If you knew that your business and contact information could be working much harder for you would you be happy just storing it in a file or spreadsheet somewhere?

What data to Store?

Small businesses often have lots of information stored in all sorts of places, and it does make sense to record. But it’s also worth considering what data you consider useful. Contact details are an obvious one, you want to be able to get in touch with your contacts, but you should also consider other bits of information that could be useful… What about hobbies and interests that you know your customers or contacts to have? That could be useful in targeted marketing in the future. Also mutual contacts to build a closer relationship, nothing can be too small.

How to store it?

Although now less common, the traditional way of storing information on bits of paper is still seen all over the world. More people than ever are using their phones as a method to record their data, too... But both of these two methods share the same problems and, in the case of phones, if you don’t have access to the device it’s impossible to find the info you want – and in a business scenario that’s not very efficient. Off-the-shelf CRM software became prominent some years ago but, again it’s difficult to share the information.

In recent times web applications such as intouchcrm has sprung up designed to solve the issues of unwieldy CRM software by allowing multiple users to access the same information at anytime

What else can I do with my data?

Good question! Most businesses miss the most important use for your data – the power it has when combined with other tools such as marketing. If you think about it, your data can build a real profile of your customer: their likes, dislikes, sales history with you, and their contact details including geography. That’s all the information you’d need to create a really powerful, targeted marketing campaign.

And that’s where your data really comes to life – using your data to provide RELEVANT marketing for your customers. Pick areas of interest that you know they have a preference for, promote product areas that they have a history of purchasing, drill down from previous successes to target groups of customers further – your data can be really powerful if you know how to use it!

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