Maximizing Data Quality: Utilizing Apollo to Enhance Your CRM Database

A whopping 26 percent of your email database decays each year, according to ZeroBounce. As a CRM admin or marketer, this should concern you—after all, the quality and accuracy of your database directly impacts your own performance. Addressing data quality isn’t particularly exciting or glamorous, but it’s crucial to business growth.

Unfortunately, contact data is only as good as the last time it was updated. This presents a challenge for many businesses as the quality of their data continuously declines (and with it, the effectiveness of their campaigns). 

The quality of your CRM data represents the thin line between a successful campaign and a missed opportunity. Data quality isn't merely a buzzphrase; it’s a critical metric that can significantly affect your marketing strategies and customer relationship management (CRM). Understanding what data quality is, how to enhance it, and, specifically, how to leverage HubSpot's Apollo integration to improve your CRM database, can transform your marketing and sales outreach efforts by making them more sustainable.

Understanding Data Quality

Data quality refers to the condition of data based on factors such as accuracy, completeness, and standardization. It's about ensuring that the information your business collects and uses is a true and useful representation of the real world it's meant to model. Quality data is data that is:

• Accurate: Data should be free from errors and precisely reflect the intended result.
• Complete: All necessary data fields are captured and gaps are addressed.
• Standardized: Consistent data formatting is crucial for maintaining a clean and organized CRM system. 
• Reliable: Data should be consistent across multiple sources and over time.
• Relevant: Data collected should be pertinent to the business’s objectives and decision-making processes.
• Accessible: The ability to access the right data enables effective collaboration across different teams and departments.
• Timely: Real-time data is necessary to ensure teams are working with truthful and up-to-date information.

How to Improve Data Quality

Improving data quality is an ongoing process that requires a strategic approach. That said, there are some general steps to enhance the quality of your data:

1. Establish data standards: Define what quality data means for your organization, including formats, measurements, and conventions to maintain consistency.
2. Cleanse data regularly: Implement processes to regularly check, correct, and remove duplicates or irrelevant data entries.
3. Validate data at entry: Ensure data accuracy and completeness at the point of entry by using validation rules and checklists.
4. Integrate data sources: Consolidate data from various sources (or leverage a platform such as Apollo) to create a unified view, making it easier to identify inconsistencies or gaps.
5. Implement data governance: Establish clear policies and responsibilities around data management to ensure accountability and continuous quality improvement.
   
   

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1. Set up validation rules: Create and apply rules to custom text and number properties for better enforcement of data governance policies.

The Impact of Data Decay

As your database grows, your salespeople will likely update only a small percentage of these records at one time.

Data decay is the process by which data becomes outdated or inaccurate over time. For one, customers frequently change their email addresses and other contact information. This can be a significant challenge for marketers or salespeople because the quality of decision-making is directly tied to the quality of data. When data is outdated, campaign quality suffers.

The following statistics highlight the urgency of addressing data decay:

• Research shows that email data degrades at a rate of 2.1 percent per month, which translates to an annual rate of over 22 percent.
• Furthermore, poor data quality is estimated to cost the U.S. economy as much as $3 trillion in GDP, according to an article from Experian that mentions frequently cited IBM research.
• And lastly, Gartner research estimates the average annual financial cost of poor data at about $15 million USD.

These statistics underscore the importance of regular data maintenance and the necessary adoption of tools that can automate and improve these processes.

Put simply, your data isn’t the only thing that degrades—data decay is simply the catalyst of gradually declining marketing performance.

Enhancing CRM Data Quality with HubSpot's Apollo Integration

Most CRMs, by default, do not come complete with a data provider. HubSpot's Apollo integration stands out as a powerful solution for improving data quality within your CRM system. By leveraging intelligence from LinkedIn and other sources, Apollo’s integration is designed to optimize your database by ensuring data is accurate, complete, and up to date in real time. Here’s how Apollo can enhance your CRM data quality:

• Automated data enrichment: Apollo automatically updates and enriches company and contact records with relevant information, reducing the chances of data decay.
• Lead scoring and segmentation: By using data quality as a criterion, Apollo contributes to more accurate lead scoring and segmentation, enabling personalized marketing strategies.

