven’t emailed awkwardfish314@hotmail.com in a while, it’s very
possible their address has changed.
• Incomplete or fragmented lists
Only some customers are in the database, or various salespeople have their
own list.
• Information Islands
Many companies find that they have contacts listed through multiple tools,
Salesforce, MailChimp, SurveyMonkey, CRM’s, etc.
• Inconsistent data entry
Asking for or entering an email address for one batch of contacts but only a
phone number for the next.
• The all-or-nothing approach
Blasting the same content to all contacts instead of segmenting can cause
people to unsubscribe.
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So how do we fix this?
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1. Out With The Old
• Consolidate: Determine what program will house your
master list. Import all contacts to one point and determine
a process for maintenance.
• Validate: Using whatever third party email service you have,
send an email to your database – something of broad appeal
such as a company newsletter.
• Then segment the addresses that bounce.* Keep the contact
record, though.
*Create a “bad email” list. We will come back to these later.
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2. Contact Classification
• Think about your customer set and how you sell to them today.
• What criteria do you currently use to categorize your customers?
– Geography? – Profitability?
– Industry? – Product/services they purchase?
– Overall sales?
• Now think about what kind of content you would like to send to
them and what types of audiences would be most likely to respond
to that content. Some classification options include:
– Job title or position in company
– Market or industry category
– People who have taken a certain action
• Bought a product
• Downloaded a white paper
• Attended a trade show
• Cross reference these 2 lists and you will find your segmentation headings.
Hint: When in doubt, opt for more categories over fewer. It’s easier to consolidate
groups than to divide them later.
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Just do it!
This is the step where most people fall off.
Don’t be overwhelmed by the task.
Just get it done!
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3. Fill In The Gaps
Update: Spend the time and money to do it right.
• Go through your database one contact at a time and fill in
empty fields.
• Recover bounced email contacts.
– Study the bad email list and identify important contacts.
– Remove contacts you decide are “dead” as in no longer any use to you.
– For the remaining list (the important contacts you’ve identified)
• Verify the information that you have: phone, address, title, etc.
• Search out their new email address via LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. or call and ask.
• Use social media to keep up with customer info, activities and
interests.
Hint: Hire an intern or student to do the heavy lifting.
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The payoff
1. You now have an updated list of
all your customers.
2. You can directly target them with
relevant offers.
3. The time and money you spend
on marketing will now reach the
RIGHT people!
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4. Segment Your List
• Now that your master list is clean and complete, it is time to
create segments.
• Create 3 master segments.
– These are the 3 broadest segments that you anticipate using.
– Creating these segments will give you a starting point for your future
marketing emails. You can now target your content and offers to
specific audiences.
• As you see fit, continue to narrow and segment your list. Start
broad and add more categories over time.
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Targeted email
campaigns deliver!
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Relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than
broadcast emails.
Jupiter Research

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5. Schedule Regular Check-Ups
Keep it clean: Now that you have a clean database,
keep it that way.
• Enter new contact information as you learn it.
• Schedule periodic email campaigns to stay connected and
maintain addresses.
• Every quarter collect bounced email reports from your system
to create a “bad email” list. Process that list as previously
suggested and update your contacts.
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Remember…
• Make database maintenance an expectation for all customer-facing
employees (i.e., sales, marketing, service).
– Have employees add new and update existing contacts as an
on-going practice.
• Data entry consistency is key. Train your people to use equivalent
terms (ex: “pres” does not equal “president”).
• Think it through. Figuring out the best ways to segment your
audience will make is easier to reach the right people with the right
information.
• Accuracy is key. Only when you are confident that you have good,
clean data can you evaluate your approach toward your different
subgroups. Customers can’t claim offers they don’t receive.
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Check List
 Gather ALL your contacts to one place
 Purge the list of bad emails (make a “bad email” list)
 Add the recovered/updated contacts from bad email list
 Determine segments
 Add segment headers to database
 Create email lists for 3 top segments
 Assign an individual(s) the task of filling in the blanks
 Every quarter recreate your “bad email” list and clean it up
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Next Steps / Questions?
If you have comments or questions about
improving your contact database, contact us to
discuss how we can help.
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Launch Team, Inc
19 Prince Street
Rochester, NY 14607
585.256.1640
info@launchsolutions.com
www.launchsolutions.com