Database Marketing - how a website really works!

A website is a database marketing tool. That is, a computerized mail order business that uses the internet to connect with clients instead of traditional snail mail.

The key component behind any database marketing business is the client data. This is usually represented as a water tank with layers of different types of water in it. Each layer symbolizes customers at differing levels of involvement in your business - e.g. prospects, clients, good clients, referral client (or affiliates), etc.

There is a leaking tap on this water tank which signifies clients that leave the business. This is either through 'natural attrition' (i.e. the customer moves away or the company you are dealing with goes out of business) or from 'unnatural attrition' (i.e. poor service, low quality products, inadequate client communication, etc.). Part of your marketing should be geared to 'shutting the tap' - i.e. eliminating any unnatural attrition. Remember, it costs 8-10 times more to get a new client as it does to keep an existing client.

A database marketing business is geared around 'massaging customers'. That is, promoting to existing clients (below the line advertising) in order to move them from lower layers to higher layers. This process is represented by a conveyer belt inside the tank.

Any advertising to the public (above the line advertising) is designed to generate sales leads - i.e. collecting more client data to add to your database. This is represented by a person with a bucket going out to collect more 'water' to put into the tank - and indeed this person could be your actual sales staff doing 'cold calling' or 'networking'.

A cloud denotes the market (or your target market) and rain signifies customers searching for a product or service to meet their needs. When it rains over your tank, this is termed referral business - or 'word of mouth' advertising. Beware that the weather is unpredictable so one cannot run a business reliably on simple referral business alone. 'Seasonal' highs and lows and lows are the norm for this type of business model - there is either feast or famine, and both are equally hard to manage.

So an important question to ask is – how do we do database marketing without a database? The answer is – you cannot!! This is why a website without a database for storing client data in is practically useless.

What is more, our solution is designed to automate almost every part of this process: closing the tap, massaging clients, and even generating new sales leads. At long last, this is the promise of computerization delivered - not just greater efficiencies, but a fully automated business.

So where are you in this picture? You’re not here! You are sitting on a beach somewhere enjoying life.