I’ve recently been talking amongst my network groups about data and how important it is to not only collect but to analyse. You see, the more information you collect about your customers, the better you can serve them. Now did you want your customers to rave about you and the services/products you provide? Well they will if you serve them the things they hunger for.
Many of you probably have the usual stuff, business name, name, email address and possibly phone numbers. Some extra data you may want to consider are listed below and I tell you why.
Age – Knowing the various age groups can be useful if you have a number of products that cater to different age groups. For example a financial broker may want to target those between 30-40 to help them save for an investment property. On the other hand the 60-70 year old age bracket could be educated on how to make their retirement fund last the distance.
Gender – this would be useful for a retailer who stocks both women and men’s clothing. No point sending an email to the men on the latest handbags.
Interests – great to understand the various interests your customers may have. You may find you need to create subgroups. There may be a group who love the football whilst there could be another group that love spending their weekends on the golf course. If you can personalise all your marketing, it makes your customer feel special.
Mobile Numbers – collecting mobile numbers opens you up to telemarketing campaigns and sending special text messages.
Pain Points – I think this is probably the biggest and most valuable information you could possibly gather. I probably should have put this one at the top! What better way to service your customers than to provide a solution to their pain points. You could gather this information in your initial welcome letter.
Collecting all this information does take time, view it like any close relationship you may have. It took lots of outings and conversations before you knew what their favourite drink was or what type of movie they really wanted to watch.
Spend the time initially, and reap the rewards later!
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