I’ll admit it. I can’t get the old Divo version of the song “Working in a Coal Mine” out of my head while I write this. Bet you can’t either, now.
But there is a serious point to this analogy. Data mining is as important, if not more so, than ever. How you do it is, too.
I was reminded of this by a new client who wants to find business prospects with a very specific profile. I mentioned these businesses are easy to find, just pull permit records from local government agencies. A little digging proved the data was available from an information aggregator who collects the records on a daily basis.
In this particular case, these were businesses engaged in a very specific activity and all the information needed to contact the business was right there in black and white. So were all the details about the permitted project.
For my client, this was the Mother Lode. It might as well have been rocket science, too.
In the rush to Social Media Marketing (SMM), we tend to overlook some of the tried and true means of finding customers and prospects. We often overlook the oceans of valuable information about the people who pay the bills sitting in our own databases or those we can access for free or a low fee.
How you collect and use the information is just as important. If you’re new to the data-driven world, there are strong restrictions with serious penalties (if regulators decide to use them) for using a consumer’s personal data for marketing. Protecting that data once you have is also a deadly serious issue – just ask any company that’s lost control of personal information.
While integrating SMM into your business practices is the price of admission these days, don’t forget there are still “old school” techniques that are still valuable.
What other strategies and tactics have you or will you import into the digital marketing world?
For more information about data-driven branding and marketing, send me an email at james.lee@c2m2a.com or visit www.c2m2a.com.
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Even though my business is virtual, all my clients are local and have come from actually meeting them. So to market my business, I'll continue to attend networking events.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of creating a personal connection extends to social media, where people want to see a picture and have a location mentioned on your Twitter, Facebook, etc. profiles. Even though we may never meet or even speak to each other, want to feel like they know something about you.
And to be really old school (and to prove to my mother that I was listening), whenever I add a new client, I sent a handwritten thank you note through the mail. It's so rare to get something pleasant in the mail, I think it really gets people's attention.
Gladys Strickland
Okay, you win, with the handwritten note.
ReplyDelete