I. A new paradigm: shifting from data volume to data value.
Don’t picture database management as a giant pile of a million email addresses. A bloated list full of dead contacts only drives up costs and tanks your sender reputation.
Gartner estimates that poor-quality data costs companies an average of 12.9 billion dollars a year. In FMCG, where margins are tight, data accuracy is everything. Effective contact-base management stands on three pillars: data hygiene, smart segmentation, and consistent engagement.
II. Building your contacts: a value-for-value approach.
Consumers won’t hand over their data for free.
The most effective ways to build a healthy contact database are:
- Lotteries and contests. The fastest route. Entry requires marketing consent. Your critical step is immediate email verification (double opt-in). Skip this, and 30–40% of your list will fill up with fakes, temporary addresses, or typos.
- Cashback. Consumers register their receipts to get money back. In return, you get not just their email, but insights into what they bought, where, and for how much.
- Lead magnets and educational content. Trade knowledge for data. E-books with recipes, workout plans - contacts collected this way usually show higher engagement than those from standard contests.
III. Database hygiene.
Databases age. According to Marketing Sherpa, consumer lists degrade at a rate of 22.5% per year. People switch email accounts, abandon old ones, and forget passwords.
The best way to clean your database is with a marketing automation system. Doing it manually takes too much time. Here’s what you can handle with Marketing Automation:
- Identifying hard bounces. There’s nothing you can do with these contacts. Your system must quickly and permanently remove invalid emails. Continuing to send to them risks having your domain blacklisted by email providers.
- Managing soft bounces. For example, a full inbox: the system retries sending three times at set intervals. If the problem persists, the contact is paused.
- Spam traps. Addresses created by email providers to catch senders with poor hygiene. Regularly cleaning out inactive users (no email opens for 180 days) is the only defense.
IV. Behavioral segmentation.
Splitting by age and gender isn’t enough. Modern marketing automation platforms segment based on behavior. McKinsey & Company research shows that companies using advanced personalization generate 40% higher revenue from these efforts than their competitors.
Examples of segments in an FMCG database:
- Big pack buyers. Consumers who only go for “3-for-2” promotions or bulk packs. Don’t send them premium launches - stick to clearance deals and stock-up offers.
- Experimenters. Consumers who register receipts for new products within the first week of release. Use them as a test group for new flavors or variants.
- Loyal but dormant. Shoppers who bought consistently for six months but haven’t engaged in a month. Set up an automated reactivation flow with a strong incentive, like a discount coupon.
V. Communication automation: scenarios.
A contact database only becomes profitable once you activate marketing automation. The system runs 24/7 in the background, and well-designed workflows cover every type of consumer interaction.
Example automation scenarios for FMCG:
- Onboarding. A series of emails over a few days - from an immediate message with the promised code or freebie, through education about your brand values, to encouragement for repeat purchases.
- Cyclical replenishment. Perfect for consumables like coffee, diapers, or cleaning products. By understanding customer habits, you can calculate average usage and send automatic reminders just before they run out. Anticipating the consumer’s needs - that’s the essence of FMCG digitalization.
Summary
- Professional FMCG consumer database management is an ongoing process, not a one-off campaign.
- To do it right, you need to integrate technology - CRM and Marketing Automation - with your sales strategy.
- Treat your database as a dumping ground for mass mailings, and you’ll lose consumer trust.
- By using marketing automation to personalize and anticipate needs, you create a barrier to exit that your competitors can’t overcome with price alone.
