Fields of green: Keeping your contact and customer database profitable - by Anthony Quaranta

I can’t say it often enough. Your contact database is probably your business’ most valuable asset. Why? Because it’s the means in which you grow your business—and sell your stuff. Unfortunately, however, when I visit some clients, I discover that their contact database is not well kept. By that I mean it’s grossly incomplete, independent of whether they use sophisticated CRM software, their Google contacts list, or an Excel spreadsheet.

At a minimum, a contact database that’s missing cell and office phone numbers and/or email addresses is not a usable list. So first and foremost, do a thorough audit of all your contacts and make it your mission—as well as your staff’s—to make them complete.

One fairly easy way to do so is to utilize some of the great tools that are available, many of which are free apps that work with your smart phone. One program in particular, Cam Card, uses your smart phone to photograph, manage, sync and even exchange business cards. And, since your cards are then stored on The Cloud, they’re available to you anytime, anywhere. You could also invest in a business card scanner that digitizes cards in seconds and provides functions for editing information as well as importing/exporting your contacts from your smart devices.

Another sorting feature is “tagging,” a categorization technique often seen online in blogs and social networks. Basically, a tag is a keyword or phrase that assigns a piece of content to a specific person. For instance, the Photos app on your smart phone lets you organize names by their faces so when you search your photos you can find all the particular photos of the person you’re looking for. 

In terms of your customer database, we all have services and products that fall into categories. Since not all of our clients purchase all of our services or products, it makes sense to “tag” them by the categories they’ve expressed interest in. Likewise, it’s just as important to know what categories or what products and services your clients are not using. That helps you better understand and project their buying patterns, ultimately culminating in marketing programs that are more engaging and more effective.

You can also tag contact names by location. This makes planning those sales calls and travels much more efficient and cost-effective.

To further legitimize your list, many professional database managers run their database against the USPS National Directory of Addresses to ensure its accuracy. In addition, the Post Office’s National Change of Address (NCOA) Link System makes available current change of address information which can help you reduce your undeliverable mail. This tool identifies addressing errors and corrects them before the mail is deployed, saving you on wasted materials and postage.

So, once you’ve achieved your mission and have a clean—and complete—database (that means 95-98% completed fields), your on-going mission is to ensure the integrity of the list throughout the year. Because without attention to maintenance, the value of your contact list will erode at least 20%, with statistics showing that 25% of email lists become invalid each year.

Bottom line? At least two out of every ten contacts will contain inaccuracies. One helpful tool that can help you update and maintain your list is LinkedIn’s Contact App which notifies you when someone changes jobs or gets a promotion. Have a dedicated person charged with keeping your database dynamic. Remove or update information after every campaign and add information as soon as it’s received so it doesn’t turn into an overwhelming and dreaded chore. Hire a part-timer or assign an existing employee to take on some side work. Believe me, it is money very well spent, particularly because you won’t be wasting valuable time playing catch-up when you’ve scheduled the deployment of a critical email blast or direct mail package. 

And, just as importantly, always build your list by collecting contact information wherever you go, particularly at industry events and tradeshows. But also be prudent, prioritizing quality over quantity. After all, what good is a high-volume list that is packed with uninterested or invalid contacts? In other words, don’t dumb down your data. Make it fields of green.

That’s Q from the street. 

Anthony Quaranta is the president of The Q Group, Hauppauge, N.Y.