Why we Think Data.com is Shutting Down

Inaccurate Crowd-Sourced Data  

Data.com’s business model is highly dependent on users adding, exchanging and updating data.  This has lead to a large percentage of their database filled with old and inaccurate data, as the data.com community could easily upload a list of bad data in order to get points for additional export.  This rinse with “dirty water” and repeat process, created a snowball effect of bad data that was essentially unreliable and unusable.

In addition, Salesforce also advertised the data.com add-on as a data cleansing solution so customers could automatically update and enrich accounts within the Salesforce CRM, in attempt to solve the legacy enterprise data management struggle that so many of their customers have.  You see the pattern here, as this led to the same result of poor data to append with.

Bulk List Providers are the Dinosaurs of Lead Generation

10 years ago, when Data.com was known as Jigsaw, outbound email campaigns consisted of a shotgun approach, sending large blasts to a widely defined target audience in hopes of hitting a few prospects to follow up with.  It wasn’t uncommon to get a 30% bounce rate with these types of campaigns as email providers changed the way they handled spam indicators.

That approach has morphed into the complete opposite end of the marketing spectrum.  Today, companies want more and more data within specific targets.  This account-based sales/marketing approach has led to the emergence of sales/marketing intelligence platforms.  Companies can provide sales triggers on timely data, so sales professionals can reach out with relevant and accurate information, during times when prospects are more likely to buy solutions and services.

The best sales/marketing intelligence platforms authenticate and verify the data several times with several sources, and do so internally, to preserve the integrity and accuracy of the data.  Salesforce banked on the crowd sourcing of data in the cloud and it backfired but as #386 on the fortune 500 list, we can bet on Salesforce continuing to try and make it easier for their users to feed and clean their CRM.

As for users of Data.com, they will need to find another data solution before August of 2018. As a leading sales/marketing platform, we are confident that we can help those users as they migrate away from the dissolving company.

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