Whatever services or products you promote, you must go to the forefront of potential customers to close the deal. Many businesses rely on social media to increase their leads. As companies use social media platforms to reach out to different potential customers, they also end up with significant drawbacks. There is a chance that you have thousands of followers on every social media platform. However, as every platform has different algorithms that very few people understand, every social media post reaches out to a certain percentage of followers.
Have you ever wondered what happens if that social media platform gets decommissioned? If your platform gets shut down, your audience will vanish before you have a chance to do something about it. As you may have realized that you don’t own contacts from social media, it is time to practice the ways to protect your audience. As a website owner, you must be responsible for their contact information and data.
What is Database Marketing?
Database marketing is the process in which you collect, analyze, and organize customer data so that you can communicate with your existing customers efficiently. It refuses to go with the “one size fits all” approach because it believes that people respond better to tailored and customized marketing.
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Businesses tend to collect contact details and send direct mail pieces like postcards, brochures, and flyers to current customers before the digital industry evolved to considerable heights. Although traditional direct marketing can still benefit your business, the benefits of database marketing give you the edge. Digital options give business owners numerous opportunities to reach their target audience.
Database marketing collects the following data from customers:
- Names
- Addresses
- Phone Numbers
- Purchase History
- Customer Support History
Once you collect your customer data, this data is used to develop customized experiences for each customer and store purchasing details about them.
Tips to Build a Marketing Database
1) Relevant Customer Data
You can only attain the benefits of database marketing by having relevant customer data at your disposal. When your company has relevant customer data on the people who frequently buy from your online store, you are privy to some unique insights. You can use the data to build highly relevant offers, launch new eCommerce products, or message your customers through a channel that applies to them.
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For example, if you own a financial business plan and want to attract high-net-worth clients, it is an integral part of your customer database. With this approach, you should focus on sophisticated financial products like wealth management or real estate.
As a business owner, you may know that these clients are “high-touch” and want advice through email and phone support. You must establish your firm in a way that you can fulfill their expectations. Furthermore, as high-net-worth clients usually value personal referrals, you must use a referral marketing strategy and perhaps use it as part of a loyalty program.
2) Basic Customer Segmentation
Companies prioritizing customer segmentation follow the principle that every customer is different. If you treat each customer differently, you can increase online sales and customer satisfaction. Companies usually segment customers by demographic data, such as:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- New/Repeat customers
- Buying behavior
For example, if you know that good and instant customer engagement will result in high customer satisfaction, you must deal with new customers differently than the older ones.
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You might segment new customers to receive particular images that have the sole purpose of getting them to engage with your products and services. As a marketing person, you hope they use, love, and renew your business products.
Another example of when you build a marketing database is to identify your past customers. Past customers are usually those that haven’t used your business products in a long time or case of a subscription business. Their subscription has lapsed or expired. Any ideal marketing person knows that it is more difficult to attract new customers than to engage with an old customer. Therefore, many companies tend to go with “win-back” programs.
Companies use a win-back program to segment old customers through unique marketing messages, such as discounted offers, extended subscriptions, or coupons. This is an effective way to segment your audience through database marketing, as it generates sales so that people can be more familiar with your brand. If you are running marketing campaigns to specific target audience segments, don’t be afraid of personalization. Whether new or old customers, you should be honest and upfront about how your messages can improve online conversions.
3) Advanced Customer Segmentation
Companies divide customers into different segments. They market those segments differently by providing them with different offers at different times.
- B2B Advanced Segmentation
If we talk about B2B sales, there are two approaches to customer segmentation, i.e., horizontal and vertical. Both of these approaches can become effective marketing tools.
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In vertical segmentation, a company will segment the customer base depending on the industry and company type. Afterward, they tailor their offers according to the needs of every company in a specific industry. For example, let’s say you are in charge of B2B sales in a software development company. The product details and benefits you will highlight here will differ if you sell to a financial services company.
In horizontal segmentation, companies will segment the target audience depending on the job title across different industries. If you understand customers' problems while choosing a new product, you can tailor your marketing to that individual depending on their role in the company.
- B2C Advanced Segmentation
When you build a marketing database, your sole focus is customer segmentation. In the eCommerce world, plenty of companies segment their audience based on demographic or customer profile data. However, specific methodologies result in more accurate targeting and increased online sales. For example, you can create buyer personas, set customer goals, and conduct RFM analysis as part of your database marketing plan. RFM analysis has proved to be a potent tool for any eCommerce or subscription business.
RFM (Radio, Frequency, and Monetary Value) is a technique that monitors all of these three customer attributes to communicate with the customers effectively. The definition of each of these three attributes are as follows:
- Radio: a measure of how much a customer feels attracted by your brand (it can be a visit, a purchase, or some other form of engagement)
- Frequency: a measure of how frequently your customers are engaging with your brand (number of visits, number of open emails, or sharing social media content)
- Monetary Value: a measure of a customer’s intention of buying products from a particular eCommerce website (total amount spent, average amount spent per month, or lifetime value of a customer)
RFM can be a complicated and straightforward process at the same time. You can rank your customer base depending on these three attributes and then segment based on the score. Once you have ranked your customers, you can answer the following questions:
- Who are the most valuable customers in your audience?
- Who are the least valuable customers in your audience?
- Which customers are highly responsive?
- Which customers are the most likely to renew your business products or services?
You must be aware of the importance of database marketing while answering these questions. Once you get all the answers, you can allocate your marketing budget properly and spend maximum time with valuable customers.
Strikingly’s Influence in Database Marketing
Database marketing is one of the most critical steps in a particular business module. As a business owner, your objective is to build a marketing database of potential customers and establish a strong interaction with them. By giving them ideal customer service, you are hopeful that they will convert from a potential customer to a loyal customer.
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As we have learned what database marketing is about, you must put your plans into perspective and build a high-quality website. By using Strikingly’s advanced website editor, you can make a website that seems attractive to prospects and customers. Strikingly provides its users with a compilation of responsive website templates, which will help you get underway with your site development in no time. By registering for a free account on Strikingly can access all the free web services to ensure your business gets off to an ideal start.
Conclusion
In the guide to database marketing, the primary objective is to build relevant and personalized content to generate quality leads and improve the conversion rate. These marketing campaigns' effectiveness depends on how the target audience interacts with them. Business owners have to check whether their database marketing strategies are resulting in increased leads or not.
Database marketing provides you with enough ways, alongside data and information to contact potential customers and convert them into loyal customers. Marketers must know how to use that information to maintain the target audience's interest.
If database marketing isn’t part of your overall marketing strategy, you are losing out on a massive opportunity to make your business tick. If you have started, you must remember that it takes time to build a marketing database. When we talk about improving marketing efforts, you don’t have anything to work with unless you have high-quality data. The maintenance and optimization of your data are as important as its evolution, so you must be patient before success comes your way.
