Data Governance Is How Marketing Gets the CEO’s Attention

Data used to be about engagement. Now, it’s about survival. As compliance risks mount, the conversation has shifted: It’s no longer just about how you find customers, but how you protect the business. 

This means data is no longer buried in the martech stack; it’s often at the top of the C-suite agenda. But when it isn’t, it has become marketing’s route to the top table. 

The CEO might not be all that interested in the intricacies of a single ad campaign, but they are absolutely right to be concerned about the impact of poor data. After all, non-compliance with privacy regulations like California’s CCPA or the EU’s GDPR can impact both the bottom line and brand reputation.

In fact, many of our conversations with marketers now start with data governance over data usage. The latter is being driven by the former, because communications with customers only work if the data supporting it is good and the marketing teams are using it properly.

Whose Data Is It, Anyway?

We’re already starting to see changes in who is responsible for data governance. Some businesses have dedicated teams rather than leaving it to the marketing or CRM departments. Those teams usually have a direct line to the CEO and board.

Their role is often to educate others in the organization—which often goes wider than some might think. Every retail employee who sells directly to customers is looking to capture new customer data at point of transaction, but they may not understand why they need more than just a name and an email address, or why wrongly putting that email in the “address” field on the digital form is a recipe for disaster down the line. They just want to get people in and out of the store.

Similarly, are B2B sales teams capturing the right data and enough of it, especially the very specific account information they need for ABM campaigns? When targeting larger organizations, they will require a complete view of the buyers or buyer committee with their hands on the purse strings. Not just the right contacts, but the underlying data that will provide a richer, deeper understanding of what that business needs.

That’s why every stakeholder who captures or interacts with data needs to be on the same page.

Safety First

Of course, data governance goes even further when it comes to putting the right guardrails in place for the data already captured:

• Do the right people have access to the data? They will need the proper level of training and continuing education
• Is the CRM system capturing the right fields? Records will need to provide a complete view of the customer and that means obtaining a wealth of information and ensuring it’s recorded and tracked correctly. Duplicate entries and inaccuracies will come back to haunt you
• Do you have the right permissions? Organizations that buy in a third-party dataset need to ensure they have the correct authorizations to use it, such as GDPR compliance
• How do you onboard new data? New records have to follow the same rules as existing ones. Are the right fields mandatory? Do you have processes in place?
• How do you prevent data decay? Managing data, often for years, means keeping it relevant, maintained, and in line with all necessary compliance rules. All too often marketers end up with messy data that needs to be decluttered, enriched, and validated so that it stays clean. 

This last issue often rears its ugly head when a business is trying to manage data spread across a clunky, bolted-together martech stack that might have five CRM systems, four of which are legacy platforms they no longer use.

Someone might have gone out to buy a specific tool because they needed it at that time, and now it’s holding customer data. Does the CMO even know about it? What governance rules (if any) are in place? Is data duplicated across systems, and what does that mean for how it’s being maintained?

The more technology involved, the greater the margin for error.

Managing the Pitfalls

It’s not just the risk associated with inefficient technology in the marketing department. The overall risks involved in poor data governance are all too obvious. Leaving aside the legal and commercial risks involved in failing to comply with data protection rules, it has a direct negative impact on brand reputation. 

When potential customers receive emails or other marketing communications with their name spelled wrong, or with their qualification where their surname should be, or sent to a head of procurement who left the business six months ago to work for a competitor, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. 

It’s also a waste of marketing budget if a carefully crafted ABM communication is sent to someone who’s no longer there.

This is why C-suites are getting involved in governance. When it’s about compliance, cost, and risk, as well as about making the tech stack more efficient, suddenly the CEO will be much more interested in what the marketing team is doing with its data.

Jon White is the head of data solutions at Intermedia Global (IMG), having been with the company for more than 20 years. He leads data capabilities, helping enterprise marketing teams streamline marketing operations.