Ok, here goes.
Data governance refers to the overall management of the availability, usability, integrity, and security of the data employed in an enterprise. A sound data governance program includes a governing body or council, a defined set of procedures, and a plan to execute those procedures.
Phew! That sounds like a lot to take in, but our methodology for data governance is built largely around standard Marketo data governance best practices. But it’s also paired with our plentiful experience with managing both large and small marketo instances which all have their own unique set of challenges.
Given this, every data governance program has to be tailored to your Marketo instance and how you are utilizing Marketo.
What does poor Data Governance mean for you?
$3.1 trillion, IBM’s estimate of the yearly cost of poor quality data, in the US alone, in 2016
While it’s safe to assume bad data isn’t costing you this much money, it is definitely reducing your excellent outbound marketing efforts and reducing your marketing teams KPI’s.
Most Common Data being Cleansed
| Lead Management | Lead Data |
|---|---|
| Duplicate leads | Lead source |
| Inactive leads | Country |
| Disqualified Leads | State |
| Invalid leads | Industry |
| Acquisition program tracking | Job title |
| Other |
What will I get out of Data Governance?
If it isn’t already clear to you why you should be utilizing proper data governance procedures, we will lay it out for you again.
Data governance is an important step to ensure that you are sharing your message with the right people, not sending your content to duplicate records, are receiving accurate reporting, and most importantly, not wasting money.
Perhaps even more importantly, you will avoid basing your marketing decisions around inaccurate data.
Ok, What do I do?
Your first step from the start is to establish a proper data flow process for all your data sources. While prevention is always the best measure, it is also recommended to build a data cleansing technique to manage bad data, by monitoring the data flow from all sources and setting up triggered smart campaigns to cleanse bad data.
Over time you will adapt and change your Marketo instance. Keep in mind, while you are doing this, you also need to be altering your records. When you first began using Marketo you may not have been as advanced as you are currently (or will be soon), so converting your previously collected data to your new state of the art standards is very important. Email addresses are typically safe because Marketo tracks email, but all the other normalized lead data might be affected – such as lead source.
For more info and expertise on topics like how often to run data governance, data enrichment, bad data prevention, and scheduling on Data Governance, check out our Marketo Health Check (or one of our many Marketo Certified Experts will get back to you and can help you clean and optimize your instance.)Check out our Marketo Health Check
