If you have customers and contacts then you have the beginnings of a great database. In fact, you probably have a wealth of valuable information about your clients that used correctly can bag you more business for your buck.

With the help of a great database you can retain business and build customer loyalty, personalise communications, up sell or cross sell services, track and follow new business leads, and follow through on networking contacts.

The trick is to capture as much information as possible about your clients or leads. Got a name, title, company, physical and postal address. Great! How about adding in an email? This gives you another channel to get your message across. Start adding in information such as gender, age, purchase history, lifestyle factors or anything else you can think of and you enhance your personalisation options and increase the chances of getting the right message to the right people.

We’ve created a simple Excel template with all the right fields for a basic customer list. Click here to download.

You can manage your list in Excel, however we recommend using a dedicated CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. You’ll be able to share your database across your team, track interactions with your contacts, easily group contacts together (e.g. customers, prospects, leads), export lists for your marketing activities plus so much more.

There are plenty of CRM systems on the web. We’ve done a fair bit of research and have taken a shine to Capsule CRM. It’s simple, powerful, cost effective ($12 per user per month for the professional version with a 30 day free trial) and easy to use.

If you’d like a hand setting up your CRM system give us a call.

Remember, effective targeting will improve the success rates of your communications while saving you money. Send out less but send it out right.

Poor old New Zealand Post – letter volumes keep falling and even your grandmother is using email but the cost of transportation, processing and delivering letters will keep going up. As of 1st July 2012 the cost to post a medium size letter will increase by 10c and all other postal services increased along with it. A full list of price increases can be found here: http://www.nzpost.co.nz

The consequences of rising costs means the traditional big mailers, such as the banks / telcos / utility companies, are increasingly switching to digital methods for their essential mail (invoicing and statements) with many others following suit.

This is not a doom and gloom story.

For the clever marketer a price rise isn’t a bad thing. You just need to look at things a little differently.

We’re thinking shorter run personalised DM packs, highly targeted mailing lists, integration with other mediums and real offers to real consumers.

And the bonus of this? You’re spending the same, but you’re sending to an audience more likely to respond while still generating a solid return on marketing investment.

Mail less, get more. Simple huh?

The recent move by NZ Post to cut its economy rate international mailing service has caused some sensationalist commentators to proclaim ‘mail is dead!’ However, the smart marketer will realise that, rather than an antiquated art form, mail is now providing a better than ever opportunity to get your message heard.

It comes down to potential for creativity and saturation of message. Sure, email marketing can be cost effective – but what’s your open rate? How many companies are trying to compete for the same time and attention that you are? What’s your reaction to the large numbers of marketing messages that flood your own inbox on a daily basis? The email marketing channel is one that is swiftly being destroyed by spammers.

Often the person reading their email is in the middle of a busy work day. They are time poor and will give your email a quick glance, if they open it at all. Why not deliver your message in an environment where your target is relaxed with a message format that’s a little harder to get rid of?

The potential of mail is huge. The possibilities for creativity, personalisation and even integration with an online campaign are limited only by your imagination. Data lists targeting a specific area, demographic, or lifestyle are easily available, as are lists of customers new to your area.

Remember that we live in a world with a lot of noise and need to be that little bit smarter if we want our messages to be heard above the rest. Stop before you send that next email and ask yourself ‘could we be doing this better?’