Guest Post: Contact Management Made Simple (and Affordable)

What’s the dirty side of marketing your small business? Taking a shower before a networking event so you don’t offend your prospects?

No. It’s something odorless and much more tedious. Contact management.

Listen up, small business owners: If you’ve been limping along with Excel to keep track of your prospects and clients because the last time you checked the price of ACT! you almost choked on your coffee; I’ve got good news for you. Contact management software doesn’t have to come with an exorbitant price tag - or a steep learning curve. I’ve been using Contact Wolf for over a month now, and I’m quite happy with it.

Now before you get too excited, I’ll admit I’m not a former ACT! user. I’m pretty sure that comparing the two programs is like comparing apples to oranges. But then again, my requirements were basic, and the learning curve for Contact Wolf is extremely short.

This was my “gotta have” list for a contact management program:

• Set alarms for following up with contacts.
• Merge data with Microsoft® Word for sending letters.
• Maintain history of communication with each contact.
• Create email lists.
• Costs less than $100. (Hint: Contact Wolf is much less than that.)

Contact Wolf has all the above. One additional feature that’s nice is the ability to track your personal contacts in a separate tab. Of course, Contact Wolf has a lot more great features, but I’ll let you check them out yourself. You can download a 30-day trial version. I suggest importing a small list of your contacts (Contact Wolf can import .csv files) to test how it will work for your own contact management needs.

Mary
Five Star Writing, Inc. 

P.S. I’ve been using another product from LoneWolf Software - Backup Wolf - on a daily basis for a month now. My backup process takes only a few clicks of the mouse. No more courting disaster by putting off those backups!

P.P.S. I’m not a LoneWolf Software affiliate, though if Ilise publishes this blog, I’ll probably wish I was.

Thanks, Mary! If any of you other Marketing Mentor clients out there have a great story, tool or tip to share, please email me or Colleen with it. Not only will you give back to the community—you raise your profile as a smart & helpful type!

Comments

[Travis]

Thanks for your feedback on LoneWolf, I have heard mixed reviews on it, and glad to know you've had a good experience with it. Certainly contact management isn't everything to a business, but can be significant if it is done well. Like any software products there are strengths and weakenesses of each. You mentioned ACT!, if you are others are interested, you can gain access to the LIVE-REPLAY page of a no frills review of their latest stuff at:
http://www.WhatsNewWithACT.com

I look forward to more insightful posts at the marketing mix blog.

Warm Regards.

[Susan Mathews]

Owoooo! I pursued Contact Wolf but she turned on me, whispering "Windows!" Any Mac-pack contact management recommendations?

[Caroline Melberg]

I've used Daylite for Mac for contact management for almost a year - and I love it! I'm not sure how much ACT is - or Lone Wolf for that matter, but I think Daylite is $150 or so. Great program for the Mac!