When you consider methods to expand your customer base, and therefore your revenue, you need to find where your clients are and the best way to reach them. One of the easiest and least expensive ways to do this is a simple sign-up. Giving an incentive for a person to complete the form for you with the promise the information will be protected can provide you with the data you need to help you determine where best to spend your advertising dollars.

Obtain the Data From Your Customer

A method to get accurate data for your marketing purposes is to offer something to your potential client for it. You can give them a free product or a discount towards a future service if they provide the information that you ask for. You can set up a drawing for a gift card or a high dollar prize if they sign up as well. Repeat these contests as often as possible to get more customers to provide their names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses for your database. However, be truthful with your customer and inform them that you will be using the data to reach out to them for future promotions they might be interested in. Continue to give them discounts that they find value in so they will want to visit your business and purchase products from you. Whether you do this by paper or digitally, instruct your employees to carefully monitor how it is done so that every sheet left out to be completed is accounted for at the end of the day.

Keep Information Safe

As you are gathering data from your customers, determine a way to keep it secure within your servers. Letting it escape your business can cause a lack of trust in your organization and leave you susceptible to lawsuits and fines. Enhance your network security to keep hackers from breaking in and retrieving this information. Set up a firewall and antivirus on your systems to prevent malware from corrupting your databases, including the ones that contain your customers’ personal information. Consider keeping this data in cloud storage. If you choose this, research your options until you find one that has procedures in place to keep your information safe. Limit the number of employees that are allowed access to the names you have gathered and store it on a single server to make retrieving it difficult.

Organization

Determine what method your company will use to disseminate and record the data that you get on potential business. You should be able to sort by the customer’s name, location, age, or any other information you requested with a few keystrokes. This can be as simple as an excel spreadsheet. If your marketing software is able to do this for you, you can utilize it as well. Instruct the employee who is tasked to enter this data with the procedures you want followed so that the database entries are consistent with one another. Document what you have told them in case they are gone and another staff member fills in for them. Consistency means you will get the best possible results from your searches. Choose one file to store the paper copies that were completed by your clients if you plan to keep them and keep it secured. It can be confusing for your staff if there are multiple locations for these slips.

Study Online Data

There are several tools associated with your online marketing that can provide you with the demographics you should advertise to. Depending on which website builder you use, it can break down who has looked at your site by region. You are able to gather data on your website by posting an email sign-up page there. Much like your other methods, you can ask for the information that you need for your database then download it into your system. Take measures to secure your platform to prevent hackers from breaking into it. They can alter the information on there or redirect links to their own sites, including the personal data you are asking from your potential clients.

Utilize Outside Software For Help

Consider purchasing a program or software like Trend Micro Cloud One that makes providing the information you need from your customer easier for them. Having the data entry portion digital for your client limits the amount of error that can occur from transcribing what they have written on paper into the system. It also keeps their information safe from potential thieves in your shop if you have a storefront. Sheets of paper that are used as sign-up slips can be stolen by the next person after it is completed. A thief can take advantage of someone with just their name, address, and phone number. If purchasing a program is difficult at the moment, ensure that your associate takes the paper from your customer immediately and that it is kept in a secure place until it is processed. They could also enter the information into your company’s database as the customer is standing there if they have the ability to do so.

Apply the Data To Your Business

Analyzing your customers’ information can help you reach a market beyond the names in your database. Sort the city code from the data that you gathered then consider advertising to the communities that have the highest results. One metropolitan area may appear that you have yet to focus on. You can also cross reference the list with the followers you have on social media. If you find that many of your clients also have liked your page, it may indicate that you should move your marketing towards the internet instead of other methods such as direct mail. Finding new ways to reach your future customers is vital to increase your income and stay in business. At times, the easiest way to do this is by having them sign up voluntarily for promotions. Sorting and using this data can let your current clients know of upcoming sales as well as reveal an entirely new market to explore.