Data Cleaning and Batch Append Services – A Complete Guide
The following information is for anyone interested in learning more about how to benefit from making your business data more meaningful using Data Cleansing and Batch Append Services. This especially goes for those of you with a mentality of working smarter, not harder.
If this sounds like you, then you are in the right place! We’re sure you have some questions of your own, but here are some broad topic questions that will be covered:
- What is a data cleaning service?
- Why is data append important?
- How can I benefit from data append services?
- How to append data in a batch file?
Let’s begin by learning a little bit more about what Data Cleansing and Batch Append
What are Data Cleansing and Batch Append Services?
It doesn’t matter who you are, what field of business you are in, or what your specific data needs are.
There are endless possibilities involved with properly utilizing a Data Cleaning and Batch Append Service to make your life easier. Whether you are; an individual looking to update an old contact list for a high school reunion, a small group of entrepreneurs with big marketing dreams, or you are with a large company requiring updated customer information.
Nowadays, having fresh and accurate customer marketing data is extremely important.
Why?
Think of it this way…
Data itself is one of the most valued forms of currency for any given company or entrepreneur. Accurate customer data can make or break your business. Take a moment and picture your customer data and marketing lists as a physical operating machine always on and running. This machine may, in some cases, be single-handedly keeping your business running. As you’re picturing this, it would probably be a good idea to continually maintain this hard working, well-earned machine. You need to keep it clean and well lubed… right? Of course you do, that’s where these helpful services come into play.
Cleaning, updating and appending your list of customer information is exactly what we will be discussing.
“Okay, but now I need to know how to put this into action.”
Now that we know a little more about the ins and outs of what Data Cleaning and Batch
Append Services are, we can better understand how we can use this to benefit us.
How Does This Help Me?
Depending on what information you have and what information you require, the ways that data cleaning and batch append services can be helpful to you are vast.
The following information and examples will be referring to Searchbug’s capabilities.
Append Data
In general, the main pieces of information that everybody needs involve Names, Addresses, Phone Numbers, and Email Addresses. If you require one these types of data to be appended, you will need at least one or more of the remaining types of data to provide for the service.
To put this into context, let’s look at a quick example of what can be appended.
Let’s say we require Phone Numbers, but all we have are Names in our marketing list. Here we would need to provide a little more information. Below is a list of individual options (one bullet point is sufficient) of what is required to successfully get Phone Numbers. If you take a look to see at what information needs to be provided to receive Phone Numbers, we see that just a Person’s Name is not enough. However, if you’re dealing with a known specific location with your customers, you can certainly associate your names with a corresponding State. (How to do this will also be explained below)
Verify Phone Numbers
Another way of cleaning a marketing list is by Verifying your Phone Numbers and separating them by line type. Phone numbers can be categorized into different line types including; Landline, Cellular, VoIP, or International. In some cases, the line type of phone number is crucial information to have in your marketing lists.
For example, if you decide to automate cold calls with a list of phone numbers you have and are unaware if they are landline or cell phone this may present a serious problem to you. With the Telephone Consumer Protection Act or TCPA’s recent regulation as of 2013, any automated or pre-recorded devices used to call cell phone numbers is illegal. If the customers decide to pursue you after doing this, it could cost you $500 minimum per call.
( Related Content: Differentiating Landline and Cell Phone Numbers )
How To Append Data In A Batch File?
The process is relatively simple and for instructional purposes, we will be using Searchbug’s Data Append Service for our following guide.
Note: For those who prefer visual learning, check out the video below showcasing the entire process from start to finish.
Let’s begin with an outline of our process:
- Gather Your Data
- Transfer And Format Your Data Into A File
- Upload Your File By Selecting Your Requested Search Options and Payment Methods
- Start Processing
- Download Results
1. Gathering Your Data: To mitigate any confusion or headaches, the first thing you will need to do is sit down and ask yourself… “What information do I have and what information do I need appended and/or updated?” The reason this first step is important is that the type of information that you have to provide will decide what information will be available and provided to you.
In general, the most commonly used and helpful pieces of information are Names, Phone Numbers, Physical Addresses, and Email Addresses. Any other types of information may be hard to find or just not available and in some cases, this involves custom appending which may not be worth the expense.
2. Transfer And Format Your Data: Once you have collected the data that you would like to provide to a list, you will need to make sure your data is separated into columns and is in a readable format. The most common readable formats used today are .CSV and .TXT files.
If you are unsure of how to convert files don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Check out the short instructional video below.
3. Upload Your File By Selecting Your Requested Search Options and Payment Methods: You will need a free, Pay-as-you-go Searchbug account to continue with the initial upload process. Once you have your file organized with your data separated into columns and it is converted into either a .CSV file or .TXT file, you are ready to upload. Simply click on the Batch tab from Searchbug’s main page and click Process Files Now button associated with your desired processing option. On the following page, there will be the Upload File button from which you will start the processing steps.
4. Start Processing: The following steps will be to designate how the columns in your file will be used during processing by labeling them properly.
5. Download Results: The work is now in Searchbug’s hands, you’re all done! Once the file is completed, an Email notification will be sent to you and will give you the results. The resulting file will stay in your account for up to 30 days and can be found by going to the Reports tab in your account. From there you can view and download your results.
Here is a video going through the entire process from start to finish.
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