The Hidden Perils of B2B Data Deprecation: A Marketer’s Guide

In B2B marketing, accurate data is essential for success. However, data quality can decline over time due to a range of factors, which can undermine your marketing strategies and goals.  

In today’s digital age, data is at the heart of marketing strategies, helping businesses target their audience effectively, personalize content, and measure campaign performance. Data serves as the foundation upon which strategies are built and decisions are made.  

But what happens when this critical resource begins to degrade silently and subtly? When data quality deteriorates, it can lead to a range of issues that affect the overall effectiveness of marketing efforts.  

This can have far-reaching consequences for companies, often going unnoticed until it’s too late. 

This article explores the risks of data degradation on a company’s marketing efforts, examines the pivotal role of data integrity in achieving campaign success, and presents actionable solutions to fortify your data-driven strategies.  

Understanding B2B Data Deprecation 

Before we explore the key risks involved, let us understand what we mean by B2B data deprecation, often known as data decay. According to Neil Patel, data deprecation refers to how certain data types lose value and become less effective over time.   

This refers to the decline in quality, relevance, and value of the data that companies rely on for their business-to-business operations. It’s a gradual process that can affect various types of data, including customer information, market research, and financial records. Unlike data breaches or loss, which are immediate and noticeable, deprecation is a stealthy adversary that undermines databases over time. 

Deprecation can occur for several reasons. It might be due to the natural evolution of industries, where critical data points become obsolete. It can also be a result of technological advancements that render old data formats incompatible with new systems. Additionally, changes in regulations or compliance standards can suddenly transform once valuable datasets into liabilities. 

Like a car that depreciates when driven off the lot, B2B data begins to lose its value as soon as it is collected. The dynamic nature of the business world, characterized by job transitions, corporate restructurings, and evolving industry trends, all contribute to data deprecation. When data does not reflect these changes, it becomes bad data.  

B2B data deprecation exists in multiple dimensions:  

• Broad Database Deterioration: A robust B2B database includes not only email addresses but detailed information on accounts and contacts, industry-specific insights, purchasing behaviors, and decision-making influencers. Data risks becoming outdated as people change jobs, companies evolve, and industries shift. The detailed nature of B2B data means that any decay can significantly disrupt the integrity of the database. 

• Ongoing Data Asset Loss: The deterioration of a B2B database is not an isolated event but a continuous struggle. On average, databases can experience an accuracy decline of between 2% to 5% monthly, leading to significant data decay with the passage of time. Marketing Sherpa’s research showed that B2B data decays at a rate of 2.1% per month, which translates to an annualized rate of 22.5%.  

• The Ripple Effect of Data Neglect: The potential fallout from bad data is any marketer’s nemesis. After six months, a considerable portion of a database may become stale, inaccurate, and unusable, disrupting marketing efforts and distorting market analysis and strategic decisions that depend on accurate, timely data and insights. 

Is Your Business Experiencing Data Decay and Data Deprecation? 

Recognizing the symptoms of data depreciation is the first step toward mitigation.  

• Decrease in campaign effectiveness. If marketing efforts that once yielded high engagement and conversion rates are now falling short, outdated or irrelevant data could be the culprit. Another sign is an increase in customer complaints or dissatisfaction, which may suggest that support teams are operating on outdated client profiles or product information. 

• A rise in internal confusion or miscommunication can signal data deprecation. When teams have access to conflicting information, it leads to inefficiency and errors. Sales forecasts and market analyses that consistently miss the mark may also point to underlying data issues. If the intelligence that once helped predict trends and consumer behavior is no longer reliable, it’s likely that the data has lost its potency. 

• Technical difficulties such as system incompatibilities or increased database errors can be symptomatic of outdated data formats or structures. When IT departments spend more time fixing issues rather than innovating, it could be a sign that the data infrastructure is becoming obsolete. Recognizing these signs early can spare a company from the more severe consequences of unchecked data deprecation. 

The Consequences of Ignoring B2B Data Deprecation 

The fallout from neglecting the signs of B2B data deprecation can be dire. At a strategic level, poor data quality undermines confidence in decision-making processes. Leaders may find themselves making choices based on faulty or outdated information, leading to misguided strategies and lost opportunities. 

Operationally, deprecation can disrupt workflows and productivity. Sales teams might waste time chasing leads that are no longer viable, while marketing campaigns could miss their target audience entirely. Customer service can also suffer, as representatives may not have the most current information at their disposal to address client concerns effectively. 

Financially, the impact can be quantified in terms of both direct and indirect costs. Companies might incur additional expenses trying to cleanse or salvage degraded data, not to mention the potential loss of revenue from failed initiatives and lost customers. Moreover, the competitive edge of a business can be blunted if rivals are operating with superior, up-to-date data. 

