Organizing your systems and streamlining your data

This much is almost always true – the best ROI of any marketing you can do involves your database. Every business that we have worked with over the years gets positive results from the people they already know – whether it is current customers, past purchasers or prospects that have been gathered over time.

With some businesses slowing down, now is a great time to work on this piece of your business so that it is as efficient and useful as possible for when you are ready to start up again.  This is always a great investment of your time. Here are some important ideas:

1. Is your data unorganized? Try your best to bring everything you have to one central source. There are sophisticated solutions like Salesforce or CRM systems, but even an excel spreadsheet would be a great start.
2. Is your data incomplete? Once the data is in one place, you can see what’s missing. We recommend an append which adds to that data you already have – giving you more opportunities to talk to those on your list – especially through email. (Read more about appending information here).
3. What is the quality of your list? Before sending out emails your information can be verified, which points out the email address that are no longer valid (and those that are). This helps make sure that your email system would hold up future emails because of deliverability issues.
4. Do your systems talk to each other? Most systems like Mailchimp, Constant Contact and Salesforce can be linked to your website forms to automatically load information. If you have a cart on your site, you can also send emails directly to people when they don’t complete a purchase.
5. Is your data segmented, or divided up into groups? It is usually helpful to have different audiences for your messages.  That way you can give them different messages or offers based on their past actions.

Once your data is in better shape an entire world of advanced marketing opens. Here are just a few- 

Marketing automation through the email systems we mentioned before like Mailchimp and Constant Contact. Once only available through more expensive systems like Hubspot, this helps move people closer to a purchase or as marketers sometimes say, move them further down the funnel.

Use the data to create “lookalike” audiences in digital marketing, like Facebook ads. This helps Facebook create campaigns that market only to prospects that already look like your customers.

Analyze the data you have – where did your best or most profitable customers come from? Simple analysis would point you to spend more in those channels, and more sophisticated modeling you lead to calculations like Lifetime Value and ROI models.

Want to learn more about how your data, customers and systems can help you be more successful? Give us a call. We are happy to start a conversation.