When it comes to 5G—the fifth generation of cellular wireless technology helping us navigate the online world—most businesses are focused on speed. The key to progress is processing the data. Connection is one thing; giving context to the vast amounts of information coming is an unprecedented challenge, according to Sky Cassidy, CEO of MountainTop Data.
“How marketing professionals, gather, process and employ the data that 5G enables is the real key to success,” says Cassidy. “It’s a transformation that could revolutionize the relationships between customers and vendors.”
Speed is only one consideration. The trick with 5G is that it’s powerful enough to smoothly power not only cell phones and the mobile apps we’ve all come to rely on, but everything else, too: televisions, streaming services, computers, smart speakers, and other smart devices.(1) Faster load times are great but the ways 5G can move a customer through their journey is more interesting.
So, what does that journey look like? We’ll be seeing more digital advertisements, which isn’t surprising, but where and how marketers connect with one another is where the attention needs to be focused. Faster network speeds may enable more sophisticated visuals and content, but it’s inevitable that marketers—B2B as well as B2C—will have a heightened need for more information points.
In a paper that examines the impact of 5G-enabled data collection, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) wrote, “5G promises to enable intelligent network and data application services with connectivity to remote sensors, massive amounts of IoT data and low latency data transmissions. Big Data analytics will no longer be an afterthought, and it will play a significant role in the evolution of 5G standards enabling the intelligence across network, applications, and business.”(2)
The conundrum for B2B marketers is dirty data. When we extrapolate the fact that 5G technology will be able to collect an unprecedented amount of customer data, it’s obvious that inaccurate data inevitably adds costs and potentially ruins longstanding relationships.
“The easiest way to keep your sales and marketing or ‘customer interaction’ data clean is to start with a clean database and have strict rules around each data point including automatic data expiration where necessary,” explains Cassidy. “The main areas to cover are getting your foundational in-house database cleaned, thoroughly vetting the quality of any new data providers, and having any contact and account data that’s automatically fed into your systems screened.” (3)
Because customer data is critical to 5G’s potential applications, data hygiene is the place to start. Starting with clean data is ideal but in a variety of sectors, it’s not always an option. That’s where companies like MountainTop Data come in. They attack dirty data and inaccurate customer information with sophisticated algorithms that go beyond basic email verification. Beyond elementary actions like purging duplicates and fake contacts, true data cleaning can help you fix, enhance and cross-reference your customer data to produce marketing intelligence that is accurate, actionable, and effective.
“As I’ve said before, no information is perfect, and all data has inaccuracies,” Cassidy says.(4) “Ronald Reagan famously adopted the Russian proverb ‘trust but verify’ and it’s a good rule to apply to 5G-boosted applications and customized campaigns. These new technologies, combined with 5G’s multifarious augmentations, will accelerate mobile commerce, produce more targeted and accurate customer personalization, and enhance the customer experience. But those companies that start their initiatives with clean data will reap the benefits a lot sooner than those who let the opportunity pass them by.”
MountainTop Data, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, has been providing data services for B2B marketing for almost two decades. With an unrelenting commitment to quality, they were the first company to guarantee the accuracy of their licensed data and business emails. They provide marketing lists, data cleaning, data appending and data maintenance services. Their data services have been used by some of the world’s biggest brands across a multitude of various industries from multi-national telecommunication companies to office technology, to PR firms and more.
