Erin Haselkorn

This week I was able to attend the Gartner Data and Analytics Summit in Dallas. For those of you who weren’t able to join this meeting of data professionals, I thought I would share a few of my key take-aways from the event.

If you’re an email marketer, chances are you have thought about the quality of your contact email list. It is one of the most important assets you have. Without an accurate list, you could end up in the spam box, with a bad sender reputation or flat out unable to reach your subscribers at all. Never fear, there are a host of vendors out on the market who are more than happy to help you validate that list and improve your email hygiene.

Information governance is not the darling of IT topics. While everyone wants to talk about data insight and analytics, very few people want to talk about the governance or regulation around data that it takes to have a successful analytics program. Without a foundational program in information governance, organizations will fail at analytics.

Marketers have a number of challenges on their plate, but one theme that continues to come up time and time again is data. This year’s Experian Marketing Services Client Summit reminded me that data is not going away any time soon. But to gain insight, marketers are going to have to get creative and think about the consumer and data more holistically.   

Marketers are dealing with more data challenges than ever before, but they may soon get some much needed help. The Chief Data Officer is coming to the rescue, evangelizing change and improving data usage across organizations. Next week I am heading to the EMS client summit to chat about this revolution and help marketers better understand the power of working with the CDO.

The data quality market continues to change at a rapid pace, with businesses demanding more from their information and looking to leverage analytics in interesting new ways. Data will continue to be a critical element as businesses look to transform operations and become more digital.

Last week, I had a chance to speak with colleague Mike Delgado regarding the changing world of data and data management. I recently managed a global research project for Experian Data Quality where we asked 1,400 people from eight countries about their data usage and data management practices. The results were a story of evolution and rapid change.

The majority of companies today are using email as a key channel in their marketing practices. Most marketers are always looking for new trends or best practices to improve email content and delivery, all to increase consumer engagement with messages. And while those are worthwhile efforts, new Experian Data Quality research finds that many of us are falling short on the basic concept of email database maintenance.

It’s once again time for another Experian Marketing Services Client Summit. This year promises to be a great event and I am getting excited to attend again. Not only do I get to meet so many great marketers, but I also get the opportunity to learn from their experiences over the past year.

Email is the top communication channel for many organizations as they look to stay in touch with customers and promote products and services. However, many companies are dealing with poor email list hygiene that can disrupt communication through this critical channel.