As a founder in the early stage of your business, you have the opportunity to put things in place now that will help you immensely as you grow and scale. One of these things that you should absolutely be focusing on is your data.
You may not have much of it now, but as you start promoting your product and launch it to the public, you will start collecting hundreds, then thousands of contacts, be it sign-ups, users, partners, or other. When you start getting data points from different locations - your email newsletter, your landing pages, your ads, your app itself - it can get overwhelming trying to keep that data clean, tidy and consistent.
Here are the top tips on how to ensure your database is set-up for success:
1. Choose a good CRM
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and is the piece of software that you use to store all your customer data. In many cases, the CRM is also the system you will use to manage your sales calls, marketing newsletters, orders, and more.
Have a look around to see what CRM systems look best to you. The one I recommend, as it's free to start with and then the price scales as you grow, is Hubspot.
2. Centralise your data
Once you have chosen a CRM, make sure that that's where all your data goes to. Start by looking at what ways you are collecting data, and make sure that they all lead to one place - your CRM.
Many CRMs (including Hubspot) can be integrated with the leading data sources, so do that as much as possible. This allows for the data to be updated automatically, making your life so much easier.
3. Keep your data clean from the start
The easiest way to do this is have a think early on about what information you want to collect from people - name, company, email, phone number... These are your fields. Make sure you use the same fields across all data collection points, so that when the data enters your CRM it's all consistent.
Occasionally have a look through your data to see if anything looks wrong - incorrectly entered emails or duplicate contacts, for example. Some CRMs do that automatically (a paid function on Husbpot), but if you do it manually, checking regularly will make it much easier.
Have you already started collecting data? Have you done the above tips yet?
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