Are you "hoarding" contacts? It may be time to purge your database

Question

I moved homes this month, which is a pretty excruciating process if you’ve not done it recently. Everyone with whom I’ve commiserated tells me this: If you have a packed box that you haven’t opened in six months or more after the move, just get rid of it! One friend said he still had packed boxes from a move two years ago. Yeah.
Generally, most of us are not that concerned about those un-opened boxes; out of sight, out of mind. But what happens when we have to move homes because of budget? Or we need the space for something else more valuable? It can often be an emotional decision, but the boxes may have to go.
If you’ve been managing a marketing database for any period of time, you’ve probably amassed a good number of contacts. While the number and quality of those contacts is important, the better question is, what are you actually doing with those contacts? Are some stuffed in boxes in the back of your database? Or are you actively marketing to and engaging all of them to drive revenue for your business?
So how do you spot which contacts are destined for the trash heap?  Begin by segmenting out reachable contacts in your database to whom you’ve not sent an email in the last 6 months. Filter further: are they a good fit to your ideal customer profile and relatively new to the database? If so, drop them into an educational nurture program and get them moving on their buyer’s journey!
There’s another potential collection of dust-collecting contacts: those that you have emailed, but never engaged at all – no opens, clicks, landing page visits, web site visits, form submissions, nothing. Apply the same yardstick: if they fit your ideal customer profile, try to bring them back, but perhaps via a channel other than email.
These are just a few recommendations for making the most of your database. However, even after these campaigns, you’ve likely still got some leftovers and it may be difficult to let go. We marketers are told as a best practice never to delete contacts from our database. But why keep something from which you’re not gaining benefit, especially if you have to pay for it? This ultimately waters down the overall value of the rest of your database.
Using Eloqua’s segmentation capabilities, you can easily discover untapped opportunity in your database while isolating and deleting the junk contacts. The modern marketer takes action – don’t rent storage units for your unengaged, poor fit prospects!
So, do you know what’s shoved in the back of your marketing database?

Answer 1

Gaea,
We recently deleted out approximately 400K contacts from our database (not using the method described above but using our own process) and have had amazing success. The open and click through rates are going through the roof and our overall impact on the organization is improving greatly. Anyone that hasn't cleaned house recently is really leaving money on the table by diluting their messaging and trying too hard to be too much to too many people.
Dave