The database is an extremely valuable resource for your business. This is what enables you to keep track of your customer information, helps you track sales and identify the most profitable customers and so much more.
Database, if used in the right way can open many possibilities in not only digital marketing but also boosting up sales. There are a number of things you should consider doing when it comes to database management. This finance blog focuses mainly on the best tips you can use to achieve success when it comes to database marketing.
1. Keep the database in the right format
There is nothing worse than not being able to mine the data you have retrieved from your customers. This happens when you use different formats when creating different databases. To make it easier for you to retrieve data, you must make sure that you have used the proper format for all your databases.
During database development, it is imperative that you start by considering the type of software tools you use in your business. You should then pick a format that is easy to transmit back and forth between the programs you use.
By doing this, you will guarantee that everyone in your organization that needs to access the database is able to do so, without any problem regardless of the software or hardware they are using.
Here is a database marketing example which is used by many successful companies nowadays:
Say suppose your company x, has collected 300 email ids from the query section. You know their contact information very well. Now it becomes easy for you to send them personalized emails during any festive season.
Like, you have planned an introductory discount for the first 100 sales of your new product, and you know that which customers have recently or previously searched for the3 same product. Sending them a personalized mail and letting them know about the offer is a profitable way in which you can boost your sales; perhaps even resell a product.
2. Organize the database properly
Prioritizing your data is the key to creating effective database management. More often than not, some people just build databases for the sake of doing it. In any database development, it is imperative that you organize your data accordingly.
You should remember that not all the contacts in your database have the same importance. You need to know how far along the sales process each contact is. This will help you to prioritize accordingly.
To further planning database marketing strategies easily accessible, you should consider using categories. With this option, you can sort your prospects by such things as a lead source or the kind of socioeconomic bracket that they fall in.
Here is a database marketing example which will tell you how important it is to organize data:
Say suppose you are launching a special sale for the next generation people. If your database is properly maintained. Then it will be easy for you to find out which age group you want to target, what are the trends they follow and what are searches they do most of the time.
3. Spread the right message
Sorting contacts is not the only thing that you should do. To make it easier for you to know what each contact is all about, you have to create the right messages. It is imperative that you tailor correspondences to each group once you have separated the contacts into relevant categories or groups. The best thing about doing this is that it will help you to identify the specific needs of every group of prospects.
One of the best database marketing strategies says that, once you have a distinguished collection of data, you can plan out separate campaigning agendas for them. You can also make a calendar as to when is the prime time for you to launch your new products and which type of audience to target for that.
4. Assign salespersons to the prospects that are close to buying
One of the best tips you can get in database marketing is to assign a salesperson to prospects that are close to making a purchase. You should also not ignore the prospects that are far from making a purchase.
They too need to be brought closer and you will only be able to do this by assigning them a salesperson. Prospects who are about to buy will want to be in contact with a real person who will advise them accordingly. Make sure there is someone available to help with that.
The good thing about assigning a salesperson to your prospects is that you will be able to increase their chances of making a purchase and even give you an opportunity to get more hard data on lead generation.
You will also be able to know which salesperson is doing the best job of closing once they get leads. To make things easier on your part, you can hire a remote database expert to help with database management.
5. Stay in touch
One thing you need to understand about sales is that it can take days, weeks or even months of correspondence before a prospect in your database makes up his/her mind to make a purchase.
The speed at which the decision is made depends on the type of your business. You should not be discouraged if a prospect seems to take longer to make up his mind. You need to stay in touch periodically and remind them of the value that your products can bring them.
6. Analyze your activities
The worst mistake you can make is that of never checking to see if your database marketing strategies are working or not. There are marketers who focus solely on presenting their products to potential customers but never take the time to evaluate the success of their marketing methods. Don’t be one of such marketers.
Regardless of how foolproof your strategy seems to be, it is imperative that you take the time to analyze it. You should use metrics about close rates as well as contact frequency. All this will enable you to get a clearer image of the database marketing success.
7. Replenish the database marketing strategies
Just because you have hit your target of 10,000 contacts in your database does not mean you should stop there. As a marketer, you can never have enough clients. You need to keep striving for more. Even when you are focusing on following up with your leads, you need to look for a way to add more new prospects to the database marketing niche. This is the only way you will be able to sustain the full sales funnel.
Neglecting the part on replenishing your database will put your marketing campaign into jeopardy. You need to set aside time to add more names to the database whenever possible. It will also help in knowing about the current most searched products, and their following on the latest trends. Not only that; the way the internet is evolving, we may also find some other suggestions on how we can reach the most.
8. Collect the right information
You may have a good database but if you are not collecting the right information, your efforts will be for naught. The database should have the names, email address and phone numbers of prospects. Having other types of contact information for the prospective customers will broaden your efforts in marketing and make your work even easier when engaging prospects.
The internet is littered with hackers and other spam accounts which can infiltrate your database management, and hence responding to their query is not feasible. Therefore, make sure that the information you are collecting is authentic. For that, you can use tools and plugins which can help you in not only detecting spam but will also protect you from it.
9. Do not Neglect Your Existing Customers
It has been seen in case of many database marketing examples that a company which has more database than any other company actually fail to boost up their sales. Do you know why? It is because they do not pay attention to their existing customers.
A large part of sales belongs to the existing customers who still want to buy products or services from your online brand because they had a good online customers experience previously.
Taking care of your existing customers is as important as generating new leads. These customers mainly act as referrals, help you gain good reviews and increases credibility. Therefore it is important that you keep offering them personalized gift cards, keep them subscribed via newsletters and other database marketing strategies for your own company’s goodwill.
Last but not least, you must never forget about your existing customers. These are the ones that really keep your business going. Never make them feel as if you are ignoring them.
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