Why Are You Marketing Without A Database?
Marketing is one of the most important business activities and without a good marketing plan even the best business ideas can fall flat. However, a marketing plan is only as good as the market data available. Here we discuss why databases are now a vital component to any marketing strategy.
Marketing, in the simplest terms, is the process of making a business more visible to its potential customers. One of the key elements of marketing is to develop a business product or service that meets the needs of the market. This sounds simple in theory, but how exactly does a business accomplish this? The answer is market data.
Gone are the days when a marketing manager would keep an address book on their desk containing all their contacts. Marketing has entered the digital age.
The best marketers are using marketing databases and customer relationship management systems (CRM) to power their marketing strategy. Rather than seeking out specific individuals to send marketing material to, a large database can gather information on many thousands of people and then sort them based their needs and interests. This allows businesses to create more focused marketing campaigns that have a far greater chance of creating sales.
A well management database can give a company a huge competitive advantage, especially in a growing market. Many companies are still marketing to a relatively narrow demographic, focusing on customers within their immediate geographic area. Because of improvements in transport and logistics, distance is no longer the hurdle to business that it once was.
Bespoke databases are more powerful
Today, there are many off-the-shelf database packages available, however, such databases are never as effective as a well-designed, bespoke solution.
Every business is different and therefore requires a different marketing strategy. A database can do much more that simply store and sort a wide array of information. A bespoke database will actually help shape business strategy, provide feedback to product development and measure that impact of price changes. This information is vital to businesses; there is much more to marketing than simply informing potential customers of new products.
A bespoke database can power targeted email campaigns and evaluate responses. By going through cycles of outreach and evaluation, email campaigns can be modified and streamlined to improve click-through rates and conversions.
Digital Marketing That Works Harder
If a marketing database is built with a specific goal in mind it will be populated with much more useful information and this will further improve the effectiveness of a marketing plan.
One of the most powerful marketing strategies is to merge transactional data with personal attitudes and lifestyle data to enable you to develop a clearer picture of your buying customers. By understanding the traits of those who buy, and those who do not, future campaigns can be much more effective. The larger the database is, the greater the pool of information to draw on and therefore a marketing campaign can be more focused.
Partner with IT Professionals
The best marketing strategists partner with IT professionals to ensure that their tools are defined and honed to meet their specific needs. If you purchase a database from the Internet you will eventually hit a brick wall, whereas a bespoke database can always be enhanced and modified to accommodate new strategies and new markets.
If you are new to marketing it may seem rather daunting to develop your own database; fortunately there are IT professionals who can advise you and guide you every step of the way. Start building your new marketing strategy today.
Karen Harding is the marketing manager at Objective IT, one of the South East’s leading web and software development companies. If you wish to learn more about how a databases can improve your business, contact Karen today.
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