Almost all companies need some database Marketing to succeed

by Azuela

If you organization is not doing some sort of database marketing you might be in trouble because you need it now.

We like to be a mutually dependent being and not really on others to do some tasks that might seen basic or obvious. However at one point of time either by need, conviction, pain or other we realize that to do something we need help. This phenomenon is happening in companies to what we call today Database Marketing.

In simple terms, Database Marketing is the process of reaching out a big number of existing & prospective customers individually, by collecting their contact information from a database in order to promote their product or services. Database Marketing is only ‘similar’ to direct marketing as Database Marketing aims at arriving at a statistical analysis & better understanding of potential consumer mentality as opposed to Direct Marketing which is only targeted at improvement in sales of the product.

Database Marketing requires people who have a natural bent of mind to understand consumer psychology as well as a good understanding about the strategies involved in Database number crunching. Database Marketeers are a funny breed of left and right sided brain.

Since Database Marketing deals with managing immeasurable amounts of information the software & tools ought to be able to store, process & retrieve the same data at considerable speed. The most commonly used are relational DBMS or object oriented DBMS, query tools like SQL (Structured Query Language) & various interactive tools. Large amounts of data presentation can impressively be done through software like Business Intelligence  or GIS (geographic Information System) if the data collected are results from different geographic locations.

Database Marketing is an elaborate process with numerous people harbouring a variety of techniques & principles for successful marketing. The first most important thing that a tactful database marketer has to do is hoard all the scattered information from various smaller sources to form one large collective database of customers. Seemingly potential customers are tracked based on their latest transaction that may imply if they would be interested in the promoted service or product, which is then followed by calculating if the customer consumption will average out the investment in the marketing process, and the process is wraped up by the creation and execution of a communication piece to the customer . It is important that the data is systematized as it’s retention in the raw form can lead to erratic communications.

Most recent advancements in Database Marketing include ‘the real time business intelligence’ which allows the marketer to access detailed information about the dealing customer’s consumer history even as the transaction is proceeding. Also development in business intelligence tools like Digital Dash boards( used for easy access of data from one or more running applications) & OLAP (Online analytical processing, used to simultaneously answer analytical queries)have contributed much to growth of Database Marketing as a full- fledged profession.

From our experience in Quaxar, Database Marketing goes a long way in building customer relationships and upholding companies in difficult times like the ones we are living economically.  If you are not doing database marketing in any form you should consider it because it is a need for every company that has customers or prospects in the hundreds.. Start with something now.  That can be as basic as having an Excel with the list of prospects and customers that you say hello once every two months.