After feedback from our customers and partners, we felt it necessary to explain in more detail how we handle Sugar Market Contacts and Overages and offer some tips on managing them best.
What is data overage?
Data overage occurs when the contacts in your Sugar Market database has exceeded the number of contacts purchased (Allowable Contacts).
For clarity, if your current Database Cap is 10,000 (10K), and Sugar Market calculates you have 10,001 Allowable Contacts, this will constitute an overage. The assigned number of contacts is considered a Database Cap based on the number of Allowable Contacts in the Market database. Allowable Contacts are sold in "contact blocks" of 10,000, and the quantity you have purchased is defined on the Sugar Order Form. Currently, the minimum number of contacts is 10,000. Sugar Market allows you to create or import additional contacts above the Database Cap to ensure your marketing campaigns are not hindered. However, we will send a notification if the number of Allowable Contacts is approaching (>80%) or has exceeded the Database Cap (>100%).
Managing Data Overages
I think it's best to keep an eye on the growth of your contact list. Growing Allowable Contacts is generally positive as it increases your addressable market. If the growth is intentional and aligns with your marketing plans, we suggest you contact us so we can make sure you get an optimal price plan for your expansion.
The 100% overage notification email will let you know that you have four weeks to bring your Allowable Contacts within the designated limit or purchase additional Contact Block(s). If the specified limit is not reduced within the 4-week grace period, your business will be invoiced for the relevant number of additional Contact Blocks.
If, during the 4-week grace period, you reduce the number of Allowable Contacts to fall below the Database Cap, Sugar will not issue an invoice for additional Contact Block(s).
Just so you know, during a Subscription Term, there is no refund or cancellation of other Contact Blocks, even if the quantity of Allowable Contacts is reduced at a later date to a lower bracket level.
FAQ
How can I purchase more contacts?
A. Please contact your Customer Service Manager so they can discuss your growth plans and create a growth plan that fits your strategy and budget.
Can I delete or clean up the number of contacts in Sugar Market – how do they do this?
A. Yes. This is presently a manual process. Please decide on selection criteria for the records you want to delete from Sugar Market. The criteria is then used to build a mass deletion report inside Sugar Market. You may also like to flag these records inside your CRM. Using Auto Deletion reports, Sugar Market can prevent unwanted CRM records from syncing into Sugar Market. Also, please look at this support article for more details: Support article.
Are there any hygiene cleaning tools or scripts? i.e., delete after X years, remove duplicates, etc?
A. There are standard report criteria you can use to find unwanted records. You can use Custom reports as a tool to find unwanted records.
Do Contacts in Sugar Market have different Status values: e.g., Active, Inactive, etc.?
A. Sugar Market's field captures the contacts' last known marketing activity date (open email, click email, form submission, web hit). Sugar Market can run reports off this field to see what leads/contacts have been inactive for a certain amount of time. Support article.
Within Sugar Market, how easy is it to identify the number of Contacts in the system?
A. One-click into the Leads/Contacts area will show you the user and the total number of records currently in Sugar Market. To see total active records (I.e., Allowable Contacts), you can see this via a pre-built report stored in the Standard Reports area. We do not count blank emails, opt-outs, or hard bounces toward your database limit.
Are there any charts that show the progression of contact creation over time?
A. The main dashboard will show you a comparison of new leads created week v week, month v month, or quarter v quarter. The data can be seen clearly when using Advanced Analytics. A bar chart can show how many new leads/contacts were created per month. Support article.