On a broader scale, the overall reputation of a business can be permanently tarnished if it’s discovered applying unreliable and even illegal data practices. Trust is a critical component in B2B relationships, and once compromised, it can be impossibly challenging to restore. In extreme cases, data deprecation can even lead to legal consequences if it results in non-compliance with industry regulations. 

The Elephant in the Room: The Impact of Data Inaccuracy 

Data accuracy is one of the biggest challenges in B2B sales and marketing. According to primary research by DemandScience in its B2B Sales Prospecting Report 2023, 87% of respondents indicated that data accuracy is a top challenge. When data is not maintained, the consequences can spell disaster for your campaigns: 

• Targeting Challenges: Data decay leads to poor campaign execution that fails to reach the targeted decision-makers at organizations you want to do business with, resulting in lower conversion rates, wasted resources, missed opportunities and lower ROIs. 

• Weakened Campaign Performance: As data quality erodes, so does the effectiveness of campaigns, manifesting in lower engagement rates, underwhelming lead generation, and hindering the team’s ability to reach their marketing goals. 

• Compromised ROI: The return on investment for marketing campaigns is directly tied to the quality of the data utilized in a campaign. When marketing strategies are executed using inaccurate data, the financial implications are immediate—money is wasted on futile attempts to engage with outdated leads, and the cost-per-acquisition climbs as the conversion rates tumble. Gartner even estimates that poor-quality data costs companies about $12.9M annually.   

Harnessing Technology and Collaboration Enhances Data Integrity 

To tackle data degradation, regularly maintain your company database with these solutions: 

• Leveraging Technology for Proactive Data Maintenance: With the dynamic nature of B2B information, technology plays a pivotal role in data maintenance. Utilizing platforms equipped with real-time updating capabilities, such as Verification Intelligence by DemandScience, can help mitigate the risks of data decay. Technologies incorporating AI and machine learning algorithms can help maintain the health of your database by ensuring accurate, compliant, and healthy data. Furthermore, these technologies can streamline data cleansing, deduplication, and integration, ensuring that your marketing team operates with the most current and comprehensive data at their disposal – solving for data pain points and augmenting ROI. 

• Robust Email Verification: High bounce rates from decayed data can damage the sender’s reputation, which ISPs monitor closely, affecting email deliverability and engagement. Thus, validating email addresses is core to campaign effectiveness and efficiency. Effective verification confirms the existence of an email address, assesses its relevance, and improves the likelihood of user engagement, each of which is essential for precise targeting and impactful marketing campaigns.  

• Data Partnerships for Continuous Enrichment: Establishing partnerships with data providers and industry peers can lead to a transparent and healthy exchange of information, ensuring a constant flow of up-to-date data. By tapping into diverse sources and leveraging collaborative filters, businesses can enhance the granularity and scope of their databases. These partnerships can also provide access to industry trends and shifts in B2B landscapes that are invaluable for keeping your data relevant and actionable. 

• Integration and Reporting: Integration and reporting capabilities are equally important; consolidating data streams into a cohesive narrative makes it easier to spot trends, understand data lifecycles, and make informed decisions based on real-time insights. When data from various sources works in unison, the health of the entire database is improved, and campaign effectiveness will increase ROI. 

B2B Data Deprecation is Slowly Sabotaging Your Success 

The silent threat of B2B data deprecation can no longer be overlooked. Its effects are pervasive, creeping into every aspect of a business and threatening to undermine success. However, with awareness and the right strategies in place, companies can combat this threat effectively. 

To maintain a competitive edge and ensure operational excellence, businesses must recognize the signs of data deprecation, understand its common causes, and take decisive action to prevent it. This involves committing to robust data governance, conducting regular data audits, investing in modern data management technologies, fostering a culture of data literacy, and staying informed about external factors that can impact data quality. 

It’s time for businesses to confront the silent threat of B2B data deprecation head-on. By taking proactive measures, companies can secure their data, and with it, their future success. The challenge is significant, but the rewards of safeguarding against data deprecation are immeasurable. 

Navigating Data Deprecation with Confidence with DemandScience

Data deprecation is constant. Protect your business from this creeping menace and ensure a data-driven path to success. Marketers can approach campaigns with renewed confidence and effectiveness by recognizing the importance of data integrity, embracing ongoing maintenance, and considering the value of solutions like Verification Intelligence by DemandScience. While many tools and services are available, the key is to find a partner who understands the intricacies of B2B data and can offer the precision and reliability your campaigns require to help you generate the best ROI across your business. 

To learn more about Verification Intelligence by DemandScience, please contact our DemandScience solutions experts.