If you have had your database for longer than a year or two, chances are you have a lot of dusty skeletons just hanging out in your database.

Whether it's trying to remove inactive contacts, engaging leads who were left to “die,” or uncovering any bad email records in your database, you may want to think about implementing a “Wake the Dead” campaign.

A WTD campaign can be set up in many different ways, but the most common approaches are emailing the old or inactive names in your database to re-opt in/confirm their information or running a short drip campaign toward leads who have been in an MQL or working status by sales but hasn’t been touched for months.

Before running a Wake the Dead campaign, you may want to use an email verification tool, such as Neverbounce, to validate your inactive email addresses before trying to email them. This will also help your deliverability rate.

Benefits of doing a “Wake the Dead” campaign are:

• Identifying bad contact information or invalid email address records who can be removed from the database
• Identify records who have moved to a new company, and get them to update their contact information
• Remove inactive leads who are old and do not re-opt in
• Receive responses from leads who are interested, but maybe not worked properly by sales for various reasons
• Identify another person at the company the lead works at if they are not the right fit
• Have a queue for sales/SDRs that have been cleaned up to only include leads that require contact or have been contacting

A good first step in determining if you could benefit from a wake the dead campaign is to run some numbers in your database - create a list of people who haven’t engaged in the past 12-24 months. If that number is higher than you would like it to be, a wake the dead campaign is a great place to start!