how to make an automated database?

If you have a good database of potential customers, you already have the first step to get more sales. Contacts are a big part of your marketing strategy, a good segmentation of them can get you a great potential value when it comes to carry out marketing actions.

what is a database?

A database is a program that stores a large amount of data that is structured and related to each other, which can be queried quickly by taking into account the selective characteristics that you want to know.

Data from the same context is stored systematically for later use.

what is marketing automation?

We have to take into account how big our database is, if it is too big, it will be impossible to manage it manually, so the only viable option will be to automate it. In conclusion, marketing automation is the use of specific software that allows marketing actions to be carried out in an automated way. To achieve a good automation, a series of strategies and a powerful electronic component are needed.

Marketing automation actions and strategies

1. Lead segmentation
   

   Nowadays, monitoring the behaviour of users is quite simple thanks to existing software. We can find out where they have come from to reach our website or our content, we can also find out how long they have been there and which links have been consulted the most.

   With this we can also determine the profile of our users and segment them within the database by age, place of residence, sex, etc. to have them properly classified and to be able to track those who are closest to our buyer persona.

2. Lead nurturing
   

   This is the main action within the marketing automation, these are emails that are sent to the leads automatically to accompany them on the road to the sale of our product or service, these are sent automatically for different reasons. On the one hand, if we have a large number of leads, it is a very expensive job that can make us lose a lot of time. On the other hand, so we get to send these emails at the right time without having to be aware.

   These emails are usually personalised according to various parameters, so we are not only getting new customers to buy our products, but also making them loyal to us.

3. Lead scoring
   With this automation strategy, what is being achieved is to identify within our database those leads that are more likely to become customers later, that is, an assessment of the quality of the users of the database is made.
   
   
4. Improve conversion
   There are a series of marketing actions that are carried out to achieve the highest possible conversion rate, these are carried out in the final phase of the purchase process, just before the customer completes the transaction, these actions do is that the user is not distracted and finish taking the final step towards the purchase.
   
   
5. Fewer errors
   By having your database automated, human errors disappear, there is less chance of sending something wrong to the wrong user. It is important not to make mistakes with your leads, because then not only you will not achieve your goal, but your leads will lose confidence in your brand when they see your mistake.
   
   
6. Respect deadlines
   You will not be able to make mistakes in the deadlines in which you send messages nor will you do it at the wrong time, by automating the database, you will send what you have to send at the right time, without being late or ahead in the deadlines.

how to automate your database?

There are 3 main steps to automate your database.

1. Analysis of the database

The first step in any marketing strategy consists of defining the objectives we want to achieve. For this, as it could not be otherwise, we will base ourselves on a series of KPIs, it is necessary to know the figures to be able to perfectly analyse where our failures are in order to correct them in the best possible way.

We have to analyse what database we have, depending on the data we have, and the amount of data, we will be able to carry out one segmentation or another.

The data is divided into two different types:

1. User profile: Typical information about the user such as name, date of birth, etc. that is usually obtained from a form that is filled in by the user within our landing page. They usually fill in this data in exchange for some extra content or an offer that can only be accessed by filling in this data.
2. Interaction with the website: With this, what we are achieving is to analyse the behaviour of users, we know which links they visit, how often, how long they spend inside and other data that are collected through automation platforms.

2. Automation

Lead nurturing, as we said before, is one of the best automation strategies as it allows us to follow up with email chains and accompany the leads to the final purchase process. For this we need different types of content, they must provide something to the user, otherwise we will not get what we want. We also have to choose the lead nurturing strategy we are going to use for each user, normally they are email chains, but we can also implement other actions such as intelligent CTAs or chatbots.

After having set the previous objectives, we have to check if we are achieving them. The aim of this type of strategy is to attract as many people as possible through a fluid communication that will reach potential customers and end up making them loyal. There are several methods for analysing the results of an automation campaign.

• Open rate: Users who have opened an email out of the total number of emails sent
• Click rate: Users who clicked on an email over the total number of emails sent
• Click through rate: Users who clicked on an email over the total number of emails opened
• Conversion from landing to registration: Users who have filled in a form out of the total number of visits to the landing page
• Conversion from email sent to registration: Users who have filled in a form out of the total number of emails sent

If you have a large database, this will be an element of great value since you will be able to convert your users into potential customers. You will not be able to get the most out of your database if you do not use the necessary automation techniques. To implement the strategies, you must first be clear about your objectives, so you will know what to do with your strategy: You will know how to segment it, what content to offer users at each stage of the process and you will choose the most appropriate strategy.

Finally, you will analyse the results you obtain so that you can continue to improve the results you get.

Automating your database is very simple, in a few steps you can achieve it in a very simple way, and it has multiple benefits, so get to work and automate your database to grow as a company.