In a world where many businesses are pushing to get more sales and do more with less, marketing teams feel pressure to drive more leads. However, amidst the push to generate more leads and increase customer base size, more companies should focus on deepening relationships with their existing leads and companies.

Since 81% of consumers say that trust is a deciding factor in purchase decisions, most marketers I speak with agree that building trust to drive sales is a good strategy. However, many are missing a key driver—understanding how to do it. While there are a lot of factors that go into this, having high-quality shared data is one of the most valuable.  

The Importance of Shared Data 

Good data is an important factor in successful marketing operations. However, it’s not just about having good, clean data. It’s also important that people who need access to the data can access it. 

After all, it’s tough to use data when you don’t have access to it. In my world, when we talk about ensuring everyone has the access they need, we refer to it as surfacing the data. 

The Problem with Siloed Data 

When data is kept in silos, it often means that different departments or personnel track different types of information, which can lead to ineffective customer service, mistargeted campaigns, and a host of other challenges that often lead to customers and leads losing trust in your company. 

What Data Should be Surfaced and Shared?  

Ultimately, all of it. Any tracked marketing, operations, or customer service data, including, but not limited to  

Shared data also has the potential to reduce customer churn and increase customer loyalty. When your team has access to historical data and up-to-date information, they can better serve your customers in a timely fashion, gaining trust and, in turn, loyalty.   

Understanding if You Have a Data Problem 

Unless you use a platform with a shared database, like the Adobe ecosystem or Microsoft Dynamics platform, you may struggle with siloed data, tracking data in Excel spreadsheets or broken or insufficient integrations. 

On the other hand, when an organization uses a shared platform with different dashboards, your marketing, sales and customer service systems don’t have to speak to each other. They’re part of the same platform by design. 

On the other hand, if you use a series of integrations to connect multiple platforms, if one of them breaks, you may not realize it until the complaints about poor, inaccurate communications and subsequent unsubscribes start flooding in. 

The Challenge of Legacy Systems

If you use a legacy system without the ability to surface data, it can be a headache to ensure the right people have access to accurate, up-to-date customer information without having to log into multiple systems. 

How to Fix Your Data Problem and Build Exceptional Processes  

Most marketers and organizations want confidence in their data integrity and automation functionality. The best way to ensure this is to use a platform with a single database, like Microsoft Dynamics or Adobe, as referenced above.  

Additionally, one of the best practices is to build processes as well as a series of checks and balances to ensure that the correct data gets to the right team members and that your automations are functioning correctly.  

Microsoft Dynamics allows you to set up specific rules to ensure data integrity. For example, if someone signs up with a duplicate name and date of birth, the database can flag it for review to minimize duplicate contacts. 

If you use integrations to surface your data, one of the best practices is to set up redundancies or checks and balances that trigger notifications if it’s not working correctly.  While some people may balk at investing time in building these fail-safes, a few hours now could save you considerably more time in customer support and money in lost sales. 

Accessing Good Data Can Strengthen Your Bottom Line 

When everyone in your organization has access to the data they need, it’s possible to market, sell, and operate more efficiently and effectively. 

After all, when you can reduce confusion, minimize bad data, and get appropriately tailored messages and offers to your customers, you build trust with them. Moreover, by continually getting it right, you build a strong reputation as a company with excellent service at every stage of the customer journey.