Once you’ve agreed the type of information that you are going to collect, and created the relevant fields for your database.  The next stage is to input or import the data.

Until your database is well established, it is wise to give responsibility to one individual for overall Database Management.  This Database Manager will set up a ‘protocol’ for how data should be entered, which fields have to be filled, and is responsible for the deletion or addition of entries.

It is also important to regularly ‘clean’ your database.  If a mailing is returned marked ‘gone away’ be sure that your database is ‘up-dated’ accordingly.  Aim for your database to be 99% accurate at all times.

The platform for your Marketing activities

Once your database is established it becomes the focal point for all your marketing activities.

All too often businesses embark on marketing activities without having an efficient means of delivery.  With a sturdy and accurate database in place, marketing activities are far more successful, as the method of communication is easy. 

Also – email marketing had rapidly grown and is now a key marketing tool. In fact for many businesses it’s the preferred communication medium. It’s an efficient and inexpensive way to communicate with customers. 

Further, why not add a fun element to your database – which also lets your customer think that you are thinking of them.  It is likely you will hold dates of birth – why not schedule a simple ‘Happy Birthday’ email.

Your database is the nerve centre for all your marketing activities, providing you with a means to apply tactics to nurture your customers and capture prospective ones.

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Customers are the lifeblood of most businesses – agreed?  However, when it comes to customer management and management of information to those all important customers, many businesses fall short of smooth communications.

In fact, UK businesses waste in excess of £75 million each year mailing companies and individuals whose details have changed.  Not only does this hit companies in hard cash  but ineffective database management leads to negative brand image too; for example, if a customer is deceased, yet is still receiving four mailings a year – even once the aggrieved family have communicated their sad loss, then this can build a negative image.  And what about incorrect spelling of names, or a simple Mr instead of a Mrs – oops – doesn’t look great does it.

And in the age of email communications – sending emails to email addresses that are broken, incorrect and simply bounce, can get you into all sorts of issues with deliverability*  (*more on that in future posts).

Your database is far more than an electronic ‘filing cabinet’ holding all your customer’s details.  It’s the platform for all your marketing activity enabling you to communicate with customers, efficiently, speedily and in a targeted way. 

An accurate and well loaded database is a valuable resource.  It’s essential for effective marketing campaigns.  It is important that your database is flexible too – making it easy to segment and target marketing activity, tracking the success of promotions and as much as possible, behaving as a ‘customer relationship management’ tool.    By categorising your customers, you are able to target different segments, where you identify different needs, giving your customer the perception that you have gained a good understanding of their needs, and are dealing with them as individuals – rather than as part of a bulk mailing.

So think about how you structure your database, how you are going to segment your customers, so that you can easily select specific groups.  There are some sophisticated marketing databases out there – but the key is information – with a database you can only get out, what you put in.  Recommendations for fields in my; Is your database up to scratch post.

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If you were set the task of mailing all of your customers to advise them of, let’s say, a seminar you were running – how simple a task would that be?

Ideally, it shouldn’t be a problem at all – because you would hold your entire customer’s contact information and their preference as to how they want you to communicate with them (email or mail).  The pulling of the distribution list together should be simple – put the mailer together, merge with your customer base and press print or send.  The real effort should be focused on getting the seminar together and creating the marketing campaign. 

However, for many businesses, communicating with customers just isn’t that simple. 

In many businesses there are a number of ‘databases’ relating to different products or services.  Therefore, the total customer base is spread across different platforms and often fragmented – and it then becomes a considerable task to  pull together the entire customer base onto one centralised electronic database – the core marketing hub.

However, that’s what’s needed for efficient and effective customer management and effective marketing.
Building your marketing database

To build your marketing database, start with the basics and then add on the information that is of particular interest to your business.  Be sure to keep your database simple though – you need to be able to retrieve data quickly.

1. Customer Identity and Characteristics
* All names, addresses and telephone numbers
* Business: Type of business, number of employees, key personnel, current customer or  prospective customer.
* Consumer: Sex, date of birth, family members, hobbies.
2. Service Requested/Special Requests/Interests
* Services purchased
* Complaints
* Enquiries, Instructions, Agreements
3. Recency /Frequency / Monetary Factors
* Recency = when customer last bought your service
* Frequency = how often they buy
* Monetary = how much they spend on what
4. Media that influenced Transaction
* Advertising, Direct Mail, Tele Sales, Publicity
5. A History of Customer Relationship
* The information gathered will give you a complete history of your customer  relationship.
* You will be in a position to contact customers on a personal basis, through the most  appropriate medium.
6. Your Return on Advertising and Sales Budgets
* By recording all transactions in your database, including the medium that stimulated it,  you can break down the return you get from all advertising and marketing activity.

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