Database maintenance and growing your marketing database are an essential part of your law firm marketing success. Keeping your marketing database up to date and in top condition will allow your law firm to maximize reach with e-newsletters and grow your audience. Making the time to do some database maintenance will set your firm up for better and more effective marketing. So what are you waiting for?
The value of a well maintained database
By ensuring that your database is well maintained, you are setting yourself up for success with a valuable marketing asset. The value of your marketing database lies in your ability to easily access the contact data and to reach your clients, referrers and potential clients with regular news and information about your firm. You can only do that by keeping the information in your database up to date. Viewed from this perspective, database maintenance is not a waste of the time that you could be spending on legal work. In fact, it is a valuable contribution to your firm’s success and an investment in your firm’s future.
Planning your database maintenance
Database maintenance is one of those things that is easier to do in small steps. Every time you make a new contact, take an enquiry from a prospective client or open a new file, you should be saving the contact data to update your database. If a contact moves jobs and has a new email address, update your database – that means removing the old details and adding the new information. Take the time to update your database properly each time you gather new data or at a set time every week/month. It will save you time and bother later trying to find that name or information you’ve been meaning to get around to adding to the database.
As well as updating as you go, it is also a good idea to set aside some time regularly to review your firm’s marketing database. Is there old information that needs to be removed? Compare your database to your contact list in Outlook. Is there valuable data that has been overlooked? Make sure you are making the most of the information you have and that your database is up to date. If you do this regularly, it will only add to the value of your firm’s marketing database and lead to more effective marketing.
Growing your database
If you are looking for ways to grow your database, you need to think broadly. Who do you want to communicate with regularly about your firm? Your marketing database should be more than just current and past clients. Enquirers, friends, referrers and professional contacts should all be part of your database.
Develop ways to encourage subscribers to your e-newsletter. Does your Facebook page have a call to action button? Does your website prompt visitors to sign up to your e-newsletter? If you need a hand setting these up, just give us a call. We also have step-by-step guides for harvesting contacts from Outlook, LinkedIn and LEAP software.
So while you’re doing some database maintenance, why not pause to think about what could work for your firm? How will you maintain and grow your firm’s database for better and more effective marketing? If you want to discuss your ideas or you’re ready to turn ideas into action, we’d love to help.
