---
schema_version: "1"
id: 9defe1ebc2d3025c3ed682a033e90055a5948ca72f064ef57065ad796f72af20
title: Data Quality
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/mktg/264-0-0/mktg_apps_email_best_practices_data_hygiene.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mktg_apps_email_best_practices_data_hygiene.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: c91793652b3e7c07e0fd7b0531ebee9d9ca468a747bb9d6db034901a031ae8ab
description: Like other areas of marketing strategy, your messaging efforts are only as good as your data. Target your audiences effectively by ensuring your underlying lists, groups, and segments are built on recent, relevant, and permission-based data.
products:
  - Marketing
release: "264"
---
# Data Quality

Like other areas of marketing strategy, your messaging efforts are only as good as your data. Target your audiences effectively by ensuring your underlying lists, groups, and segments are built on recent, relevant, and permission-based data.

Recipients sometimes mark a legitimate email as spam because it’s been a while since they signed up for your messages or you haven’t honored their stated preferences. Stale data can also cause bounces, and purchased data or irrelevant content often leads to spam complaints.

Monitor your email performance, and schedule reminders to review your data regularly. If you see bounces or complaints increasing, it’s time to revisit your content plan or the data that you use.

- **[Data Hygiene](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mktg_apps_email_best_practices_hygiene.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    For marketing messages, data quality outperforms quantity. Using outdated or mismatched data can mean that you send emails to users who forgot they opted in or have lost interest. Keeping stale data increases unsubscribes, spam complaints, and erodes trust.
- **[Clean Data Recommendations](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mktg_apps_email_best_practices_engagement.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    The right tools and processes help you build a clean database, maintain good data, and request the necessary updates.
- **[Hard Bounce Management](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mktg_apps_email_best_practices_remove_bounces.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Salesforce marketing apps automatically suppress hard bounces to prevent sends to invalid addresses. Although suppression protects your sender reputation while retaining the record data for reporting and analytics, it's not intended to replace long-term data hygiene. Plan to remove hard-bounced email addresses from your data regularly.
- **[Preference Management and Segmentation](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mktg_apps_email_best_practices_preference_management.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    When you capture subscriber choices, you can create better targeted segments and deliver more relevant content. Proper preference management can also help you honor opt-ins and maintain regulatory compliance.