Your database is your business, so keeping it organized and systemized will have you running a well-oiled real estate machine. As you spring clean your physical space, take some time to spring clean your virtual space as well. Your efforts will pay dividends!
Command database spring-cleaning doesn’t have to be a hassle. Following this simple, four-step approach will ensure that you get the maximum return on your efforts. Happy cleaning!
Step 1: Figure out your cleanup area.
If you have an “all or nothing” mindset, you may have been avoiding spring cleaning your database, and for good reason. Successful businesses have thriving databases that may seem overwhelming to tackle. The good news is that a little goes a long way, and by simply investing your time in focusing on one specific category, your database can seem infinitely more manageable.
To start out, become familiar with tagging and filtering. Within Command, you are able to segment, or tag your database to your liking. Consider tagging based on birth month, place where you met, or even a client’s interests. You can also create a specific “cleanup” tag, indicating that your contact is missing this information.
Related reading: Create and Manage Contact Tags
Step 2: Create your tag.
If you are already familiar with tags, you may have this part at least partially down. Say you’ve decided to move forward with cleaning and organizing your database based on birthdays. To reach all the tags you have created, go into Settings -> Contacts -> Contact Tags and do a quick audit of what is available. From there, you can use the filter function to go through each month and make sure everything looks in order. You can also tell which contacts do not have a birth month tag attributed to them and either add a specific “cleanup” tag to return to at a later time, or commit to reaching out and finding the information on the spot.
Related reading: Add or Remove Contact Tags
Step 3: Create a SmartPlan for the category.
Are you using your database to make meaningful connections? Each piece of information a contact has offered you can help you strengthen your relationship with them. After tagging your contacts – here, we will continue with the example of birth months – consider creating a SmartPlan that caters to the specific tag. SmartPlans is a workflow management tool that allows you to automate marketing touchpoints and drip campaigns, among other uses. Having an organized, tagged database (which you’ve just conquered!) helps ease the process of assigning an appropriate SmartPlan to your contact. Create your own custom SmartPlan, or browse around to see what is already available.
Read more: Create a Custom SmartPlan
Step 4: Add your database to the SmartPlan.
Once you’ve chosen your SmartPlan, add in the contacts it applies to, set it, forget it, and watch the relationships nurture themselves!