Establish A Database

The most important part of the system is a detailed and easy to use database. If you haven’t got a list of your customers’ names and addresses, you really haven’t got a business.

Your database should become the most valuable asset of your business. Your customers are your goodwill. But if you have a database that has detailed information on all your customers and is useable on a continuous basis then your good will is no longer something imaginary, intangible airy-fairy figure. It’s a proven and tested customer base that you can in the future show to prospective purchasers of your business. It will add much more value to your business.

Every business no matter what industry it is part of should have a database. Doctors, dentists, solicitors, accountants, all take your name and details and send you newsletters, and other interesting mail. They keep in contact with you to ensure you use them when next you need professional assistance or service. But that’s not the only reason they are keen to keep in contact with you.

They realise that their database is their business. They have learnt that when they wish to retire or sell up they will not be selling the office or shop premises, or the furniture, or even their own expertise as they are “off to the beach”.

They will be selling the list of names and the system they have used to promote their business to that list. They sell a tried and proven system and all the records they have maintained over the years in business. These records not only have the details of each and every customer but have all the promotions that worked as well as the promotions that didn’t work.

The customers of any business are the business. The business that has a detailed database of all it’s customers showing how often each customer visits and makes a purchase combined with a systemised effective marketing program of tried, tested, and proven strategies in place confirming how and why those customers keep coming back, is a far more valuable business than the business with no customer and marketing records at all.

That is why all businesses whether they be an accountant’s practice, doctor’s surgery, ladies fashion boutique, the local fish & chip shop, restaurants, café/bars, men’s wear shops, and sports stores, should all have a database which is constantly used and updated. So when any business is put up for sale and the outgoing owner can show a list of customers, together with a history of correspondence and a marketing system for keeping those customers coming back, then that person has a real business to sell. This business is far more valuable than a business with no system and marketing records at all.

With any business the value is in the system and the customer list. It is not in the fish & chips, or the recipes, or the clothes on display, or the fancy furniture or display stands. You are selling the customers and the system implemented to get those customers in the first instance and to keep them.

The better the database and the systems for getting customers the more valuable the business.

Once you have your customers on a database the most important task from here is to keep in contact with them. The post or email is the most efficient way to do this. Just imagine you were receiving over a twelve month period from your local café a newsletter every three months, together with a birthday card including a gift voucher, as well as regular prize draws and discount vouchers. Where would you go when you next had to take your family out for lunch?

How are you building your database?

Have a great week.

7 Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Website

Ok so you have your website - is it working for you?  For a successful website, you need TRAFFIC.   How are potential customers going to find you?

Here's 7 ways to increase your traffic to your website.

1.  Create an adwords campaign with Google or MSN to generate paid traffic.  This is pay per click advertising on search engines.  When someone clicks on your ad, you pay.  Pricing is determined by how many competitors there are paying for that particular keyword.  You can set a monthly or daily budget and the ads will stop when your budget is reached.

2.  Exchange or build links with other quality related websites.  Make sure they are quality sites that are not in direct competition to you but enhance your business.  For eg: Businesses or wholesalers who receive or supply your business with products or services.

3.  3) Use Viral Marketing.   This allows you to spread the word about your company and product without any costs or very minimal.  This is a method that can be quite sneaky for eg: you can attach your logo or company's name product or link to a certain media such as a funny video, game or article or blog.  People enjoy the creativity and entertainment of it and they will pass it on to many people.

4) Search and use proper keywords or keyword phrases for your sites content

Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and keyword phrase is a high requirement in ranking in high in search engine results. You could write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you.

5) Write Articles that can lead traffic to your site

Submit articles to sites that would contain the same subject that your site deals in. If you sell car parts write press releases and articles about cars and car parts. Attach your sites description and services at the end of the article as well as the link.

6) Join forums and form online communities

Capture a market and show your expertise and credibility. When you found a good foundation for your site, people will trust you and your site and will pass on to many people their trust. Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can provide what they need.

7) Lastly, Offer newsletters.

If many people know what you are about and your existence is shared with many others, you will find a loyal traffic that can provide you with more traffic by recommendation. If you arouse the curiosity of your customers they would be pushed to help you with your traffic.

Marketing - Snail Mail vs Email

It was not too long ago that most people had no internet leave alone e-mail address.  But the internet brought in a new era that is full of unlimited information. Internet gave birth to electronic mail popularly known as e-mail.   E-mail opened new avenues to the world of communication.  In the beginning e-mail was only used as another means of communicating with other people for personal or business related matters.  Now people of every age group have an e-mail address.  But, since past few years its potential for marketing has been exploited to its maximum both in good and as well as bad manner.  At the same time who can disregard the services of direct mail which has been operating since nearly two centuries?  It is still the preferred method of communication for many people.

E-mail is the cheapest method of communicating available as of this date.  The advantage with email is that you can send email to many people at the same time just with the click of a mouse where as in the case of direct mails one has to go through putting letters in envelopes for each and every person, make different address labels, mail it and also have to bear the cost of mailing. Time is money and e-mail marketing saves a lot of time.

While e-mail marketing might look easy but if you compare the net result the story is totally different.  When you are marketing through e-mail you go to make sure that you are e-mailing the right person otherwise the e-mail would end up going to junk folder.  Also you got to be careful that you don’t miss the subject or the body of the e-mail otherwise the net result would be same.  In this age of spamming, spammers use variety of subjects, so you have to put the subject keeping in mind that it wouldn’t send your e-mail to the spam folder again. In contract the direct mail gets a better treatment. Studies show that direct mail is more efficient and has better success than e-mail.  First, it is not as easy to block direct mail as junk e-mail and secondly the process of blocking mails itself is not automated like e-mail.  The other reason why people hate e-mail marketing is due to constant bombarding of e-mails from spammers and illegal marketers from Nigerian money scams to porn to online prescription drugs to stock quotes to what not.  In addition to that, you also get promotional offers from big companies and who can ignore phishing these days.  Due to all these people have developed a negative perception about e-mail marketing and they simply delete or spam the e-mail if they do not identify it as their regular e-mail.  In contrast direct mail is seen with respect and people pick their mail as a daily routine and open them with a priority.

Direct mail has a personal feel attached to it, one of the reasons why people prefer mail greetings over an electronic greeting.  It takes time to personalize a direct mail where as an e-mail is instant and the fate of e-mail is also instant i.e. immediate deletion.  Researchers are constantly puzzled by the mystery surrounding why people are so enthusiastic about direct mail.  But no worries this only good news for the marketers that they have something in their tool kit that works.  So marketers have the mailing list of potential customers handy and send some nicely composed letters to them about your company and its products.

Snail mail has a potential of going through the hands of gatekeepers and administrative assistants before actually going to their boss which can end up being thrown in trash.  The survival chances are rare unless its subject is business oriented and has some important information.  But e-mail wins in this regard, as it reaches directly the person to which it is intended to go, after that its fate is left to the person whether to read or send it to spam folder.

A more scientific explanation of why direct mail is dearer to people than e-mail is the sensory perception of people.  A direct mail uses three of the four senses of a person i.e. visual, verbal, listening and touching where as e-mail does not use sense of listening and touching.  But this can be achieved by adding appealing graphics, text reading ability and streaming audio to the e-mail.

The statistics show that direct mail has not died and in fact the volume has grown by leaps and bounds in past few decades.  A typical example is the fact that we receive more magazines, journals, DVDs etc. than we used to receive few years ago.  This leaves the marketers with a dilemma about which method to use.  The answer is simple, use email to contact only those people who you know and use direct mail for the people who don’t know you.