Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Easy Ways to Build Your Database

Small business owners ought to be building a database of customers and prospects.  This is the single best source of people who will respond to special offers, events and other "come ons".  Building such a database takes time and opportunities can be lost to add names.  Here are nine easy ways to add to that list every day.

1. Record contacts from business cards you collect.  There are even services that can take a stack of cards and put them into database form for you.
2. Add an "add me to your list" on your web site.
3. Ask customers to sign up for a newsletter or special offers list at time of purchase.
4. Create a buyers club, offering deals in exchange for their contact information.
5. Hold lunch-and-learn type events where visitor/enrollee names can be collected.
6. Use a trade show booth as way to gather business cards in exchange for good "swag" items.
7. Collect business cards or index cards with contact info in a special drawing.
8. Invite people to "follow" or "like" your social media page.
9. Copy customer contacts from ecommerce and contract transactions to a master list.

How soon can you get to a list of 1,000 customers and prospects?

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