Sifting Your database For Gold
Your database is everything, That’s where the gold is. If you ever get around to selling your business, sure, there’s stuff like inventory and tools. But every name in your database is worth multiples of dollars, gold, a lifetime value if cared for. Bad ones, are worth negative dollars, a lot of rocks. So keep your database clean and working for you to pick out the nuggets.
When you reach out to customers you will never reach 100% of your list, even of the ones that love you. Any message that goes out will only reach a portion at any point in time. Of that fraction only some will engage in the message; and only engage if relevant to them in the moment.
Of that fraction, only a few will pull out a credit card and buy. So…Choose who sees a message each time. Choose what is sustainable in the number of messages, and even if you don’t see action right away, or much, grow your good quality lists and keep sending messages out regularly. Part of what this will do is keep your list clean and efficient.
For instance, you’ve segmented your list to send a message to just Moms with a child having a birthday this month. You’ve gone mining for the most relevant recipients of your list. No one else in your database gets this message except these Moms. Of the one hundred messages that go out ,you may only get engagement by a few percent. The fun/frustrating part? you’ll never know all the reasons why a message is a hit or miss. Could be anything from local weather, to being on vacation, or just purchased elsewhere. But that’s OK, you get valuable information no matter what.
Depending on the form of your message you may be able know whether they received it at all. Did the email get opened? or bounce? Did the postcard get returned? If it did, did you get a forwarding address? As you clean up your database of bad email, and bad physical addresses, you increase the cost effectiveness of every subsequent message that goes out.
Depending on your product or service, reaching one hundred people and coming up ahead or short by fifty bucks is one thing. Sending out ten thousand messages and coming up ahead or short by five grand either direction, that’s real money. So keep that database tidy and efficient to more easily pick out the nuggets.