Having an existing contact management system is much more than just collecting names and emails. Your database needs to be maximized to actively nurture these leads that represent significant new business and possible cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. Do you know the ROI of your inbound marketing efforts? Are you implementing best practices around segmentation of your marketing database? Being able to answer these common questions is critical to driving your marketing strategy and your overall business success. Read on for a few tips to maximize your contacts database.
1. Simple and Seamless
Primarily, your contacts database needs to be simple so that your sales team can see and interpret how a contact has interacted with your brand. It should show every touchpoint a contact has had with your company and organize them in one place, while seamlessly connecting other platforms that you use to market. A well-managed, integrated contact management software system will provide valuable information about these leads to help your sales team close more customers.
2. Segment
So you've got a database full of leads who are reading your blogs, clicking on your content offers, and opening your emails, but you don't know much more than that about these contacts. Properly segmenting your contacts by buyer personas is a critical step in maximizing your database. You need to know who your target customers are and develop buyer personas to help your marketing and sales team gain insight to this huge, and sometimes anonymous, database. Segmenting by persona can show a marketer that they have a lot of contacts in Persona A, but only a few in Persona B, which can provide some direction on where to direct future marketing efforts and allow marketers to prioritize growth by these different segments.
3. Touch and Go
Where are your contacts in the buyer's journey? How many times have they visited your website? Your contacts database should answer these questions for you. Knowing the touchpoints for your potential customers is key and will help your sales team prioritize contacts based on their virtual interactions with your company. 
This vital information turns a cold call into a warm call and provides your sales team with an opportunity to increase their close rate.
4. Reports are in...
Who are our repeat customers? What blog posts are most interesting to our audience? How long did it take the sales team to close a sale? Without accurate and closed-loop reporting, your contact database is a waste! You'll need to have an integrated reporting system that allows both your marketing and sales team to analyze marketing efforts and understand what your contacts are doing and how they're responding to your outreach.
A strong and informative contacts database is instrumental in moving your business forward. Start by implementing the above steps and tackle one of the most important parts of a successful inbound marketing strategy - your maximized contact database!
