You would be hard pressed to find a website these days that
doesn’t try to capture your details and add you to their database. Maybe they
lure you with the idea of a VIP club, or promise exclusive specials. Maybe you
get a free eBook or tips sent to your inbox. Or perhaps you can’t buy anything
from their website without adding your details or even enter the website at
all?!
As a user, it can be a real pain can’t it?! But what about
from the perspective of the business? Generating a database of potential
customers is incredibly valuable and being able to ‘speak’ to this clientele
regularly is a fantastic way to grow your business and generate more sales.
Many people are happy to sign up to a database, if they can
see the value in it for them! This is why specials, free downloads and free
information will often work to grow this database for you… But if you don’t
deliver, after a while, many customers will inevitably unsubscribe and get more
frustrated with your business (definitely NOT what you intended to achieve,
ay?!)
How can you prevent this?
Let’s give credit to our customers, they are more savvy and
in tune with motivations than perhaps we realise. Therefore, if you hook them
in by offering giveaways, and then just sell-sell-sell, they aren’t going to be
impressed.
A better way to think about your database is like a list of
your business’s friends… People who have opted in to keep in touch with you.
This is a gift! So don’t focus on selling, focus on building a relationship
with these people. Tell them about what’s been happening within your business,
give them updates, specials, recent changes, staff changes and more. Make them
feel part of the family – and with the growing relationship, they will be more
inclined to buy again from you.
At Digerati we have a campaign system that allows you to
easily keep in contact with your clients. You can email a whole database in a
simple to use system, and see all kinds of reports and data. You can also integrate
this with your website, so your customers get added to various lists without
the need to do data entry.
Get in touch with us if you would like to know
more about building relationships with your clients!