In today’s marketing environment, an extended, up-to-date and streamlined customer database is a marketing must-have. It can be used for marketing, research and driving customer relations.
Yet simply having a customer database is not enough – it’s what you do with it that counts. Let’s look at some ways you can use your customer database to its full potential.
- Learn from the information
Your database can be the perfect tool to help you spot emerging trends, e.g. if most of your customers own a cellphone, you can use focus on marketing via SMSs and optimising your emails for mobile users. You can also improve your products and services: by using funnel analytics tools, you can see how people use your product and can help you to brainstorm ideas for improving your product.
- Organise your customers according to different market segments
Group your customers together by coordinating their likes, preferences, type of relationship; e.g. prospects, existing customers, suppliers, partners etc. Keep your contacts well organised. This would save you time when looking for a specific group and also optimise your marketing efforts, as you will be able to send different campaigns to different segments.
- Personalise content and campaigns
You can target specific customers according to their specific needs, using the markers they have in common. These personalised messages are more likely to be read and be effective – emails based on the context of what a customer has done and hasn’t done in regards with your product feel better to read and convert better than batch-and-blast marketing.
- Create a personal relationship
Send messages on birthdays and holidays; or the anniversary of when they joined your programme. One of South Africa’s cellular service providers recently sent a message of appreciation to their customers out of the blue, which bought them a lot of goodwill as people responded to the random kindness.
5. Stay ahead of your competitors
Having a secure, organised list of customers means that you have a fair idea of who your clients are and where your company’s strengths lie. This means you can act faster to communicate with your clients, should you need to.
6. Secure sales
A recent American study showed that 48% of salespeople never follow up on leads; and that 80% of sales are made after the 5th or 12th contact, depending on the product. By maintaining and using your customer database, you can control lead management and sales performance, and never lose a lead unnecessarily.
7. Gather targeted user feedback
Use your client data base to communicate with your customers. Customer data makes this easier, since you can easily target surveys and chats to particular groups of users. You’d probably have different questions for power, casual and dormant user segments. Since you don’t contact clients about products that are irrelevant to them, you create less resentment and they are more likely to respond when you do get in touch.
8. Provide amazing customer service
If you use your customer data base correctly, it can be a tool to look into each customer’s personal needs and preferences. If your team knows what a user is already doing, what she is missing, and what she is having trouble with, they can provide better support and cut down on the back and forth about a customer’s situation.
In short
Data can be a wealth of knowledge, but only if managed correctly.
If a company neglects its customer database, such as using multiple (potentially inconsistent) versions of the same data in different parts of its operations, or have issues with the quality of data, consistent classification and identification of data and data-reconciliation issues, it can turn marketing and communication into a nightmare.
