How many times have you heard the phrase "the money's in the list?" Probably a lot if you have been involved in internet marketing for a length of time. While I completely agree, I would like to add to this phrase and say "the big money's in the database." If you want to start making the really big money, I'm talking tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of dollars a year from your business, you have to learn how to do database marketing for your business.

So what is database marketing? Database marketing is all about your prospects, current and past customers. It is when you gather their information and use the data you retrieve to more effectively market your products and services to those individuals. Do you realize that if you take a look at all the big companies, I'm talking about companies that are publicly traded and making an insane amount of money every year, the large majority of them use database marketing.

That's called a clue.

Don't believe me, just take a trip to your local supermarket. Chances are your local supermarket is part of a national chain. There are very few local supermarkets left due to global competition. When you reach the supermarket, grab some items and head over to the checkout area. The cashier will likely ask you if you have some type of "advantage" card.

If you did not have the advantage card, you would not be able to receive the same discounts and other special opportunities like you would receive if you had it. For the supermarket, the advantage card gives the supermarket the ability to store your identifying information into a database so that they can use it to market better to you. Not only do they have the basic information, such as your name, your address and your telephone number. They also know your shopping and purchase habits because you have to show or swipe your advantage card when you are checking out and purchasing your goods.

This is a classic example of database marketing at work.

Even though you are not a multi-million dollar national supermarket chain or retail store, you can still employ database marketing in your business as well. The key is to develop a system to gather the information and then develop a system to store and use the information.

How do you gather the information?

One strategy that you can use is the same strategy the supermarkets use. You could build yourself a "preferred buyers" club so your consistent customers can receive special opportunities and discounts that "non preferred buyers" do not receive. The only requirement is to sign up for the club by providing some simple information, such as your name, address and telephone number.

Employing this ONE strategy would put you light years ahead of much of your competition, ESPECIALLY if you are running an internet business. Do you realize how much of your competition isn't gathering any information about your customers besides a name and an email address? If you take it one step further and are able to get an address and a telephone number, that opens up the door for you to use TWO additional means of getting your offers in the face of your prospect.

So decide today to develop a plan to employ database marketing into your business model. Implementing just this one step can allow you to easily triple the annual revenue your business receives!