Many SMEs are turning to databases in order to generate new business. The reason for this is that conventional advertising is becoming more and more expensive and the returns are getting smaller and smaller.
Purchasing a database is a short cut to getting names and numbers of the right people to speak to.
However, Scott Cundill, CEO of Majestic Interactive, says buying a database is exactly what businesses should not do.
Says Cundill: "Buying a database where there is no relationship between the owner and the people within it is very dangerous. It means you have to cold-call or spam, which is not just demoralising, it's not necessary. It also hardly ever works - average response rates are less than 1% and that just doesn't make good business sense. Then there's the staff issue - who is going to call these people?"
Cundill recently represented South Africa at the highly-acclaimed Marketing Sherpa.com e-mail marketing summit in the US. He is also the author of How NOT to Start and Run Your Own Business link to www.hownot.co.za and his latest book, The Majestic Way.
The Majestic Way is a free book on relationship and database marketing and is given complementary to anyone registering on www.majesticway.net. The Web site itself is a thriving hub of South African businesses networking together to generate referral business for each other.
He believes that small businesses can easily work together to send each other referral business using their databases, but first they need to be taught true relationship marketing techniques.
"Why not just work with someone who already has a relationship with their database, and get them to refer you into it? That way you are leveraging the credibility of that person. Business is right here in front of you, you just need to lean how to tap into what you already have - relationships."
Using Majestic Way methods, response rates range between 10% and 30%, which is over 1 000% more than using conventional methods. This is because the concept does not revolve around a hard core sales pitch, it revolves around business owners becoming "teachers" and adding value to the lives of the people they communicate with.
By positioning oneself as an expert and teaching instead of selling, your credibly skyrockets and, in return, you get back qualified leads. It is a highly efficient form of database communication.
For more information, visit www.majesticway.net.
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