How well do you know your customers? Do you keep track of how often they use your services and what products they like to purchase? Do you at least have a list of names and email addresses? Creating (or cleaning up) your customer list can help you grow your business by allowing you to effectively communicate with your loyal customer base.
Your customer list
One of the most powerful tools you can have in your marketing toolkit is your customer list. Keeping detailed information on your customer base gives you the power to communicate with them by giving them the information they want.
The Basics
At the very least, you should have contact information for your customers broken out by:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Email Address
- Phone Number (including area code)
- Mailing Address (if possible/applicable). Mailing addresses are best broken out by:
- Street Address
- City
- State
- ZIP code
Most people use a database or spreadsheet to keep track of this information. "Breaking out' the information simply means that each data point is separated out. In a database, this is usually dome by field; in a spreadsheet, this means that each data point has its own cell. Breaking out the information allows for detailed organization of the information included in your list.
Being Smart with Your Data
The more data you can gather on your clients, the better. Depending on your business, you could track what type of products they like to buy from you, what events they tend to sign up for, or even how they found out about your business in the first place. All of this information can be used to communicate with your customers in a personal and effective manner.
For instance, if you have a business that sells jewelry, you may want to track what types of jewerly your customers have purchased in the past. If you decide to have a promotional sale on earrings, you could send a direct email to your customer base that have purchased earrings from you before since they may be more likely to purchase them again.
So, what are my next steps?
If you haven't already started gathering data on your clients, now is the best time to start! If you're not quite sure where to begin, please email me so we can set aside some time to discuss customizing a client data list for your business! If you already have a list started, let's talk about how we can improve your list and use the data you have to grow your business!