According to a recent article in Marketing Week, there has been a call by a committee of MPs to crack down on Senior Executives of Companies who are mis-selling customer data.

The Committee is urging Justice Secretary Ken Clarke to change the Data Protection Law to allow Judges to hand out custodial sentences for those Executives known to be breaching the Data Protection Act.

So how does this affect you? If you handle, manage or sell personally identifiable data you are bound by the Data Protection Act. One of the key principles is Principle 4: that you must keep data accurate and up to date. One of the simplest ways of doing this is to ensure you have a strategy to regularly cleanse your data using an online data cleansing service such as Data8Online. Remember, it is not the consumers responsibility to do this - it is yours. This principle covers everything from maintaining records of deceased individuals, holding up to date addresses and telephone numbers, which you can do using our online goneaway, mover and teleappending services.

To find out more about the Data Protection Act and how these changes might affect you, give us a call on 0151 355 4555 or register online for a free data quality audit.

Nicola Carpenter at the DMA today posted on a study saying that charities need to "up their game in social media". According to the article, charities are losing money because people simply don't know how to give a donation when following them on twitter or liking their Facebook page.

Social media is great for getting the message across and should be embraced by charities. However, I would urge them not to neglect the basics. It is proven that direct mail and telephone supporter contact generates a higher donation rate than e-marketing or in this case, social media.

So, what can be done? Data cleansing of existing supporters including obtaining new addresses for lapsed supporters, telephone number appending & validation and deceased screening. With all these services available online, the process is simple, quick and easy with the data being ready within a few minutes.

In short, whilst charities should be embracing social media, don't neglect more "traditional" marketing channels to ensure excellent results.

To find out more about the work we do for charities, feel free to give one of the team a call on 0151 355 4555.

According to the DMA, the fifth B2B Barometer report is due out later this month. In the document, over half (57%) of marketers report an increase in marketing spend in their B2B marketing campaigns.

But sometimes spending your money harder doesn't always mean better results. Sending out a marketing campaign to 100,000 contacts instead of 50,000 contacts may not always result in double the number of results.

The solution? Spend it smarter. Increase your conversion ratios by ensuring the data you are using is up to date, accurate and fit for purpose. By going through a business data cleansing exercise using our online data cleansing service you can easily identify and remove goneaway or invalid records, improving the quality of your campaign data. You can even append up to date e-mail addresses to ensure you maximise all channels of communication.

What you will notice is an increase in your conversion ratio because simply more of your campaign material is landing on the desk of the people you want it to.

To find out more about how our business data cleansing service can benefit you, visit http://www.data-8.co.uk/data_cleansing.aspx or give us a call on 0151 355 4555. 

Recently we've had a number of companies asking us to look at their data to market solar panel installations. Of course, this is a very competitive market indeed - after all, how many times will someone install solar panels on their property? With an average lifespan of about 25 years, it is important you get in there first before the competition.

So, what can you do with your data to ensure an efficient marketing campaign?

1.    De-duplicate your data at household level to ensure you only contact each prospective client once.

2.    Append up to date telephone numbers using BT OSIS or our own in house lifestyle landline and mobile data to ensure you are getting through to the right households.

3.    Validate in real time any existing telephone numbers you already have to ensure your sales team aren't wasting time calling dead or invalid telephone numbers - whether they are mobiles or landlines

4.    Remove any goneaway or deceased records from your marketing pool to avoid either calling the wrong person, or, even worse, attempting to call someone who has died.

Employ these data cleansing processes to your data before you begin your campaign and you will notice a dramatic increase in efficiency and put you ahead of your competition.

To find out more, call our sales team on 0151 355 4555.

Following John's earlier post about Royal Mail planning to stamp every envelope with "delivered by Royal Mail", it now appears the plan has been put on hold. According to an article in Marketing Week, Royal Mail has delayed its plans following complaints from direct marketers who were concerned that the change would reduce response rates from DM packs.

Either way, what we do know does reduce response rates is bad or inconsistent data management. Whoever delivers your direct marketing mail, whether it is Royal Mail or another company they will rely on your data being accurate. By taking part in a regular data cleansing exercise to suppress your goneaway records, remove deceased individuals and even obtain new addresses using our mover files, you can be sure you are sending over accurate data for mailing.

So, whoever delivers your mail, whether it has "delivered by Royal Mail" on or not, you can be sure you don't get it back with the words "Return to sender"...

For a free data audit on your database or for further information, register your details with us free of charge or give us a call on 0151 355 4555.