Business Buzz: Building your database

PHUKET: This week, let me explain the biggest asset your social media marketing efforts will build for you: your database.

A marketing database is an electronic list of all of your potential customers, with as much relevant information as you can gather about them. Normally, this is combined with a platform that can be used to communicate automatically on a mass level, called an autoresponder.

Having people join you on Facebook, like your Facebook fan page and follow you on Twitter are all examples of activities that build your database. You can control and own some of these, but others are owned and controlled by third parties.

If you can, it is always better to own and control your own database.

People often cannot get their heads around the amounts of money that Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other similar sites are worth – which is in the billions of dollars – because they are just a ‘web program’. Where the true value lies, and marketers understand this, is in the sites’ databases.

Facebook has a database of about 1.6 billion people, and Facebook knows a lot of very relevant information about them. That is why the site is worth so much; because of the potential revenue streams that can be accessed by utilizing this information.

An autoresponder allows you to collect people’s information, and then group and store it according to the marketing activities and goals you have in mind. You can then send out information about your product, special events, updates, bonuses and more to grow your sales and keep your customers loyal. This can be done automatically, which saves you considerable amounts of time.

Imagine that you own a restaurant, and that your restaurant is having a particularly quiet night. You could use social media and your database to contact everyone on your list and let them know that the first 20 people who come in that night will get a free dessert.

To get people onto your database, you should provide a reason or benefit for them to join. This can be done simply and cheaply, or you can build instant loyalty by creating a generous offer that people cannot refuse.

The next step is to organize your strategy so that you can create an engaging sales funnel and positive customer experience which in turn builds your database and converts it into sales.

We will cover this next time.

Simon Wetherell is a social media expert, lawyer, best selling author & international speaker. He now resides in Phuket where he trains businesses and individuals on how to profit from the use of social media. For more information go to https://PhuketOnlineMarketing.com or call him on 095 085 3355. Follow him on social media – Twitter @SimonWetherell or @PhuketMarketing Facebook: SAWetherell or PhuketOnlineMarketing LinkedIn th.linkedin.com/in/simonwetherell/en