How to increase database integrity to crush your 2018 targets

As you start planning your budgets and targets for the coming year, data will be front and center. Columnist Scott Vaughan shares four strategies to help you commit to a data integrity plan in 2018.Planning, budgeting and target-setting for 2018 are in full swing. I’ve been comparing notes with B2B marketing executives about their keys to hitting or missing their 2018 growth targets. A surprising make-or-break topic bubbled up in the conversations: data.We know prospect, customer and account data is essential fuel for sales and marketing demand, pipeline and revenue effort. However, marketing execs are becoming increasingly frustrated with the amount of bad data wreaking havoc on our ability to execute. To amplify the point, a mere 6.6 percent of B2B marketers believe their data is complete and up-to-date, according to the 2017 “State of Pipeline Marketing” report produced by B2B companies Heinz Marketing, LinkedIn, Bizible, Uberflip and Radius.For perspective, just a decade ago, we B2B marketers were starving for any kind of marketing data. We pored over customer data to better understand what our prospects, customers and partners needed and desired.