The Internet offers many effective tools for marketing to existing customers. Before you can use most of them, you must have a customer database. Here are some points to consider when building a Customer Database.

• Very few people will sign up to a marketing program online because they worry about being bombarded with junk mail, but you should still have a 'sign-up' form  on your website.

• By far the best time to get customers to sign up is at the reception desk.  Probably the most popular method is a 'gold fish bowl' for customer to drop their  business cards into. Have pre-printed sign-up cards next to the bowl for customers  who don’t have a business card. This card can also be left in the hotel rooms.

• Consider having the Sign-up forms in as many areas as possible in the hotel,  such as in the rooms, at the reception and even at dining tables.

• Consider combining your customer Satisfaction Cards with your Sign-up forms in one  document to reduce annoyance to the customer, and potentially increase sign-ups.

• Offer a tangible reward to guests who join your scheme. For example, you might  offer a room upgrade on their next visit.

• Consider offering a bonus scheme to reception staff based on the quantity of  customers they sign up. For example, you might offer a bottle of wine to take home  for every 50 customers they sign up. (Reception appears to be the best area to  encourage customers to sign up).

• Train night staff to enter the customer details into the database.

• Keep the details you collect very simple. Title, first name, last name, mobile number,  and email are generally sufficient.

• Make the benefits of joining the scheme very clear to the guests.

• Brand your scheme with an attractive name other than 'join our marketing database'.

• Purchasing an e-mail list is rarely a good idea. The main problem is that customers  on this database are unlikely to have signed up to say they want to receive your  marketing material, and if you start to send out your E Mails or text messages you  could be in breach of the Data Protection Act. In addition you risk annoying  customers with unsolicited mail, and anyway if they havent said they specifically  want the material they are unlikely to respond to it.

Tip: If the benefits of joining the scheme ARE clear and tangible, the word will soon spread and sign-ups will increase automatically. If your customer was stopped in the street would they be able to repeat the benefits of being in your scheme?