Jun 262013
A few
weeks ago I introduced a designer client of mine, looking to improve her
business with marketing strategies that were doable, effective and profitable in
Marketing Strategies that Work: Global Analysis of Your
Business.
First we identified 5 easy and effective marketing strategies to reach her
intended target market. Then we outlined what specifically she would be doing
for each. In this week’s post, we will focus on: Having an e-newsletter or
blog.She saw the benefits of being able to stay in touch and follow-up with both prospects and past clients electronically by regularly educating and entertaining them, while periodically sharing information about her services. For setting up this strategy we started with focusing on who she was trying to reach, then what she wanted them to know and finally how she wanted to communicate it to them. I don’t have the space to detail out all that this entailed, but here are a few snippets.
Since her prospects and past clients were all homeowners and all living in a specific geographic location (The Bay Area), we focused her posts on areas of interest to this population. She was very concerned about how often to send it out so I assigned her to poll some of her past clients and we decided on every two weeks to start with. Please note, that I recommended more often, but this was what her comfort level was, and the big picture was to get it going.
Then came content creation. She started and then I finished a 9 month supply of posts for her. All short, most under 500 words, all original content, lots of photos and most with some sort of call-to-action: usually a link to click to, but sometimes something else as well. In less than a month’s time we created about 18 posts that were relevant and meaningful to her list.
She had set up a blog and an e-newsletter, but was confused about when and how to use both. I found the following info online that I share with clients when contemplating the different between the two:
“At the core, a blog and a newsletter is simply a webpage. Each communication format can contain text, images, and formatting styles. The important distinction between blogs and newsletters from general websites is that they are time based and are for an intended audience. Blogger and WordPress are a few examples of free tools that will allow you to quickly create your online newsletter. Most content management systems can also be structured like a blog and provide many of the same Web 2.0 features.”While there are a lot of people talking up the distinctions between the two, for most businesses, that does not matter. Since her website was using WordPress, we decided to use the blog feature as a newsletter—this gave her the benefits of both. The point of her communication was to keep in the minds of the people on her list while providing useful and meaningful information without making it difficult for them to follow her.
By the time we worked
on this strategy, she had already had several months working three of her other
‘new’ strategies: Updating her Website, Networking
with Great Referral Sources, and Implementing
a Follow-Up System. These new ones, along with an already sizeable
database, helped to grow her list even larger. With a 3 to 5 year timeline for
prospects in her pipeline, she needs a large list to keep people moving through
her sales/marketing funnel.
Do you have a blog or e-newsletter? What are you trying to accomplish with
it? How is it working for you? Do you get comments on it? Do people share it
with others? Would love to hear your thoughts on using this strategy, please
post below. Thanks!
Yours,
Heidi BK Sloss
Marketing Strategist & Follow-Up Expert
Best-Selling Author of Fortune is in the Follow-Up®
hsloss@heidisloss.com
www.heidisloss.com
650-248-1545
Heidi BK Sloss
Marketing Strategist & Follow-Up Expert
Best-Selling Author of Fortune is in the Follow-Up®
hsloss@heidisloss.com
www.heidisloss.com
650-248-1545
Jun 262013
A few
weeks ago I introduced a designer client of mine, looking to improve her
business with marketing strategies that were doable, effective and profitable in
Marketing Strategies that Work: Global Analysis of Your
Business.
First we identified 5 easy and effective marketing strategies to reach her
intended target market. Then we outlined what specifically she would be doing
for each. In this week’s post, we will focus on: Implementing a follow-up system
for past clients.This one is such a critical strategy – not just for my design client – we all need to make sure that we are following up with both new people we meet AND our past clients. Too many business owners and sale agents spend their time, energy, and resources trying to grow their contact list when they rarely if ever work their past client contacts. This is shame because it takes much less time and work to re-convert a past client than it does to go through the whole sales cycle with a new one.
Follow-up with past clients when done right, should yield you more business as well as referral sources. How well are you doing either of these with your past clients? How often do you keep in touch?
For my design client, it varies for each client. Before we started working together, she had a mish-mash of activities, but nothing systematized, so this one did not require a lot of heavy lifting, just a bit of tinkering. Now, when she starts working with clients, she always finds out if they have other projects in mind for their property, even if they are not ready to proceed at the time of her first engagement. She dutifully marks her calendar about 6 to 9 months before they identified when they might be interested in their next project. And then starts that follow-up for that project well in advance of when they might proceed.
Additionally, after every project is completed she sets up several actions to happen.
1) Every client receives a survey within 2 weeks of the job being done. We tinkered with the timing, but for her projects, 2 weeks was the best time. It will be different depending on your industry and the nature of the work completed. Each survey asks questions that we developed. We find out what went well, what didn’t, what they liked about the experience, who else they considered hiring, and why they chose her. The information is then used to improve her services, if necessary, and to market her services to others just like her past clients. Their words are much more compelling to others like themselves when compared to anything she could have come up with.
2) All past clients are also signed up to receive quarterly gifts for the 1st year, semi-annual gifts for the 2nd year and then yearly gifts after that. These gifts vary depending on the taste and preferences of past clients. So far they have been met with great enthusiasm and excitement and have yield many more referrals than she has had in the past—something we had hoped for! Some of the various gifts have been through wine clubs, fruit clubs, cheese clubs, and flower clubs. She uses an outside vender for gift buying.
3) Of course her follow-up system also involves regular phone calls and meeting with past clients that she now has integrated into her calendar system. For this strategy, it was never a problem on what to say, but rather when to schedule. After every phone call and/or meeting with a past client, she now enters in the next phone call or meeting with them so that it does not fall through the cracks. She has blocked off time in her calendar on a weekly basis to make the calls and/or meetings. This has allowed her to be much more organized which gives her confidence when contacting her past clients. It has also helped her feel more comfortable asking for referrals and to propose new projects.
There is so much more
to follow-up than I have space for here. For more information about
systematizing your follow-up and creating customer surveys, see chapters 3 and 4
of my book of my best-selling book, Fortune is in the Follow-Up® for everything you
wanted to know about follow-up, but were afraid to ask 
The other follow-up strategy that she implemented was a regular and
consistent e-newsletter, which I will tell you about next week.
Yours,
Heidi BK Sloss
Marketing Strategist & Follow-Up Expert
Best-Selling Author of Fortune is in the Follow-Up®
hsloss@heidisloss.com
www.heidisloss.com
650-248-1545
Heidi BK Sloss
Marketing Strategist & Follow-Up Expert
Best-Selling Author of Fortune is in the Follow-Up®
hsloss@heidisloss.com
www.heidisloss.com
650-248-1545
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