Building a database of interested prospects, clients and past clients should be one of the most important aspects of your marketing activities.

In other articles I have discussed how you can go about building that database, but perhaps we should also look at what you should do with all those valuable contacts once you have assembled them.

First though, let’s recap on two very important points:

• It can cost 5-10 times as much to get a new customer as it does to sell to a previous customer.
• On average, you will have to contact each prospective customer five times before they buy from you.

So, your database is a valuable source of contacts with whom you can maintain very profitable communications, and you obviously should be trying to contact them at least five times within a fairly short period of time.

At the very least, you should be trying to communicate with your database once a month. Some suggestions for themes include:

• Special occasion mailings, such as holidays
• Special notices, for instance about sales, new products or company information
• Preferred customer offers
• Informational mailings such as a regular newsletter.

Remember, when you contact your prospects regularly, you are ensuring that your company name is top of mind next time they need your services.

Furthermore, when you provide useful information to your prospects and clients you are helping to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Once you establish that you know what you are talking about, they are more likely to buy from you.

So, as we enter the holiday season, when it can often be difficult to make new business contacts and cement new relationships, perhaps this is a good time to start planning for the New Year ahead. If you take some time now to pre-plan a full schedule of communications that will make the task of instigation much easier in the following months.

In January we will talk about how to make your communications more powerful, and how to get a reaction and response from your readers.

In the meantime, Happy Holidays, and best wishes for the New Year.