Consider for a minute how your business finds potential customers. Do you send the same mailer out to your entire service area? Are you making scores of cold calls? Or do you target your marketing messages directly to each customer? If the last sentence rings true, you’re one of the growing number of businesses using database marketing. But if the first two sentences are more your speed, you may be missing out on all the advantages database marketing can offer. Not quite sure what the difference is? Read on to learn more about database marketing and how your business can benefit from it.

What is Database Marketing?

Database marketing is the process of identifying, collecting, and analyzing relevant information about your potential customers, then using that information in your marketing campaign. Don’t be confused—traditional, direct marketing campaigns often use customer databases too. But these types of databases are primarily used to store contact information, such as phone numbers, mailing addresses, and email addresses.

There is rarely any information beyond the basics. Database marketing revolves around the idea of collecting as much data as you can on a customer before making contact. These types of databases can include the previously-mentioned information plus service history, correspondence, appointments, estimates, lawn specs, and more. The main goal of database marketing is to use the information within the database to implement marketing strategies that ultimately increase profits and acquire new customers.

Implementing a Database Marketing Program

Now that you know what database marketing is, you’re probably wondering why we say you should be implementing it in your marketing strategies. The biggest reason is that database marketing is often more effective than traditional direct marketing when it comes to creating sales. Direct marketers care more about quantity—they want to hit a certain number of calls or leads per day and don’t often engage too deeply with customers. But database marketers care more about quality—they seek to understand client needs, priorities, and pain points.

While you can certainly sell your services cold calling, personal marketing strategies tend to have a higher rate of conversion. Here are a few other benefits:

Build lasting customer relationships: When conducting a direct marketing campaign, you often can win a customer over by offering a promotion, discount, or other type of coupon. This can certainly help you convert business, but these customers aren’t likely to stick around for the long run. When you win over a customer via database marketing, you can present a more personalized exchange and marketing pitch that gets to the heart of the customer’s needs. Customers get the sense that your business cares about them, which means they’re more likely to become loyal customers.

Improve your products and services: Your customer database can also serve as a source of market research for improving your business. It can provide regular and up-to-date information about the areas of your business that customers appreciate, and also what they feel is lacking. You can use this information to improve, and then you can even use that database again to double-back and respond to customers.

For example, suppose the database surfaces that your customers are seeing weeds growing in their yards despite receiving the weed killer treatment. You can change your formula, and then target a direct marketing message towards those customers who had issues letting them know that you have started using a more effective weed killer.

Ready to toss the “junk mail” and invest in a database marketing strategy? There are many different services and programs out there that will help you build a customer database.

If you want to implement industry-leading marketing and technology, but aren’t sure where to start, consider partnering with Spring-Green. “Before we became a Spring-Green franchise, we always tried to do that [marketing and technology] on our own and were never really successful,” said Chris Casselberry, Owner of GreenSeasons and Spring-Green Lawn Care. “We have doubled our business in two years since adding the franchise.” Spring-Green can help you grow and diversify with our 40 years of experience and our proven expertise in marketing and technology. Learn more about how Spring-Green can expand your lawn care services. Call 1-800-777-8608 or visit us at www.growmygreenindustrybusiness.com.