Picture yourself at a show featuring performances from various musicians, most of whom you’re either familiar with or happen to like, but you’re only there for the one(s) you really love to jam out to. That musician you love is now on stage and before they turn the venue up and laser or pyrotechnic sequences start, they scan the audience from side-to-side and asks, “Where are all my real fans at?” At this point, you’re jumping, yelling or passed out due to the overwhelming emotion (hopefully, the former)🤩, but regardless of which, you’re the definition of a real fan and exactly who they cater to and want to hear from. As for the ones who are expressionless and not even a phone out to capture the moment, they don’t belong amongst the fan base and aren’t considered when delivering memorable performances.

Ok, now jumping back to reality (I know, that feeling was just getting good, I was there too) 😩

All of that to say that B2B tech companies exist in a very similar way as the scenario above, minus the sonic vibrations and entertaining nature. As a company, you’re an artist with a following and bodies of work that intellectually and emotionally appeal to specific audiences and demographics. Your products and/or services provide real solutions to real needs, for real people. It’s those core leads that engage with you on and offline, voluntarily giving their identification and location in exchange for hope that you’ll either have what meets their current need(s) or are a subject matter expert that will help guide them in better understanding their need(s). But operating in a market full of so much noise, due to saturation and competition, marketers often miss these quality individuals on a pursuit to capture quantity just to satisfy vanity goal metrics.

It's time to cut through the noise to who really counts ✂️

It all ends up just like most companies, with their CRM and Marketo instances full of prospects with significant amounts of data that is either flawed or not useful because it wasn’t voluntarily given to begin with (GDPR trouble happens here), and/or promiscuous visitors give it just to consume content, with no intent to truly engage. Now, Marketing Ops teams must comb through data and create filters just to help reach the right people without not only damaging sender reputations, but the marketing team’s reputation by passing bad quality leads to sales to follow-up with. And then you’re eventually faced with database hygiene and reduction projects because databases are reaching their size limit and Sales teams are breathing down Marketing’s neck.

The time has come to clear out the crowd in your database and reduce it to only those you truly want to reach. Here's a simple way to categorize those leads ya’ don’t need:

• Bad/Junk leads: Contains leads that have bad data quality, making them unreachable or less than ideal prospects to target
• Ex.) Full Name = Mickey Mouse or Email = unknown@unknown.com
• Rejected leads: Contains leads that have been deemed as less than qualified along with reasons by sales, and associated with no opportunities
• Ex.) Lead Status = Rejected/ Rejected Reason = Competitor (those sneaky 🤬)
• Inactive leads: Contains all leads that have shown no engagement over a period of time that are not being worked by sales, or associated with any opportunities
• Ex.) 2yr old leads that have not filled out any form, visited any page, opened email etc.

That should round them all up! But only when the proper combination of filters, logic, and data values are used for extraction. This may be a bit challenging, and time consuming to nail down. Save time and frustration with this Marketo Database Reduction Guide, which provides end-to-end instructions for safe lead removal. 👍

As a company and team, you’re a Rockstar in the marketplace and only real believers deserve seats in your venue (database). When they’re easily noticed, they can be nurtured and marketed to like they truly deserve. It's those core fans who will scream and stand behind your name and your product/service. But they often get missed and lost in the crowd and noise of faux fans. The best way to amplify their volume is to remove and deny access to the ones that don’t matter and will not drive value to your business - reduce and rock on! 🎸