Published: 8/15/2024
Tom Kertesz
Account Director, Corporate, Dynata
When was the last time you were asked a question and thought the best answer was research from a few years ago and didn’t use it because the data might be stale. Old data is just that, old, yet there are times when enriching insights with a data append makes sense and showcases innovative thinking.
Adding new data elements to an existing database from external sources can be useful in many situations, primarily when you want to enrich your existing data and gain a deeper understanding of your customers or audience. This can be an innovative way to enhance current syndicated data, stretch research budgets and elevate upcoming learning plans.
Here a few some key scenarios where it makes sense to do a data append:
Fill the gaps: If your CRM database has holes in it, a data append can fill those gaps and create complete customer profiles.
Enhancing customer segmentation: By adding new data points like life stage, survey data, demographics or interests, you can segment your audience more effectively and personalize your marketing efforts and tying back to your CRM for greater insights.
Identifying new opportunities: Opportunity to “size the prize” using our modelling and activations solutions allowing you to identify new marketing opportunities and target potential customers more effectively.
Improving decision-making: With a more comprehensive view of your customers, you can make more informed decisions about product development, marketing campaigns, and overall business strategy.
The opportunities are endless. Strategic thinkers are consistently embracing ways to extend data’s shelf life.
Real World Examples
Brands: Appending industry leading 3rd party segmentation data (such as Acxiom/ Claritas etc.) to your brand research allows you to build a more complete picture of your customer base.
- E-commerce: Demographic data will enhance your customer profiles that have been reliant strictly on clicks, search and purchase history. This creates an opportunity to showcase shopper sentiment and interests to better understand why they did or did not they buy.
- Marketing agencies: Adding demographic & lifestyle data to personalize targeted campaigns will enhance measurement and streamline attribution process.
Data appends improve your company’s data quality when done correctly. Filling in the unknowns with insights and understanding you secure a comprehensive research dataset that reflects and supports your strategy and marketing needs.
Best Practices and things to consider:
- Data quality: Ensure the source of the external data is reliable and accurate. Our QualityScore uses machine learning to identify patterns of behavior that suggest poor quality data that can be related to fraud or other impediments to a successful project.
- Have a plan: What marketing question is this going to help solve? Identify a unique data point to match. Work with data partners to activate plan and be open to trying something new, technology evolves, we need to as well.
- Compliance: Be aware of country specific data privacy regulations and ensure you have permission to use the data for market research purposes.
Enriching your data can be a valuable tool for businesses and organizations looking to improve their understanding of their customers, personalize their marketing efforts, and make data-driven decisions.
This is a core competency of Team Dynata and we’ve delighted customers and partners with data innovation. Please reach out to learn more.