Read the following excerpt from my book ‘The NZ Small Business Superhero’s Marketing Handbook’ to find out how to design your database fields to capture the most important customer data.
There is often a tendency to over-complicate matters and include every field under the sun, but you are better off keeping things simple.
Firstly, if you go overboard with the data you want to collect, you probably won’t use most of it anyway, and secondly, because the less information you need from each member, the easier it is to get them to join.
Name (possibly separate fields for first and surname) and email address are fundamental, and then depending on how you are going to use the data, other possibilities are contact phone, mobile number, physical address, postal address and region.
Any other fields will depend on your individual business. For example, the three most important fields in the Shoe Clinic database are: Store (ie which store the customer shops at); Sport (ie what sports are played by the member); and Brands (ie which brands has the member purchased in the past).
Combinations of these three fields allow Shoe Clinic to segment their database and communicate in a personalised manner.
For example, they can target netballers in Nelson who have purchased Asics shoes in the past, or they can send an invitation to all runners in Wellington about an upcoming running event.
So in summary, when designing the structure of your marketing database, bear in mind two main concepts:
- The KISS principle (Keep it simple, stupid!); and
- What data will I need to present personalised offers and information in the future?
To read more, you can purchase my book ‘The NZ Small Business Superhero’s Internet Marketing Handbook’ by clicking here.
