Start ExploringHow to Manage Your Customer Database?

Direct Marketing tips by Mediapost Hit Mail

#3

When you have a database:

Database management is about two basic activities:

Maintenance

Exploitation

Database maintenance

You will have to update, enrich, clean, deduplicate and process

the database. This will have an immediate and direct impact on

your business results.

Regular and accurate maintenance will ensure the money you

spend on marketing to your customers is used more effectively.

Stick to standart data formats. You can make erroneous

information stand out by recording all data the same way.

Why updating is a must?

On average customer database is reduced by 15% every 6 months due to change of address or name; for businesses it may be job title, change of employee or phone extensions.

If you don’t want to throw away money for no communication, we recommend to keep your data up to date.

So, it’s always better to communicate with groups of people who are interested in what you want to tell them.

You will send the right information to the right people.

You will eliminate the risk to be "data rich and information poor“.

Database date

You can try to update it by yourself

E-mailing or telemarketing can be very useful tools to do this.

How to ask your customers to help you?

Try rewarding them with some benefits. Benefits could be downloadable pdf’s with some useful information, your latest research on topic they are interested in, or even some entertaining materials, but only when appropriate. Tests can show you what they like most.

Too frequent update requests will annoy your customers.

Usually once a year is OK, but it depends on your business needs.

Focus also on improving collection methods when adding new people.Test and you will know what your newcomers like most. Give it to them as a benefit, but don’t forget to ask for their data in exchange.

Note: Always be sure that you have the permission to communicate with your customers. But don’t forget that if too many people can make changes that could ruin the database integrity, so have a special person(or team) doing it, following strictly defined rules.

up

Exploiting your database

Database reporting and analysis

Segmentation, targeting and profiling

Database reporting and analysis

Report only what your business needs.

Analize your customers by the differences in recency, purchase history,

interests, frequency of replying, response to different activities (direct

mail, telemarketing, e-mailing etc.).

Remember: Never count on the Average Customer. It doesn’t exists. In direct marketing we are talking about individuals. Don’t treat them all the same.

Segmentation, targeting and profiling You have active and inactive customers. You can try to contact the

inactive to understand their lack of interest or to turn them into active...

... But focus more on active ones - they bring you money. Don’t forget the 20/80 Pareto principle.

(more on segmentation in our next topic:

How to Segment your Customers?)

Our five tips on database management

1. Regular maintenance is a key factor for good database management;

2. E-mailing is the cheapest way for data hygiene; another frequently used is

telemarketing;

3. Keep and use your contact history with the customers: What’s it worth

spending on a customer? You can’t answer this if you don’t know how much

you spent in the past - and what was the result. One big sin is comparing

customers by past sales, without looking at past investments.

4. You have to know how keep your customers being loyal – use different

loyalty programs specific for each group and give every group different

rewards;

5. Set up a reminder in your database in order to know and send your

customers greeting cards (birthdays, name days, official holidays etc.)

Nearly always your most recent, most frequent, and highest spending customers will deliver the best return on investment.

A point to remember

Contact them more often.

More to come:

1. Why Do You Need Your Own Database?

2. How to Build a Database?

3. How to Manage Your Database?

4. How to Segment your Customers?

5. Tests - How to Run and Analyze Them?

6. The Deliverability Problem

7. Personalization

8. Online & SMS Promotions

9. Useful Direct Marketing Tips

10. How to Launch Your CRM Program?

11. The Advantages of Direct Marketing (Summary)

two more slides...

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Sofia 1421, Bulgaria

Phone: (+359) 2 962 86 29

Fax: (+359) 2 962 86 29

Mobile: (+359) 885 360 715

E-mail: office@mediaposthitmail.bg

Web: www.MediapostHitMail.bg

just one more...

Hello,

Now, when you’ve seen the third presentation in the “Direct Marketing Tips” series, we will be grateful if you share your opinion on it with us. Just drop us an e-mail at

office@mediaposthitmail.bg,

or call us (+359 885 360 715). When you do, we'll send you a valuable incentive: you will get all the presentations as soon as they are available.

Thanks!

Hristo Radichev

Country Manager, Mediapost Hit Mail

P.S. Don’t forget - if you have a friend or colleague who you think would like to hear from us, please send us their e-mail as well.

They'll get a polite invitation (which they can decline) and we can help them build and exploit their database in an imaginative andprofitable way.