[Image Source - Apollo Data Health Center Dashboard]

• Intent data: One of the biggest benefits of Apollo is using automation to notify your sales team when a company is “in market” for your product. Apollo provides data from Bombora, so your sales team can follow up immediately with the companies who are researching your product.
• Job update automation: People change jobs frequently. Apollo can send your sales or account management teams notifications when someone takes a new role, so you have the best chance of bringing them on as a new customer at their new company.

Practical Steps to Utilize Apollo for Data Quality Improvement

Successful integration of Apollo intends not only to enhance data quality within your organization but also to reliably maintain it. In other words, your system should now be capable of performing:

• Data sync and standardization: Use Apollo to synchronize data across all platforms and standardize it according to your predefined data quality criteria.
• Data enrichment: Allow Apollo to automatically enrich your CRM records with external data sources, ensuring completeness and relevance.
• Regular data audits: Leverage Apollo's reporting tools to conduct regular audits of your CRM data, identifying areas for improvement.
• Automated workflow implementation: Utilize Apollo to set up automated workflows (called “plays”) that trigger data maintenance tasks, such as cleansing and validation processes.
  
  

By integrating Apollo into your CRM system, you can not only improve the quality of your data but also enhance overall marketing effectiveness, customer understanding, and decision-making processes. You can test out the quality of the data for yourself by opening up a free account with Apollo—be sure to weigh the Apollo data against other data providers and see if it works well for your industry.

Use Cases and Benefits

This integration facilitates a range of use cases that are pivotal for businesses aiming to optimize their sales and marketing strategies. Here's a closer look at specific use cases and benefits that come with leveraging Apollo alongside HubSpot:

1. Contact Synchronization

A vital feature of the Apollo-HubSpot integration is real-time syncing of contact information. When a contact is updated or created in Apollo, this change automatically reflects in HubSpot, ensuring all contact details remain synchronized across both platforms. This feature is particularly beneficial for businesses that require up-to-date information across different departments, minimizing errors and ensuring cohesive communication strategies.

2. Activity Tracking

Another significant advantage is the automatic logging of activities such as calls, notes and meetings from Apollo into HubSpot. This comprehensive view of interactions aids businesses in crafting personalized marketing and sales strategies by providing a full picture of each contact's engagement history.

3. Opportunity Management

For sales teams, the opportunity management feature within Apollo, once synced with HubSpot, provides real-time visibility into sales pipelines and forecasted revenue. This feature is crucial for managing sales opportunities effectively and predicting revenue streams without needing to switch between different platforms.

Setting Up and Managing the Integration

Integrating Apollo with HubSpot involves a few straightforward steps, starting with ensuring you have active accounts on both platforms. The process includes navigating to the integrations section on Apollo, selecting HubSpot, and granting Apollo permission to access your HubSpot data. This integration not only enriches your CRM with valuable data but also empowers your team to focus on revenue-generating activities by automating manual work and ensuring data accuracy.

Overcoming Common Challenges

Although the integration offers numerous benefits, businesses may face challenges such as data synchronization errors, workflow misalignments, and field mapping inaccuracies. To mitigate these issues, it's important to regularly review data on both platforms, test and adjust workflows after integration, and ensure proper field mappings to maintain the integrity of customer data.

Further Enhance Your CRM Database with Exclusive SmartBug Insights 

Remember, maximizing data quality is not a one-time task but a continuous process that requires dedication, strategic planning, and the right tools. By prioritizing data quality, businesses can ensure they're not just keeping pace with their competitors but are set to outperform them. 

The HubSpot and Apollo integration presents a powerful solution for businesses looking to enhance their sales and marketing efforts through improved data management, activity tracking, and campaign reporting. By understanding and leveraging the full range of use cases this integration offers, businesses can achieve a higher level of efficiency and data accuracy, driving better decision-making and ultimately contributing to business growth.

As a leading HubSpot partner, SmartBug is committed to providing you with the knowledge necessary to maximize your investment. Learn how to supercharge your sales strategies with enriched data for prospecting, lead generation, and pipeline management with our HubSpot + Apollo.io integration services.