Your contact database is the foundation of everything you do in Connect, from sending targeted campaigns to building automations and tracking guest engagement. The more complete and organised your data, the better your marketing results.

This guide covers what makes up a healthy database, how to grow it, how to keep it clean, and how Connect's tools help you organise and use your data effectively.


 

How contacts get into Connect

Every contact in your database comes from one of these sources:

The more capture points you have active, the faster your database grows. If you're only collecting data through one channel, you're likely missing a large portion of your guests.

See: How to bulk upload contacts in Connect · Forms Overview

What's in a contact record

Each contact in Connect holds a rich profile that goes beyond just a name and email. A contact record can include:

• Core identifiers — email address and/or mobile number (at least one is required)
• Personal details — first name, last name, date of birth, gender, anniversary
• Location data — state, postcode, or city
• Preferences and interests — custom fields like "Interested In" (e.g. Wine, Sports, Live Music)
• Behavioural data — visit history, purchase history, total spend, and order frequency
• Campaign engagement — which emails they've opened, links clicked, and SMS received
• Subscription status — whether they're opted in for email and/or SMS marketing
• Tags — labels you apply for segmentation (e.g. "VIP", "Website Signup", "Melbourne Cup 2025")
• Milestones — when the contact was created, last updated, and last contacted

See: Contacts Overview · Contact Fields Overview

How Connect prevents duplicates

Connect uses email address and mobile number as unique identifiers. When a new contact is created — from any source — Connect checks for an existing match:

• If the email or mobile matches → the existing record is updated
• If neither matches → a new contact is created
• Blank fields in the new record don't overwrite existing data

This means you'll never end up with two records for the same person, even if they sign up through different channels.

See: How Connect handles duplicate contacts

How to organise your data

Connect gives you three key tools to organise and target your contacts:

Tags

Tags are manual labels you apply to contacts to group them. They're static — a contact keeps a tag until you remove it.

Use tags for things like event attendance ("Melbourne Cup 2025"), acquisition source ("Website Signup"), or customer type ("VIP"). Tags are great for organising contacts by context that doesn't change often.

See: Managing Tags

Segments

Segments are dynamic saved searches that automatically update as contacts meet (or stop meeting) the criteria. They're your go-to for campaign targeting.

For example, a segment for "Visited in the last 30 days" will always show the most current group of recent visitors — no manual updating needed.

See: Segments

Contact fields

Contact fields are the data points you collect on each contact, both standard (name, email, DOB) and custom (interests, dietary preferences, membership tier). The more relevant fields you capture, the more precisely you can target your marketing.

See: Contact Fields Overview · Add a Contact Field

Tags vs segments — what's the difference?

See: What's the difference between segments and tags?

Planning your data strategy

Before you start collecting data, think about what you want to achieve with your marketing in the next 12–24 months. The data you collect now determines how precisely you can target later.

Ask yourself:

• Do you want to personalise messages by name? → Collect first name
• Do you want to run birthday offers? → Collect date of birth
• Do you want to target locals for midweek promotions? → Collect postcode or suburb
• Do you want to reward your best customers? → Track visit and spend data via POS integration
• Do you want to re-engage lapsed guests? → Track last visit date
• Do you want to segment by interests? → Create a custom "Interested In" field (e.g. Wine, Sports, Live Music)

The key insight: the data you don't collect is the audience you can't target. Even if you don't plan to use a field right away, capturing it early means it's there when you need it.

Growing your database

A healthy database is a growing one. Make sure you have data capture happening across multiple channels:

• In-venue — QR ordering through me&u captures guest details automatically at the point of purchase
• Website — Embed a sign-up form on your homepage, footer, or a dedicated landing page
• Social media — Link to your sign-up form from your social profiles and posts
• Events and promotions — Run competitions or giveaways that require an email or mobile to enter
• WiFi sign-up — If you offer guest WiFi, use it as a data capture point
• Loyalty and membership — Guests who join a loyalty program provide their details as part of enrolment

💡 Tip: Run a quarterly competition or giveaway to stimulate growth. A simple "enter to win" campaign tied to a form can add hundreds of contacts in a short period.

Keeping your database healthy

Data quality degrades over time — people change email addresses, phone numbers, and preferences. Regular maintenance is essential.

Automated maintenance

Set up an automation that triggers based on when a contact was created or last updated. After a set period (e.g. every 6–12 months), the automation sends a friendly email asking the contact to review and update their details.

To improve response rates, include an incentive — for example, a discount code or a chance to win something.

Periodic cleanup campaigns

Once a year, consider running an update details campaign — a targeted push asking existing contacts to refresh their information. Three approaches that work well:

• "Get to know you" approach — Frame it as wanting to learn more about the contact so you can send them more relevant offers
• "Enter to win" approach — Ask contacts to confirm or update their details for a chance to win a prize
• "Instant reward" approach — Give the contact something (a discount, a free item) in exchange for updating their info

The incentive-based approaches (enter to win and instant reward) consistently outperform the simple ask, improving response rates significantly.

See also: How to reconfirm your contacts

Regular hygiene habits

• Review unengaged contacts — Search for contacts who haven't opened an email in 180+ days and consider suppressing them from campaigns to protect your sender reputation
• Clean up invalid data — Look for obviously incorrect entries (e.g. test emails, gibberish names) and remove them
• Standardise formatting — Keep phone numbers in international format and use consistent date formatting across your database

Best practices summary

• Collect data with purpose — every field you add should serve a future marketing goal
• Capture across multiple channels — don't rely on a single source for database growth
• Use tags for static context (source, event) and segments for dynamic targeting (behaviour, engagement)
• Keep contact fields relevant — don't collect data you'll never use; it adds friction to sign-up forms
• Maintain regularly — schedule quarterly reviews and annual update campaigns
• Start simple — you don't need every field on day one. Build out your data strategy as your marketing matures