Fill rate (also called field coverage or completeness rate) is the percentage of records in your database that have a value in a specific field. If 7,500 out of 10,000 contact records have an email address, your email fill rate is 75%. Fill rate is the simplest and most actionable data quality metric because it tells you exactly how much of your data is usable for a given purpose.
Why It Matters
Low fill rates directly limit what your team can do. A 50% email fill rate means half your database can't receive email campaigns. A 30% phone fill rate means 70% of contacts can't be called. A 40% industry fill rate means your segmentation excludes most of your records. Every percentage point of fill rate translates to more contacts you can reach, score, route, and convert.
Target Fill Rates by Field
- Email address: Target 90%+. Email is the primary communication channel in B2B. Below 80% means your database has serious gaps
- Phone number: Target 70%+. Direct dials are harder to find than emails. 50% is average. Above 70% is strong
- Job title: Target 85%+. Needed for routing, scoring, and personalization. Titles change frequently so freshness matters too
- Company size: Target 80%+. Essential for segmentation and lead scoring. Usually available from firmographic providers
- Industry: Target 85%+. Required for territory assignment, content targeting, and ICP matching
Example
A marketing team audits their 45,000-record database. Fill rates: email 82%, phone 38%, title 71%, company size 55%, industry 64%. After batch enrichment, fill rates jump to: email 94%, phone 68%, title 89%, company size 91%, industry 93%. Their lead scoring model, which requires all five fields, now works on 60% of records instead of 15%.
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