How to Grow Your Database

Your database of customers and potential customers is an invaluable resource. This is your means of communicating with potential buyers. If you want your company to grow, your database needs to grow as well. If the only people included in your listings are those who have previously purchased from the company, you’re missing out on a world of opportunities. While you do want to keep in close contact with your current and past customers, you also want to make sure that you’re reaching out to new potential buyers as well. Here are some tips for continually growing your database and reaching new individuals.

The easiest way to get customers’ contact information is to offer something in return. Without this incentive, there’s really very little reason for anyone to offer up their contact information. The most common tactic is offering an email newsletter or promotion. To make the most of this kind of offering, you need to focus as much time and effort on the newsletter itself as you do on reaching new people with it. Make sure that the content is engaging and valuable. A newsletter that’s really a glorified ad for your company will just land you in the trash. Powerful content will grab the reader’s attention.

Once you’ve put together a strong email newsletter, you need to give your readers a way to share it. Include social media buttons in your email so it’s quick and easy to share the content on sites like Facebook and Twitter. This is the best way to reach new customers and grow your database, because your company is reaching others with a personal recommendation from the reader. A good email newsletter will grow itself simply by word of mouth as readers forward it and share with others. However, a newsletter alone isn’t enough. You’ll need to include some other tactics for growing your database as well.

In addition to your newsletter, offer other incentives that will encourage people to provide their contact information. A sweepstakes, contest, free e-book, webinar, or free sample product is a good way to draw in more potential customers. Simply make it mandatory to sign up for your newsletter and provide contact information in order to get the incentive. If you’re not getting enough new customers by simply advertising these items online, consider running a cross promotion with another company or renting a subscriber list and advertising to a targeted audience. When you offer a solid benefit, your database is sure to grow.