How often do you clean your contacts database?

[JorieMunroe]

We’re in a data-driven era, where datasets are shared between marketing, sales, and customer service teams to increase organizational effectiveness and facilitate alignment. When you have high levels of inconsistent data, it’s not just one team taking the hit. It’s everyone. The entire company. The fallout from that bad data extends to every corner of your business that the data touches. With that in mind, how often do you currently audit and clean your contacts database? Once a month? Every quarter? Once a year? What does the process look like? Share your thoughts and current schedule.

[SLim5]

every quarter of the year is good. gives you enough time to update database before and after campaign completion

[MMidy]

Every quarter! We have an outbound sales team and work with multiple types of industries- so shifts in the economy affect our data as well as shifts in industries

[BJones44]

You should clean your contacts database at least once every quarter! It has been known, when contacts are not thoroughly gone through, that it could cost your company as much as 10-15% of it's revenue.

[han13]

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to how often contact databases should be cleaned. It's a decision that depends on your specific circumstances and priorities. Like for instance, according to the business needs - is it for marketing, sales or the like then regular cleaning is required to maintain data integrity. Some industries might also have data standards so accordingly data is cleaned following the legal obligations. Regularly assessing the quality of your data and the impact of outdated information on your business to determine an appropriate cleaning frequency.

[MattJGillooly]

You should do this every quarter which aligns with most businesses regular cadence. However, a best practice is to incorporate data cleansing into every day processes so that it is less of a big lift at specific intervals and is instead cleaned as you go. In this way you can create a positive feedback loop where you have fresh information prioritized and as data becomes stale or outdated those records are refreshed. 

For example if there are duplicates they should be updated to reflect newer, more pertinent information  if needs have shifted, while maintaining historical records of shifts. Additionally, in the course of ordinary operations there should be set standards to establish at what point companies or records become disengaged such as customers who have churned. In a cancellation survey you could associate the reasons why and incorporate that feedback to improve the overall offering to avoid negative experiences to continue.  In this way the system is self cleansing so that when big opportunities arise there aren't huge roadblocks and bad data preventing successful campaigns and positive relationships and growth from contacts and businesses. 

[RPaterson4]

Before launching a campaign.

[ÅWarberg]

Every half year or annual 

[Mike-Daniel]

We use a tiered approach. We run some quarterly clean up on hard bounces, unsubscribes, etc. to identify the low-hanging fruit. On a semi-annual or annual basis, we'll also use third party tools like Kickbox or BriteVerify for a broader assessment of our current DB health. 

We also have an on-going workflow that attempts to re-engage contacts who are "aging out." If they do not respond to one or more of our thought-leadership content pieces, we will flag these as non-marketing uness they re-engage later on their own terms. 

[JaneMendoza08]

The contact database should be cleaned quarterly to maintain accurate contact information.

[MSafey]

i do it once a year or after a major shift like corona , major layoff waves , etc 

[NNaseem]

To be able to ensure the best outcomes, quarterly cleaning up and managing your contacts database is a good approach. However, if one feels the need to do it more often than that, should do so. It will only yeild better results in my opinion (should you be removing the inactive ones only and not the right kind of contacts).

[ABerrett]

Once a quarter seems to be the sweet spot, or sooner if I notice there had been a surge of bots. For example, if I suddenly get a bunch of new contacts with nothing that should have triggered it, that's when I'll go investigate to see why that's the case - it's usually fake accounts. Luckily that doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

[gblaney]

Quarterly, unless you find the need to do it more often than that.

[LYasir]

yeah i agree as well. Once a quarter would be best. This will ensure contacts are still active. 

[FZlatanou]

At least once per 6 months to ensure your contacts are still active and in the position and company you have left them.

[RGreen1]

I think this depends on marketing efforts, but contact database cleaning should be done at least once a quater.  

[ADAnzica]

I think every 1-2 quarters, companies should clean out the database that way it is not constantly time-consuming.

[El-Maraghy]

Scheduled review once a quarter, but regularly reviewed and maintained to keep accurate information for our contact lists

[AEmley]

At least once a quarter

[JJames54]

it is generally recommended to regularly review and clean your contacts database at least once a quarter to ensure data accuracy and maintain the effectiveness of your marketing, sales, and customer service efforts.

[BMerkley]

It would be ideal to do it once every quarter, with maintenance on a daily basis if a contact is found to be spam or invalid info. I don't think we do it at all right now