Our first post in this series, "Do the Math On Relationship Marketing" provided an online calculator that let you play with your own numbers. I expect that your own math has stimulated a vigorous new interest in beefing up your relationship marketing capabilities. Here's what you should do next.
1. Consolidate Your Databases
Pull all of your various databases into a spreadsheet:
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MLS Prospects
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Leads from your Web site(s)
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Outlook Records
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AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, etc. Records
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PDA and Mobile Phone Records
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Business Cards
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Membership Lists
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Napkins
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Other?
Clean them up:
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Make sure all the data is in the correct column (i.e. first names in first name column, emails in email address column, etc.)
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Capitalize letters of first and last names.
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Delete people you don't want to market to.
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Correct spelling.
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Get missing email addresses
2. Categorize Your Records
Create a new column in your spreadsheet called "Contact Type"
Create the following standardized Contact Types:
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Newly Met; i.e. people you've just met who are not currently in the market to buy or sell
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Met; i.e. people you've had some two way communication with in the past who are not currently in the market to buy or sell
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Client; i.e. people who've bought or sold with you in the past
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Hot Buyer; i.e. people who are ready to make an offer as soon as they find something they really want
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Warm Buyer; i.e. people who are looking, but not quite ready to make an offer yet
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Hot Seller; i.e. people who are ready to accept a good offer
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Warm Seller; i.e. people who are thinking about selling, but aren't quite ready to list
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Vendor; i.e. third parties you work with
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Agent/Broker; i.e. other agents/brokers you network with
Enter these Contact Types, as appropriate, for each name into your spreadsheet. Use multiple Contact Types as needed; just separate them with commas.
3. Count Your Email Addresses
Because email template links can bring people directly to your Web content, email/Web marketing is the fastest, easiest, cheapest and best marketing communications you can do. When email/Web marketing is automated, you've got a virtual relationship marketing and lead generation machine.
Count your email addresses, and run your numbers again (through the Relationship Marketing Calculator above) to see what kind of results you can expect from your automated email campaigns. Then count the records without email addresses, but with mailing addresses, and run those numbers. Keep in mind that you'll have to do a lot of expensive printing, handling and posting to market to this second group.
4. Plan to Get More Email Addresses
After you've done step three above I'm pretty sure that you'll wish you had a lot more email addresses. In this step you'll make plans to get them:
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Make calls and ask for them
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Integrate more forms on your Web sites for lead capture
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Make offers in your mailings that require going to your Web site and completing an email address form
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Purchase lists of targeted email addresses
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Train staff to be diligent about getting email addresses
If you want to get the most out of your relationship marketing efforts it is essential that you optimize the biggest email database possible. Watch for our next steps.
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