Database Potential – Effective Collecting

This is part 1 of a 3 part series on collecting, consolidating and connecting to people via a database.

Introduction

I’m surprised by the number of business people I’m meeting who fall into one of these categories when it comes to databases:

1.  Don’t have one. They want one. Know they need one. But don’t know where to start and what they should do with it once they have it.

2. Have one. A large one. Collected or inherited. Don’t know how to best use it or leverage it without being pesky or wasting days dealing with frustrating and retarded Outlook newsletter templates etc.

In any case, you need an effective and easy way to collect, consolidate and then connect with the database.  I’m a firm believer in allowing technology to do all the hard work for you.  Gone are the days of expensive direct mail and wasted paper.  Welcome to the world of emails, RSS feeds, blogging and new media. Where one person can effortlessly reach thousands with very little effort.

Part 1 – Collecting

For those who don’t have a database, you need to collect the data.

Firstly, you must narrow down and decide on which data is critical to get.

Do you need names, postal addresses, phone numbers or just email addresses?   I find that just email addresses are enough – from there you can get most anything else you want from the person if they’re willing to give it.  The less you want, the more likely you are to get it from them.

Depending on your business / organisation type and model you need to collect details in different ways. 

Here are 6 EASY WAYS to get you started on collecting contacts for your database.

1.  Go through your business card file and put all the email addresses in an Excel spreadsheet column.

2. Go through your email inbox and outlook address book and place those email addresses in a spreadsheet the same way.

3. In a retail situation, be sure to have a jar at your counter for people to place their cards in and staff to collect details from anyone that walks in. Perhaps start a discount or point club like Myers do or simply ask people after they’ve made a transaction if they don’t mind if you stay in touch with them. Letting them know that they can unsubscribe at any time.

4. Attend networking events and ask for business cards. Again, straight into the excel spreadsheet at this stage.  If you’re at a trade show and you’ve been collecting cards at your stand, be sure to hook up with another stall holder and exchange spreadsheets via email to see if you missed people that they got to their stand and vice versa.

5. Make the most of spam. This is a cheeky one but you all probably have a friend or two that send out a regular funny email to a heap of people they know or forward one onto you that has a massive list of other people’s email addresses on it.  Put them on your list too! If you’re ever asked, ‘How did you get my address?’ Tell them it was via this mutual friend or contract.

6. If you have a website that gets a bit of traffic, be sure to have a place where people can subscribe to your newsletter etc. But more on that next week.

Next week, I’ll give you some easy ways to consolidate those addresses using a smart online system or two.