10 ways to grow your database in 2023

What is marketing without data?

Irrelevant. Outdated. Ineffective.

It’s safe to say that data growth is essential in modern marketing. It is the key to personalisation, automation, and getting ahead of the competition.

But gone are the days of questionable, third-party data collection. To really be leaders in your space, your marketing needs to use quality, first-party data gathered from recipients who want to hear from your brand.

We all know that quality data doesn’t grow on trees (or should that be in databases?). So to help you gather as much useful information on your audience as possible, here are 10 ways to grow your database in 2023.

Create quality content

Ask for less information

Newsletters

Gated content

Pop ups

Competitions or offers

Sign up on social profiles

Quizzes or surveys

Events

Free trial or demo

Work with partners

Point of sale

Create quality content

Consumers want something in return for handing over their data.

So, if you are regularly producing lacklustre content that is useless to your audience, you’re going to struggle with data growth from the get-go.

Before implementing any of the data growth tactics we will go on to talk about, get your content in order.

Focus on content that is genuinely helpful and educational to your audience. In formats that they will regularly engage with. And that is unique enough to help you stand out from your competitors.

Ask for less information

Another rule of thumb when collecting data is to ask for only what is necessary.

The average rate of form abandonment is nearly 68%. So any distractions, issues, or reasons to disengage must be removed from the form to increase your chances of capturing the essentials.

Think about it, do you really need a full name, date of birth, gender, location, and shoe size when someone is signing up for a newsletter?

Not really.

Secure the essentials, such as email address, first. Then focus on additional data growth next.

Newsletters

Boasting a steady open rate of 21.33%, newsletters remain a fail-safe when it comes to engaging with audiences.

For brands who are tight on budget and resource, offering a newsletter sign up is an ideal way to capture data. Without having to create a series of email campaigns, or invest in expensive automation platforms.

Gated content

Remember that quality content we talked about?

As well as using it to help engage consumers with your brand, it can also be used for direct data collection.

When it comes to your very best content, it’s fair to ask something in return from consumers before they receive their free download.

To achieve this, add your content behind a simple data capture form. Email addresses captured can be used to send the content directly to, as well as adding quality data to your database. 

Pop ups

Pop ups can be controversial.

They were previously considered old-fashioned, annoying, and overtly sales-y.

But when done well, popups can be incredibly successful in gathering data.

Because pop ups convert. In fact, the average pop up conversion rate is 11%. And there are lots of options to tailor a pop up to website visitors’ behaviour to ensure they don’t become intrusive.

This includes exit intent, cart abandonment, and timed pop ups.

Competitions or offers

Competitions and offers are the perfect way to encourage audiences to hand over their email addresses to take part.

These competitions will often be hosted and promoted on websites. However, by also promoting on your social profiles you can encourage wider audiences to engage, and then continue to connect with them via email.

Sign up on social profiles

Talking about social media audiences, did you know that you can include a sign up button directly on certain social profile pages?

For instance, Facebook allows call-to-action buttons which are positioned front and foremost on your page. These simple buttons are the perfect way to catch the eye of your social audience, encouraging them to sign up to your content or offering.

And once again, allowing you to keep in touch through email as well as social media.

Quizzes or surveys

When it comes to data growth, the more quality, first-party data the better. This will often mean capturing more than just an email address.

To increase your data capture, launch quizzes and surveys to explore further useful data from your audience. This could be demographic data such as age, location, or birthdays. Through to the types of products they are most interested in buying.

Events

We’ve talked about gating your best content, but what about events?

Whether they are online or offline, a lot of effort goes into an event. And there’s a lot of information that attendees need to know, such as event timings, schedules, and location.

This offers the perfect excuse to capture email addresses. And due to the perceived value of the event, can offer the opportunity to gather even more relevant demographic information.

Free trial or demo

For the B2B and software providers out there, you can follow a similar approach to gating with free trials and demonstrations of your system.

Most companies that use free trials say they account for up to 10% of new sales. Because we all like to try before we buy, especially for higher-priced software and platforms.

Again, an email address may be all that’s required for this form. However, in the B2B space it’s not unusual to ask for additional details to tailor the experience, such as business name, employees, or telephone number.

Work with partners

They say it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

When it comes to marketing, partners can be worth their weight in gold in helping to spread brand awareness. Especially if you’re fortunate to be working with bigger, well-known brands.

By running a joint campaign with a partner, you can piggyback on their brand name and also capture data on a completely new audience.

Point of sale

When a new customer makes a purchase with you, whether that be online or in a physical store, it’s safe to assume they’re engaged with your brand.

So, move the relationship along by asking for their details at the point of purchase.

Online, this could mean setting up an account, or checking out as a guest through their email address. After all, they’ll want you to keep in touch with order and purchase updates.

In physical stores, assistants can ask for email addresses at the checkout to send customers virtual recipients, or simply ask if they’d like to sign up to the brand’s email communications.

Are you looking to grow your database in 2023?

Quality data growth is crucial for any email marketing strategy in 2023.

And if it’s not something that you are practising, your competitors likely are.

Knowing how best to capture a proper range of quality, first-party data, can feel intimidating at first. Especially when narrowing down the best tactics to execute. So, if you’re unsure where to begin, or lack the resource to take your data to the next step, you can always contact the experts for additional support.

If this sounds like you, then get in touch with our team at Jarrang for more information and advice - we’re here to help.