Following the popularity of last week’s Monday Momentum topic on databases, I was asked what I have done to maintain and grow my database. What follows is a summary of the top 10 strategies that I have employed to make sure my most valuable asset not on the balance sheet gets the attention it needs.
Here are the first five:
- Buy or rent a list from a list broker – there are several list brokers out there that you can purchase or rent a database list from depending on what you want to achieve with your marketing. For a fee per 1000 records you can get access to contact details for your target market by providing criteria that the data can be filtered by to give you better quality records
- Search online directories – look for networking groups, industry groups, local business directories and so on that publish information in the public domain. Use these directories to make some initial contact that will then give you the opportunity to add them to your database.
- Join industry associations – industry associations typically attract members that have common interests and needs. Find groups that are relevant to your products and services and then become a member so you can tap into the audience and promote how you can add value.
- Subscribe to business intelligence services – there are organisations out there that you can subscribe to to gain access to specific information on businesses that might be targets for your products and services. Dun & Bradstreet offers a service as do others that contain contact information and even financial information that you can use to research your ideal type of customers.
- Attend trade shows – whether you are displaying your wares or are just visiting a trade show, there is always opportunity to get qualified information that you can then add to your database. If you’re resourceful enough you might even be able to get your hands on the database of everyone that attended and exhibited!
Next week I’ll give you the other five strategies that I have found useful in building and maintaining my database. In the meantime, pick one or more of these strategies and put a plan in place to start building your database!
Build massive momentum!
