By Melissa Rivas

Money in my database? Do I have a client database? Is it in electronic format? What kind of electronic format? Is Excel acceptable?

These are questions that come up at every new and prospective client meeting that I have ever attended. Some understand and some look at you like your crazy. “There is money in your database” I tell them and I take it from there. Some clients hand me a small bundle of business cards and say, “Does this work?” Others open spreadsheet after spreadsheet, chock full of information, from addresses to birthday lists.

There are potential dollars sitting around in your database for marketing, but you need a place to start, so where do you start? Let’s look at your database and see if we can make sense of this underutilized marketing vehicle.

What can a database do for you? A fully utilized database can increase your income, can tell you about your clients, can provide demographic information and can tell you how to market to your prospective clients.

First, if you are not computer savvy and have a stack of business cards that you do not know what to do with; hire someone for a few dollars an hour or purchase a business card scanner for about $100. The contact information can be gathered in a spreadsheet program like MS Excel or can be imported directly into any of the widely available contact management software programs. At the very least you have a place to start. A completed database is a great resource!

If you are computer literate and are comfortable using MS Access, ACT, MS Excel, Outlook or any other program to store your contacts, all you need is to start using your database. To find the money in your database you need to start with a simple marketing plan, here are some ideas to get you started:

• If your list includes email addresses, you can start with a monthly or quarterly electronic newsletter (more to come on this topic). If you are not the writing type, you can send monthly e-cards announcing promotions or specials.
• If your database is chock full of birthdays, why not start sending out birthday cards or a special birthday promotion.
• Start communicating with your database in regularly scheduled intervals. Whether you use postcards, thank you cards, email, airmail or podcast. Just be sure not to inundate your recipients.

Consistent communication with your database will increase your business marketing exposure, visibility, credibility, and can convert potential clients into costumers.

Along this journey you may find that your database is an important vehicle to increase your sales. Happy travels.

Written by; Melissa Rivas, Founder of Visage Connections a professional marketing firm that provides strategic planning and revenue generating services through web design and development, email marketing, ecommerce enabled solutions and direct mail marketing located in Smithtown, New York. Visage Connections - your complete marketing and sales solution.