Cover Your Bases If you thought database marketing was just wasting your time with fliers and mailing lists, take another look--at the Net.

Mention database marketing, and many entrepreneurs will shootyou a "been there, done that" look. In fact, even thenewest business owners have likely taken a stab at sending amailing or two. However, advances in computer software, increasedunderstanding of relationship marketing and a marketplace demandingmore personalized attention than ever have combined to create anenvironment where new and improved database marketing deserves asecond look.

In a nutshell, database marketing is simply using theinformation in a database to more effectively reach out to yourcustomers. Although the term is sometimes used interchangeably with"direct mail," database marketing is actually much morefar-reaching.

Just a few years ago, the extent of most in-house databases andsoftware was a random capture of names and addresses.