CRM data enrichment is the process of supplementing an existing CRM database with additional information to make it more valuable for internal teams (such as sales, marketing, and customer services). The additional details might include social media handles, job titles, company name, company size, purchasing history, and more.
How is CRM data enrichment done?
CRM data enrichment aims to provide a comprehensive view of the customers, leads, and prospects. The process begins with evaluating the existing database and cleaning irrelevant, outdated, or incorrect records to make room for additional records. Then, data is collected from various sources to augment the CRM system with additional data points. Finally, enriched data is validated to make sure the added information is useful and reliable.
Common benefits of CRM data enrichment
Helps you understand your customers better
By augmenting basic contact details with additional information such as social media profiles, job roles, and product preferences, businesses can create detailed customer profiles. These profiles can be utilized to tailor products and services as per customer’s needs.
Improves customer experience
Customers appreciate tailored communication and offerings that align with their needs. By enriching CRM data with additional details about customer preferences, behavior, and demographics, businesses can create more personalized interactions.
Helps in customer segmentation
CRM data enrichment helps in segmenting customers into groups based on various criteria. By leveraging the enriched data, you can create customer segments that can help you develop tailored marketing strategies for specific target groups. The enriched data can be analyzed to prioritize leads according to their propensity to convert, enabling sales teams to concentrate their efforts on high-value leads.
For example, in healthcare, segments based on enriched data can be created to group patients with a specific chronic condition. Healthcare settings like patient welfare organizations can develop targeted outreach programs, educational materials, or even personalized wellness plans to address common concerns among this cohort.
Ensures precision in targeted marketing
CRM data enrichment plays a pivotal role in targeted marketing by providing accurate and up-to-date information about customer preferences, behaviors, and purchase history. Armed with this enriched data, businesses can craft highly personalized and targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with individual customers, resulting in improved engagement and conversion rates.
Best practices to enrich CRM data
The final goal of customer data appending is to provide complete information about consumers to anyone using the CRM system. This can only be achieved if customer records enrichment is done right. Let’s delve into some of the best practices that you can follow to perform effective CRM data enrichment.
Audit and clean existing customer database
Conduct a comprehensive audit of your existing CRM data. Identify any inaccuracies, duplications, or incomplete entries and rectify them by deploying a data cleansing process. This will make room for new information that is to be added during enrichment.
Rely only on trusted sources to extract the required data
Trusted sources like industry reports, business websites, government databases, and social profiles provide accurate and reliable information. By collecting data from such trusted sources, you can ensure that the data added to the CRM system is credible.
There are several ways to collect data for enriching your CRM:
In-house data collection: Delegating this task to your team is an option, but it may not be practical for many businesses due to the time and resources it consumes.
Purchase databases: This is the fastest way to gather customer data for enrichment, but the accuracy and usability of the data are questionable. Moreover, there is uncertainty over such data complying with privacy regulations.
Outsource to experts: The most cost-effective and time-efficient approach is to outsource data collection services to professionals. These experts possess the skills to securely extract data from various trusted sources while complying with data privacy regulations.
Encourage customer self-service
Empower customers to update their information through self-service portals. This not only ensures the accuracy of their data but also saves time for your team. Implement a streamlined process that encourages customers to keep their profiles up-to-date, reflecting any changes in contact information or other details.
Use data enrichment tools to speed up the process
Leveraging automated tools is crucial to expedite CRM data enrichment processes, particularly for tasks such as data collection, data appending, and data validation, which are repetitive and resource-intensive. These tools can efficiently handle large volumes of data and save valuable time for your team. However, it's essential to understand that the outcomes of these tools are not always accurate and require human intervention to validate the enriched data.
To ensure utmost precision, a diligent manual validation process should complement the automated tools. By reviewing and validating each entry manually, you can identify any discrepancies or nuances that automated processes might overlook.
Get help from third-party data enrichment service providers
Appending a CRM database is not a quick and easy process. It requires time and expertise to perform effective customer data enrichment. You don't want your team to spend more time managing CRM data rather than using it. This is where outsourcing data enrichment services proves beneficial. Third-party service providers are well-versed with the ins and outs of the enrichment process and can enhance your CRM database quickly, accurately, and at scale.
Best CRM data enrichment tools
1. Clearbit
The Clearbit data enrichment tool empowers businesses by granting immediate access to extensive data sets, facilitating precise lead scoring and advanced customer segmentation. With over 100 B2B attributes meticulously distilled from a diverse array of 250+ sources, this tool ensures that records remain up-to-date through automatic refreshes triggered by any detected changes.
2. Enricher.io
Enricher.io distinguishes itself with its simplicity and cost-effectiveness. This tool can turn any email or domain into a full identity or company profile. With over 1.2 billion profiles, Enricher.io offers more than 26 data attributes including full names, phone numbers, emails, and addresses.
3. BeenVerified
BeenVerified is known for its user-friendly interface. By entering a person's first and last name along with their location, the tool provides additional information about that individual, including phone number, email, address, and more.
4. ZoomInfo
For small to medium businesses seeking a reliable data enrichment tool, ZoomInfo stands out as a trustworthy option. The platform, known for its data warehousing, data enrichment, and data cleaning capabilities, is trusted by over 30,000 companies globally. ZoomInfo provides a variety of plans, pricing options, and use cases to cater to the diverse needs of businesses
Transform your business with the right CRM data
CRM systems are only as good as the data it holds. The more information you have about a customer, the better. This can only be achieved with CRM data enrichment. Understanding the importance of enriching customer databases, following the best practices, and using the right tools proves to be the recipe for a healthy business database.