FullFunnel Helps Client Improve Data Quality

The Company

Our client is a leading provider of grant management and philanthropy solutions used by thousands of nonprofits across the world.  The organization provides comprehensive software solutions for grant-makers, grant-seekers, and donors, as well as industry-specific services to help them maximize the impact of their giving efforts. The company’s mission is to bring clarity to complex philanthropic processes using cutting-edge technology and data analysis, and its innovative solutions are designed to make it easier for customers to manage grants applications, measure results, and identify best practices.

The Challenge

Our client, a market-dominant provider of software solutions to the community foundation sector, seeks to expand its reach into adjacent market areas. However, the client's current list generation strategy relies on specialty databases that contain foundation account data that cannot be found through any other source, but have outdated or inaccurate contact information. This makes it difficult to:

•  Identify and contact potential customer contacts in these new markets, and 
• Makes an outbound email strategy using the lists risky due to the poor data quality

The Solution

Our solution was to recommend that the client pull the account list from the specialty private foundation database in the first instance. This is because specialty databases can be a good source of accounts with proprietary data that cannot be found anywhere else, but they also tend to have outdated or inaccurate contact data like email addresses and phone numbers. By pulling the target account list from the specialty database, the client can ensure that they have a strong starting point for their account targeting based on specialty criteria (in this example, IRS data on non-profits).

Once the account list has been pulled from the specialty database, the account list should be run through a second general contact database that is known for contact accuracy to pull title or function-based contacts for prospecting. These general contact databases will not have the account-specific or industry-specific information that our client needs to identify good targets, but they do have the best contact information quality on the market.

There are several reasons why this solution is a best practice. First, by pulling the list from the specialty database, the client can ensure that they are only targeting accounts that are relevant to their campaigns based on proprietary targeting information. Second, by running the curated account list through a contact database known for contact accuracy, the client can avoid the known data quality issues of specialty databases. This is important because invalid or outdated email and phone numbers can lead to bounced emails, wasted sales spending, and missed opportunities.

Specialty databases (non-profit databases, franchise databases, commercial real estate bases) prioritize account information accuracy, while general databases (ZoomInfo, Slintel, Cognism, LeadGraph) invest heavily in verifying contact information.

This solution will help the client to achieve their goal of generating a high-quality list. By using a specialty database, a primary database, and key fields, the client can be confident that they are using the most accurate and up-to-date information possible. This will help them to identify and contact potential customers, which will ultimately lead to increased sales and revenue.