What You are Missing Out On if You don’t Have a Unify-able Database

We received valuable feedback on our previous posts on how to identify your best clients.

We received feedback that the first step – gathering how many clients you had last year – was too difficult.

In our first actionable post, we stated clearly that you should gather a list of all your clients.

Some business owners struggled because they didn't have a unified list. Some purchases were made on Shopify, some on Facebook, Instagram and so on.

They knew some clients had made purchases on Facebook before buying directly from their website, but they couldn't identify who. This meant they were unable to provide a total amount per client.

This is a problem.

We need to fix it.

As an owner, if you cannot tell who bought how much because the information is fragmented and sparse, you cannot tell how good your customers are.

Today, we are going to discuss the importance of having a unified business numbers storage, also known as a database.

To Unify is to Clarify

If you don't have all the information about how your company is doing, you don't have any information at all.

It is even worse when you think you have partial information, which is even more dangerous. At least when you know you have none, you don't use it to strategise.

Let's help Chris, our friendly neighbourhood course creator.

She has a website and an email platform and wants to know how many people come to the website because of her emails. She also sends different emails to different groups of subscribers - segmented marketing. She wants to know which group is more responsive.

The issue is clear: the purchase data is on the website platform and the email data is on the email platform.

It is not possible to ensure that the people who receive the emails and the people who buy the course are matched correctly.

As a result, she is unable to assess the effectiveness of her email campaigns.

You need to take the following steps to unify your information.

Step # 1: Enforce the Use of the Same Email on all Your Platforms and Databases

Chris must find a way to match email readers to course buyers.

If you want to link your customers from their emails to your website, make sure they use the same email everywhere!

Most of your customers are already doing that, but you should definitely offer some kind of incentive on your email to improve your chances.

If a customer comes from a social media platform, incentivise them by having them add their SM handle in your account. This allows you to connect the dots across all your platforms.

Step # 2: You can Either do it Yourself or Use a Platform that Connects All Your Platforms and Databases

Once we have matched each person across platforms, we need to put all the information together.

If you are skilled at Excel or Looker or anything similar, use it. In a bit, we'll start some workshops on how to use Looker.

Looker is a free visualisation tool that can connect to all the platforms you are using at the same time. Subscribe here to receive updates on the launch of this offer.

If you want to outsource this task, there are several platforms out there that "unify your databases" (you can Google the stuff within quotes). We don't have a suggestion yet, but we'll let you know as soon as we do. In the meantime, try one out and let us know how it went.

Step # 3: Use Only Information Gained After Unification

We don't need information that might or might not be wrong.

Our strategy must be built on clear and trustworthy facts.

If you pivoted last week and started asking customers to add social media account references to your website, you must use only information gained from last week.

No mix-ups!

Any Issues?

If you were one of the people having trouble gathering a complete list of your clients, this will help you to have a clear strategy to improve your information gathering and understand what's going on in your business.

If you still have any issues, we are here.

Comment on this post - your question is other people questions as well, take the lead and ask it - or come ask at our events.