What is a website database? How can a website database help with your marketing automation and campaign execution to improve your marketing efforts and help you to extract new demographic data about your customers?
Let’s look at what a database is and then roll right into what is a database for your website marketing.
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A database is defined as…
Database
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality (for example, the availability of rooms in hotels), in a way that supports processes requiring this information (for example, finding a hotel with vacancies). The term “database” refers both to the way its users view it, and to the logical and physical materialization of its data, content, in files, computer memory, and computer data storage. This definition is very general, and is independent of the technology used. However, not every collection of data is a database; the term database implies that the data is managed to some level of quality (measured in terms of accuracy, availability, usability, and resilience) and this in turn often implies the use of a general-purpose Database management system (DBMS). A general-purpose DBMS is typically a complex software system that meets many usage requirements, and the databases that it maintains are often large and complex. – read more from
The term database is correctly applied to the data and data structures, and not to the DBMS which is a software system used to manage the data. The structure of a database is generally too complex to be handled without its DBMS, and any attempt to do otherwise is very likely to result in database corruption. DBMSs are packaged as computer software products: well-known and highly utilized products include the Oracle DBMS, Access and SQL Server from Microsoft, DB2from IBM and the Open source DBMS MySQL. Each such DBMS product currently supports many thousands of databases all over the world. The stored data in a database is not generally portable across different DBMS, but different DBMSs can inter-operate to some degree (while each DBMS type controls a database of its own database type) to support together a single application using standards like SQL and ODBC. A successful general-purpose DBMS is designed in such a way that it can satisfy as many different applications and application designers as possible. A DBMS also needs to provide effective run-time execution to properly support (e.g., in terms of performance, availability, and security) as many end-users (the database’s application users) as needed. Sometimes the combination of a database and its respective DBMS is referred to as a Database system (DBS).
A database is typically organized according to general Data models that have evolved since the late 1960s. Notable are the Relational model (all the DBMS types listed above support databases based on this model), the Entity-relationship model (ERM; primarily utilized to design databases), and the Object model (which has more expressive power than the relational, but is more complicated and less commonly used). Some recent database products use XML as their data model. A single database may be viewed for convenience within different data models that are mapped between each other (e.g., mapping between ERM and RM is very common in the database design process, and supported by many database design tools, often within the DBMS itself). Many DBMSs support one data model only, externalized to database developers, but some allow different data models to be used and combined.
The design and maintenance of a complex database requires specialist skills: the staff performing this function are referred to as database application programmers (different from the DBMS developers/programmers) and database administrators, and their task is supported by tools provided either as part of the DBMS or as free-standing (stand-alone) software products. These tools include specialized Database languages including Data Description Languages, Data Manipulation Languages, and Query Languages. These can be seen as special-purpose programming languages, tailored specifically to manipulate databases; sometimes they are provided as extensions of existing programming languages, with added special database commands. Database languages are generally specific to one data model, and in many cases they are specific to one DBMS type. The most widely supported standard database language is SQL, which has been developed for the relational model and combines the roles of Data Description Language, Data manipulation language, and a Query language.
A way to classify databases involves the type of their contents, for example: bibliographic, document-text, statistical, multimedia objects, etc. Another way is by their application area, for example: Accounting, Music compositions, Banking, Manufacturing, Insurance, etc. – Wikipedia.
As you can see there are multiple types of databases and database application that you can use to enhance the automation within your organization. When it comes to marketing your small business there are only a couple of types of databases that you actually need to incorporate to have a successful and scalable small business online.
The first and most important database that you will need to build is a list of your prospects, customers, and referral sources so that you can keep track of who you have spoken too as well as what part of your process they particular individual.
Segmenting at this basic level is more than enough to keep your communications systems organized and your marketing messages won’t be sent to the wrong crowd. Email does get pretty cluttered up and if you have a complex business such as mortgage, real estate, legal services or a marketing agency your need for data management, accessibility, and interpretation is much greater than a small bakery or widget shop.
So what is a website database that you can use to collaborate, collect and sift through your prospects and customers data? In the simplest form “form being the keyword here” a database is used for all blogs see the MySQL portion of the database explanation. The MySQL database powers all WordPress blogs. It’s a database driven site that feeds content to it’s viewers from a back end data storage facility. This is one of the first databases any small business should have. Blogs receive an average of 55% more traffic than just a plain static website alone.
Many types of databases can be used in your small business but the one that every small business should be using especially an online business is called an autoresponder. This is the little application that you have come across on every website where you enter a name and email address and viola you are rewarded with some valuable piece of information. A white paper, an ebook, a series of email and video tutorials and the list goes on.
Here are a couple of great autoresponders that you can use in your business. The first is the industry standard known by the brand name Aweber.
The next program is the king of all kings when it comes to your e-commerce and information delivery system. The system is known as Infusionsoft and even though the price tag is higher than a $1 Aweber trial Infusionsoft is used globally by top marketing online experts.
So what is a website database that does more than just collect emails or serve up content for your small business? Well here is where your costs can go completely exorbitant or you can stay with open source software and free solutions but when it comes to your business I wouldn’t go with less than the best and most reliable systems on the market.
A great database for your website is actually not even on your website it’s local to your workstations and it can be networked and configured to work directly with your website and your offline marketing staff is called a CRM or customer relationship management tool. These tools can take your entire customer experience to a whole new level of data extrapolation. Knowing what is a website database is only half of the battle, knowing which website database to use is entirely another topic for conversation.
Not sure you know what is a website database application for your small business? Contact one of our support staff today to get your questions answered…
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