Marketing for local businesses no-nonsense advice, personal experiences and lessons learnt

Worried about using your customer data for direct marketing?

Several local business owners have recently expressed to me their concerns over collecting and handling their customers’ data.  They don’t want to annoy their customers and they want to make sure they don’t break any laws or regulations.

As more local businesses take advantage of mobile and internet technology to grow their own audiences, these concerns will become increasingly common.  If you are a concerned business owner, here are the key points to keep in mind.

Firstly, you are right to be collecting your customers’ contact details and preferences.  It is no longer viable to rent an audience from your local newspaper or radio station.  Your competitors may be saving money and winning their customers’ loyalty by building their own audience. So should you.  Don’t let your concerns put you off.

To succeed in building your local audience and converting them into true fans of your business, here is the most important thing to do.  Get their explicit permission.  Without that, their interest in your marketing messages will be minimal. Your response rates will be low and you may even upset some people.  How often do you welcome a mailshot or email that you did not ask to receive?  Invest time in finding good reasons for people to ‘opt-in’ to receiving your marketing.  This is the best way to get high response rates.  And responses lead to sales.

If customers give you their details as part of buying from you (for example, a salon takes your name and number when you make a booking), don’t assume that they want to receive your marketing.  When you take their details, ask them if you can get in touch now and then when you have something special to tell them about. This is not only good practice, it is also an EU requirement for anyone that conducts marketing by electronic means.  Oh, and don’t give their details to other businesses. At least not if you want to keep your customers. 

Your next aim should be for customers to look forward to receiving your messages because this will generate the best response rates.  To achieve this, you’ll either need to send very tempting marketing offers (very expensive for you) or send offers that are very relevant to people’s interests.  If you are an off-license, is your customer interested in white wine, red wine, beer or champagne?  This is where you’ll need to get creative about giving people reasons to tell you their interests and also making it easy for them to tell you.

It’s natural to be concerned about conducting business in a new way.  The best way forward is to think it through, make a plan, then get stuck in.  Treat it as a trial.  Expect some error. When you get it right, you will enjoy a well deserved advantage over your competitors.