Database Marketing Is For Everyone!

Whether you're a partner in a consulting firm, a contractor or electrician, or CEO of an international conglomerate, database marketing is crucial for your success.

Database marketing can be simple or sophisticated. The key is that instead of just having a mailing list of prospective customers or a single list of current customers, you can use a computerized system to evaluate and manage the information more precisely.

For example, you may want to send a reminder mailing to every customer twice a year; a monthly mailing or email newsletter to more active customers; and even place a phone call from time to time to your very best customers. Then maybe set up email reminders and news for prospective clients and general contacts.

Using a Mix of Marketing Vehicles

Historically, database marketing relied overwhelmingly on direct mail. Then increasingly telemarketing had been used. And now there are a slew of better alternatives to consider, including email, fax, social media and text.

Particularly for closing sales for higher-ticket goods or services, a combination of several different contact methods may work best. For smaller businesses, email marketing and social media are always the most cost-efficient way to go.

Fancy and Expensive Doesn't Always Sell!

Again and again, I've learned in marketing campaigns that fancy and expensive doesn't always mean better results. Also, once you get into four-color printing the costs are high, so it is very expensive to mail high quality printed materials.

TEST! TEST! TEST!

In database marketing, changing even a small variable can wildly change your results. So trying different combinations and making sure that you are tracking ROI are key to these efforts.

Maria L. Novak Dugan is president of Marketing Solutions & Business Development, a firm in West Chester, PA, offering creative marketing services and goal implementation for small & medium sized businesses. For more information, contact Maria at 610-405-0633 or MariaNovak001@yahoo.com or visit www.Maria-L-Novak.com