Copyright 2009, Vogel Marketing Solutions LLC
- Create a Master Database: Best-Practice says that companies should maintain one database with all customer and prospect information. Yet surprisingly few companies do. Benefits include cost reduction, measurability, 24/7 online access, cross-marketing capabilities, effective trigger marketing, faster access to data, and improved messaging management.
- Assign a Database Manager: This can often be accomplished by existing staff and doesn't require specific skills. They are the gatekeeper and calendar keeper. If current workload on your staff prevents this, the database manager function is easily outsourced.
- Inventory Your Assets: valuable client and prospect data often lies in multiple locations: Goldmine, Salesforce.com, InsideSales.com, Access, ACT, everyone's Outlook accounts, Rolodexes, fishbowls of leads from trade shows, business cards in desk drawers, membership directories, and dozen more. Make it a requirement for everyone to turn over all data -- even if it's on the back of a napkin!
- Update Old Information: Titles, company names, addresses, last names, phone numbers, emails, and more -- nothing is static. This function is easily outsourced using NCOA (National Change of Address), telemarketing services, or through direct mail, email and website forms.
- Append Missing Information: You should try to acquire critical information about your audiences in order to more effectively personalize and focus your marketing communications. Demographics, psycholgraphics, purchasiing history, and more.
- EMAIL! EMAIL! EMAIL! I've found that email addresses exist in only 20% or 30% of customer and prospect database records. Since email has the highest ROI (at $45 or more) then acquiring emails is a must -- not an option.
- Gather Info Everywhere: Front desk, call centers, every web page, the signature template in everyone's email, service techs, trade show exhibits, speaking engagements, on invoices or transactional emails, at point-of-purchase, surveys, inside shipping boxes, direct mailers, golf tournaments or picnics, and much more.
- Refresh the Data: in the "old days" quarterly updates were the norm. No more. Monthly updates (at a minimum) ensure your marketing communications reach the right person in the right way. In the case of email marketing this helps ensure fewer bounces and compliance with CAN-SPAM regulations.
- Share the Data: Your marketing team or ad agency can be more effective if they know you're trying to reach (for example): males, age 35-50, in these zip codes, with these job titles, with this buying history, and so on. This is opposed to "we want to sell more Product X."
- Test, measure, refine: a well-developed database allows you to generate reports after each campaign, run A/B splits or multivariate testing, and adapt messaging based on your analysis. With multiple databases that are lacking segmentation, you won't know if you're comparing apples to apples.