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In business having a database of clients that you’ve built a good relationship with is one of the most valuable assets any business can have. As a lot of online marketers say, “The money is in the list!”

If you want proof of the value that’s in a database, I’m sure you can remember just a few years back when Google purchased Youtube for $1.6 Billion, and Youtube hadn’t made a profit at that stage.

Building your database is an ongoing task, remember it’s all about building the relationship and staying in contact with your prospects so that you are their when they are ready to buy. A good point to keep in mind when building your database is that each time you get a new addition to your database it is future profits, now I’m not saying that you will sell to everyone that enters your database, how ever you will obviously sell to a percentage of your database. So if you’re struggling to see the value in focusing on your database, just think of it as future revenue.

There are many different strategies you can use to build your database and let’s start with some traditional offline business examples;
The most popular for a traditional bricks and mortar business is to run an in-store competition where people enter their details into the draw to win a prize that can be something you’ve packaged up in house or you may even offer a holiday to more attention. This allows you to capture peoples details so you can stay in contact with them and send out special offers to generate more business.

Here’s an example from a café business I worked with; (more…)

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to share an extremely effective marketing strategy with you called Magnetic Marketing.

Magnetic marketing involves giving your clients some thing of tangible value when they do business with you that they can redeem on their next visit. This is designed to attract them back to your business for repeat custom.

If you have a mechanic shop for example with every service you may leave a $20 discount voucher off the next service, which expires in 3 months time. So when the person needs their car serviced again they are more than likely going to call you, otherwise they would be effectively wasting $20.

This works especially well when you are trying to attract new clients to your business. Here’s how it would work for a dry cleaning business. First you would send out vouchers for Free dry cleaning to the people you are targeting for this marketing campaign and then when the people who took you up on your offer come back in to pick up their dry cleaning, you would give them a 50% discount voucher for their next lot of dry cleaning, which would expire in 30 days. When they come back you would give them another 50% voucher off their next dry cleaning bill also to attract them back to your business again and get them into the habit of dealing with you. From then on you would treat them as a normal client.

The psychology behind this strategy is that firstly you offering a no-brainer offer that your prospects would be just throwing money down the drain if they didn’t take you up on it and then you’re following up several times with more magnetic marketing offers to get them into the habit of dealing with you.

For this to be effective obviously you must deliver excellent service.

You don’t have to use discounts with your magnetic marketing, you can offer holidays, free meals at restaurants, gift packs or whatever else you can come up with that is appealing to your target market and makes sense to give away to attract a new client or keep an existing client.

Get creative, you could even partner up with other businesses and work together on this one.

Yours in success,

Aaron Parsons.

In Marketing today it is crucial to focus on building the relationship with your clients and prospects. I was reading recently that when running advertisements to attract new clients, on average it would be effective after 4 times, where as today it is more like 8 or 9 times for people to warm to you.

You must be consistent with your marketing and ensure you stay in touch with your clients and prospects to maintain the all important ‘Top-Of-Mind’ awareness so that when they are ready to buy you are the first person they think of. Remember most people won’t be ready to buy when you first come into contact with them, so consistent marketing efforts on your part is imperative.

The crucial point with staying in contact and adding value to your clients and prospects with good quality information to help them get more of what they want is that you are earning the right to get the sale. Building up that level of trust is a major factor in today’s market place.

Plus with staying in contact through passing on quality information also helps with positioning you as the expert in your field. Don’t be scared to give away great information for free. Remember the more you help people get what they want the more you will get what you want.

People are so skeptical today because they are hearing all sorts of weird and wonderful promises out there in the crowed market place and the good news for you is that most businesses don’t bother to stay in contact to build the relationship, which makes your job even more effective in getting their Attention.

And there are no excuses with modern technology you can use email auto-responders to stay in touch for the majority, however the most effective is to use several forms of media. If they’re not responsive to email, you may be able to get through with direct mail or SMS or even through sending them a DVD.

Just be prepared to be persistent, consistent and flexible with your approach and you’re sure to be kicking goals with your marketing in no time!!