Techniques for using the web to grow your database

• Use offline marketing to drive people to a landing site, stressing the benefits of your product offering.
• Any contacts that access your site from an offline push should be required to register their details on accessing the site.
• Give site visitors the opportunity to register for online communication. Include a link on your corporate site to a landing page where people can register for the online service.
• Use viral marketing to get more prospects into your database.
• Use registration forms / update details forms to capture additional information on existing contacts or allow them to change their details.
• Surveying the customer base periodically enables the marketer to monitor their requirements on an ongoing basis. Survey responses can be filtered on to create subgroups and also it can be uploaded into the database to form part of the customer record and filtered on from there.

Other techniques for growing your email database

• Use telemarketing to existing customers and prospects to ask for email address, explaining the benefits of the information to be communicated.
• Collect business cards. Email addresses from business cards collected at an event can be sent without prior permission as long as the option to opt-out is emphasised in the email.

Using Your Database
The database can be used to:

• Acquire new customers - attract customers that are likely to stay with you.
• Retain current customers - ensure ongoing revenue from these customers.
• Build loyalty amongst your customer base.
• Acquire new prospects through referrals.
• Cross and upsell - increasing revenue.

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