By its namesake, Fuzzy Logic Matching sounds pretty, well… unreliable. But what’s in a name? A data pairing algorithm by any other name would be as sweet! Shakespeare quotes aside, Fuzzy Logic Matching can (and probably should) be one of your best friends when you’re ready to identify your target list as part of your Account Based Marketing (ABM) efforts. Here’s why.
Fuzzy Logic Matching is an algorithm that processes data points based on word-based matching queries. Basically, when an exact match is not found for a sentence or phrase between data points, Fuzzy Logic Matching can be applied to make a choice for you based on its “best guess.”
This isn’t a new concept. In fact, it’s been a capability in Excel for a number of years. What’s buzzworthy right now, is the fact that we are now applying it to our marketing platforms, like Marketo and Engagio, to help us better navigate our data.
As organizations begin or continue to roll out their ABM strategies in the upcoming year, strong Fuzzy Logic Matching software, in particular Lead to Account (L2A) matching, make easy work of pairing our existing CRM Leads with the Accounts they should be associated with.
Here’s some more reasons why you and Fuzzy Logic Matching should get acquainted if you aren’t already:
- It gives you complete visibility into your Account info. In ABM strategy, it’s crucial to know who the key decision makers are at your target companies. Fuzzy Logic Matching helps your ABM planning, scoring, and outreach efforts by reducing double communications.
- It cleans up your database. If you use Salesforce.com (SFDC) and it’s a legacy instance (or not), there are probably thousands of leads hanging around in your database. It can be difficult to know how to start sorting this data when it’s a historic holding pen for our “maybies”–the people waiting to be converted to a contact and assigned to an Account. (I call it purgatory.) Fuzzy Logic Matching goes through these nameless records and assigns what can be logically assigned to them based off of data that includes names, regions, IP and email addresses, etc., so you can quickly tell which leads are still good and which are lost causes.
- It gets you through your data cleaning process faster. As your demand gen efforts progress, new people who enter your database can be more quickly converted and assigned to the right Account without delay. This helps accelerate the marketing and sales cycles to get deals closed faster.
- It eliminates the need for manual data-management programs and processes. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll still need these. Only now they’ll look different since you’ll no longer need your SQL tables and queries to help determine if leads should or should not be assigned to existing Accounts.
- It makes your reporting more robust. With more of your database assigned to Accounts, you’ll obtain a much more complete picture of your overall engagement with your targets. And who wouldn’t want that?
Do you currently use Fuzzy Logic Matching? Have you found it useful? Let us know in the comments.
