How to pick a database – the age-old marketing question. When you are setting up your online and offline small business marketing plans it is confusing to know what database you should use and if it will be able to accommodate your email marketing needs going forward.
I will start with my sad tale….
I have a great database that I really like (www.clpsuite.com) which has served me well for a couple of years. Lately I have had a burning desire to have online credit card ordering capabilities so I started using www.1shoppingcart.com for my credit card processing AND they offered email capabilities. I thought GREAT! I can have my database, my credit card processing AND my database all in one. NOPE. They do a great job at credit card processing but as a database not at all (it is almost impossible to get your people to “opt-in” which means you can no longer communicate with them – a REAL problem!).
So now I have a database with email capabilities and a online credit card processing system. Two is not bad. I guess. RATS!
So for everyone else, what are my database recommendations?
General Databases – You can put your clients in, send a reasonable amount of emails and set up auto-responders or activity plans
- Microsoft Outlook – already on most computers
- Act – I like the sales funnel reports you can get in Act
- Wise Agent – BEST Database for Realtors
- Top Producer – Widely Used Realtor Database
Email Marketing Programs – If you get over about 400 people in your database I highly recommend that you start having your people in a “real” email program. If I had it to do all over again, I would have started with this as I have about a thousand people and getting them all to opt-in has been a nightmare!
- Aweber – This is the one that I (and the internet business mastery guys recommend – see below). Aweber has great email and autoresponder capabilities!
- Constant Contact – This is a friendly email program that is great for beginners
I should have listened to the Internet Business Mastery Guys! They have a great podcast on iTunes and I belong to their Internet Business Mastery Academy which tells you start to finish what to do for each aspect of your internet business. They said that Aweber was for email and 1shoppingcart.com was for credit cards. Lesson learned – I will listen to their advice from now on!!
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi, I’m also a real estate agent but I’m from Singapore. I have been searching for a CRM for ages! And you are one of the few person who has used CLP Suite before? I’ve checked it out and it seems like a very small organization. I’m torn between Salesforce and CLP suite. I like CLP suite but I’m afraid that it will close down or something like that! What’s your comments about it? Do let me know! You can just send a personal email to me!
Hi Jarene,
I LOVE CLP Suite – I have tried other databases BUT could not find the robustness of SFA, HTML emails and goal setting all in one place. That having been said, if you are NOT technologically savvy then I would go with Salesforce or be prepared to spend a little money on training or technical support.
Hope that helps! Tara
I just started working for a company that uses CLP Suite. I have been surfing around to try to get a picture of the whole set up but reall like to get some training. Any suggestions?
I got some training time when I signed up and CLP had someone that walked through everything for me. That having been said, setting stuff up is VERY convoluted and you WILL need training. They are the only ones who can really train you as it is their system. Hope that helps! Tara
I have been using CLP for my real estate business for two years now. Most of my business comes from web leads. CLP has worked excellent for handling the large volume of leads, keeping them organized and allowing me to create email campaigns for them. I researched over 50 CRM products before deciding on CLP.
Hi Chris, I REALLY like CLP myself although I stand behind my opinion that it is hard to get set up. Thanks so much for letting me know that it works for realtors too!!!!