Why Data Auditing is Essential

Data auditing is a pretty important subject when it comes to handling data. 

While it may sound complicated from the offset, we’re here to break it down to the bare bones, so you’re not sent running to Wikipedia for an easier explanation.

What is Data Auditing? 

Data auditing is the auditing of data to assess its quality or for a specific purpose. This involves profiling the data and identifying records that are incomplete, the person is no longer there (goneaway) on the MPS register (Mailing Preference Service) or worst still, deceased. 

Why Do We Need to Audit?

Data auditing provides an assessment of whether your company or organisation is following an ethical and lawful data protection practice. This is essential, because not only can the audit show where you need to improve but knowing that your data auditing process follows the correct codes and conventions means there’s less chance of complaints from clients and you aren’t throwing money away by printing and mailing to people that don’t want it. 

Why is Data Auditing So Important?

There are a few reasons why we carry out data auditing:   

1. It Reduces Errors

According to Experian, human error and manual entry are the main causes of data inaccuracy, oops. 

In fact, human error is the reason that companies can lose up to 12% of their revenue. The reason for this? Simple, lack of internal processes to check accuracy. It’s a hard slog doing it manually and it can take a long time, and within this time, people often get tired, stressed and for lack of a better word, sloppy! 

Having your data audited will help you identify these inaccuracies such as incomplete addresses or incorrect postcodes, and prevent them by implementing new processes. The most common way this is done is by using data management software. This lets you know if your data is duplicate-free, accurate and consistent.

2. It reduces waste

By identifying out of date and invalid records, you have the opportunity to update or remove them. This allows you to avoid using paper and resources unnecessarily. Consumers are increasingly sensitive to corporate waste, so this is as much a PR issue as it is an ethicial one.

3. Can lead to improved customer retention & acquisition

Staying in touch with prospects and exisitng customers is vital. If you're contacting people who no longer work for a particular business, or the company address has changed, you leave the door open for competitors to fill the vacuum. Research shows that direct mail makes people feel valued, and they're more likely to open physical mail than an email. That's quite a powerful case for investing in the accuracy of your data.

4. It can lead to significant cost reduction

Quite simply, if you remove invalid records, especially those that are used for large scale repeat mailings, you can print less and post less, saving money. With budgets under pressure, being able to achieve the same (and sometimes more!) with less is something every organisation aspires to.

5. It can improve your ROI

If you're able to cut waste, reduce the size of your print, fulfilment and postage requirement, and achieve the same response level, your overall ROI will increase. With budgets under increasing scrutiny, achieiving a strong ROI is crucial.

What Happens after the Audit is Complete?

Following completion of an audit, The Mailng People provide a comprehensive report along with an executive summary. The audit report details how many records have been identified and under each quality control category e.g. movers, goneaways, deceased etc. with observations and recommendations by priority.

The audit itself is free and there is no obligation to take action. The costs come in when it comes to removing the records but the saving will always outweigh the cost of printing and mailing. After all - who would choose to send mail to a deceased person when they know that record could be removed?

Need a Crash Course in Data Auditing? 

We know it’s a lot to take in, we get that! That’s why we’re here to help if you’re unsure of how you should act or what you should be doing with your data and best of all, the audit is free.

If you’d like a quick chat with one of our team, no problem, give us a call. Contact Us. When it comes to data auditing and direct mail, there’s no such thing as a stupid question!

Written by Kristian Harrison, General Manager at The Mailing People. Kristian is an industry professional with over 20 years experience in Direct Mail and Fulfilment.