Reactivating Inactive Contacts and Improving Data Quality for Festo
Like Reply helped Festo, a global leader in automation technology and technical education, reduce hard bounces, improve data quality, and re-engage inactive contacts through an Eloqua-based reactivation campaign in Germany and France.
30
Reduction in hard bounces
15
Increase of email interactions
35
Improvement in data quality
Success Story
Within two months, Festo significantly reduced invalid and inactive contacts, stabilised email deliverability, and improved overall CRM data quality. The Eloqua reactivation track, supported by Oracle integration and clear consent management, created a cleaner marketing database, higher engagement, and a reliable foundation for future campaigns in Germany and France.
The Challenge
Festo’s German and French marketing teams were dealing with thousands of inactive contacts that generated hard bounces, created data inconsistencies between systems, and increased the risk of spam complaints.
This degraded email deliverability, limited personalization, and impacted downstream business operations.
Over time, the issue also reduced confidence in campaign reporting and made it harder to prioritise qualified leads.
The Solution
Like Reply designed and implemented a two-month reactivation programme that combined a comprehensive data clean-up with a targeted Eloqua email track. The campaign validated and segmented contact data, delivered personalized re-engagement journeys, and introduced ongoing data maintenance rules integrated with Oracle and Eloqua.
This created a sustainable framework for keeping contact data accurate while continuously improving engagement over future campaigns.
About Festo
Festo is a global company specialising in automation technology and technical education. Its portfolio spans factory and process automation, as well as didactic solutions that support workforce upskilling across industrial sectors. Operating in more than 60 countries, Festo combines deep engineering expertise with structured training programmes to help customers increase productivity and address skills shortages.
For this project, the focus was on marketing operations in Germany and France within the logistics and manufacturing context, where accurate contact data and reliable email deliverability are critical to reaching engineers, decision-makers, and training stakeholders.
Challenge: Inactive Contacts and Fragmented Data
Over time, Festo’s contact database in Germany and France had accumulated a high volume of inactive or outdated records. These records generated hard bounces, created inconsistent target groups between integrated systems, and increased the risk of spam complaints.
The poor data quality limited Festo’s ability to personalise communications, undermined campaign performance reporting, and introduced operational inefficiencies for marketing and sales teams. A structured remediation was required to stabilise deliverability, restore confidence in the data, and protect Festo’s brand reputation.
Solution: Data Hygiene Combined with Targeted Reactivation
Comprehensive data cleanup
Like Reply started by assessing the existing contact base and identifying inactive, invalid, or duplicate records. Contacts that generated persistent hard bounces were flagged, and data quality rules were applied to harmonise key fields across Eloqua and connected Oracle systems. This step ensured that subsequent engagement efforts were built on clean, reliable data rather than historical noise.
Reactivation journeys in Eloqua
On top of the cleaned database, the team designed an Eloqua track tailored to different segments of inactive contacts. Each segment received personalised, relevant messages introducing new Festo products, functionalities, or educational offerings, with minimal interaction friction (clear value, concise copy, and simple calls to action). Eloqua’s multi-step campaign orchestration and analytics allowed Like Reply to monitor opens, clicks, and responses in real time.
Ongoing data maintenance and governance
To prevent regression, Like Reply defined operational rules and governance practices for ongoing data maintenance: regular list hygiene, bounce management standards, and alignment with European data protection requirements. This ensured that the improved data quality would be sustained beyond the initial reactivation initiative.
Data Cleanup & Validation
Systematic review of inactive contacts, identification of invalid addresses, and consolidation of duplicates to restore a trustworthy marketing database.
Segmented Reactivation Journeys
Eloqua campaigns tailored to distinct segments, using personalised content to re-ignite interest with minimal friction.
Analytics & Optimization
Continuous monitoring of deliverability, engagement, and list health to refine targeting and message sequencing.
Governance & Compliance
Clear rules for data maintenance and consent management aligned with European data protection standards (GDPR).
PROJECT PHRASES
From Audit to Continuous Improvement: Project in Three Phases
Campaign design and data audit
Initial assessment of the contact base, identification of inactive segments, bounce analysis, and definition of KPIs and governance rules.
Targeted email deployment
Configuration of Eloqua segments and journeys, creation of personalised content for different target groups, and phased deployment across Germany and France.
Monitoring and operationalisation
Measurement of bounce reduction, engagement uplift, and data quality improvement. Findings were translated into ongoing maintenance routines and reporting processes shared with Festo’s marketing teams.
Why Like Reply
Deep Eloqua & Oracle Expertise
Strong B2B Industrial Focus
Data Quality & Governance Mindset
Cross-Country Roll-outs
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