Dear Small Business Owners - #1 Data
So you’ve optimised your website for search engines, you’ve automated your responses, and you’re highly visible on all social media. You’ve automated your leads capture process, and the data, leads, enquiries and customer phone calls are rolling in. Awesome!
So… what’s next?
Well – that’s kind of up to you. But there’s a few main things to think about. This is a series of 5 short info sessions to help you through.
1 of 5 - Data
Make sure your incoming customer info is being retained somewhere. Whether you have a CRM software package, or whether you keep it in an excel spreadsheet – make sure you keep the info. This will form a great basis for your future marketing efforts, so make sure you structure it properly from the beginning, and save yourself a world of pain later. Think about your info in terms of “fields”
First name
Last name
Mobile number
Email address (this is normally your unique identifier, to prevent duplicate records)
Product, or service interest
Relevant address info – House/ Unit number, Street, Suburb, State, Postcode.
It’s important to keep this info split – in future you might think about running an email campaign with dynamic fields – “Dear {firstname}, we understand you recently expressed an interest in {product}, and one of our team will be travelling through {suburb} next week. If you’d like to request a quote, or onsite visit please click here to book an appointment.”
A basic e-mail platform, online and generally free is MailChimp – you can pay to upgrade if you need. Software like this can also automate things like newsletters, regular product offers, or other client contact. It allows for customer segmentation and targeting – based on any of the fields you enter, as well as others, like date of purchase, or contact. Then you can schedule follow up emails, or reminders for your staff to call those leads at an appropriate time.
Most importantly, a good CRM or EDM software will allow you to maintain your Opt-Out list. Because let’s face it – nobody wants to hassle a client that’s not interested, right? So the best way is to ALWAYS have an option to opt-out. And a little tip I’ve learned? NEVER delete that email from your database. Keep the email, and flag it as Do Not Mail. Because once you delete it, there’s nothing to stop it from being accidentally re-added again in future.
Overwhelmed Much?
Yes – this process can be complicated, annoying, overwhelming, time-consuming, and generally a pain in the neck. There is no silver bullet, no magical cure, and definitely no fast forward. It will take time, patience, consistency, and resilience. The great news is that you don’t have to do this alone.
#BelladonnaMarketingConsulting #MarketingSidekick #CRM #DataDriven #EDM #emailstillworks