Follow Up Marketing Experts Blog

Will This Really Work?

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Will This Really Work?

For the past week I have been looking for companies that are using techniques to get new customers or to keep in touch with their current customers.

Some Examples:

• Thank You cards from Ace Hardware, both the paint department and the pet section. It was just thanking us for our business. Perhaps they could have put a 10% off our next purchase in order to track the promotion. Just a thought.

• Donating to a silent auction. There were some great gifts and things to bid on and many of the offers might get people through the door or perhaps a future order. I plan to follow up with the ones that we bid on to see if this helps get them more clients.

• Information in gift bags. We received a bag of goodies from the banquet. We kept the pens, and jar opener. Everything else just went in the round file cabinet. What are your thoughts on whether this works.

• 50 cent wings and drink specials during the games. Not sure how this turned out.

• Taking clients and customers gifts. This past Christmas we received gifts from our clients that were delicious! Maybe making a list of your top clients and taking them a gift might be worth many great referrals.

• Moving signs on street corners. When we were out yesterday, there must have been at least 6 people standing on street corners advertising for a business. Buying gold, advertising a special at a restaurant, etc. Still wondering if this works.

• Woman dressed up as The Statue of Liberty. She walked into the doctor’s office and gave the receptionist 2 boxes of cookies for the staff. She also brought information about a local tax office that was in the same shopping center. The coupon gave a percentage off of the services. I was wondering if each cookie was wrapped and contained the information about the tax service.

Some of these might give you some ideas on things that you can try. I plan to continue noticing the different ways that people try to get new customers. I will continue to share ideas but would love to know what you think which is why I am putting this on my blog. That way you can let me know what you think and perhaps offer other ideas that have worked for you.

Jim and Pam Lutey

http://www.followupmarketingexperts.com

pam@followupmarketingexperts.com

Tired of not getting your Follow Up Marketing done. We would love to help! Just call 1-970-587-2869 or email us for a FREE consultation. We guarantee you will come away with some great ideas that you can put to use immediately.

Great tips on Follow Up Marketing

Here is an article on Follow Up Marketing. It reminds us of many things that we should be doing. http://ping.fm/M4hwB

Keep at the top of Your Customers' Minds

By Kate
Marsden

A lot of sales
and repeat business is about being in the right place at the time, so your
business needs to pop up frequently to maximise that chance. It's better to
over-communicate than under-communicate, as long as it's with some good
content. This is not about spamming customers with rubbish or bland, generic
emails or adverts - the focus should be on adding value to not on short term
sales.

If you don't
know where to start, try these approaches:

• Remember
  your main objective is to keep in their mind - not to sell something all
  the time. Be seen as a business contact not a salesperson. Be prepared to
  call someone to see how things are or send people an email with some
  interesting news in.
• Make the
  contact relevant and personal - everyone hates standard letters and cards,
  and it doesn't take long to put a personal message on each one.
• Offer the
  latest thinking in your industry or niche, or give good ideas to help
  solve your customers' problems - for example hints, tips or how-to guides.
• Become
  known for your expertise - if you've won an award, been recognised in some
  way as a business, or been seen on the TV or radio make sure you let
  people know. Otherwise just be known for offering a great source of
  knowledge in whatever your field.
• Use
  everyone in your business to do this not just sales people - that way it's
  more likely to be about relationships and long term communication, not
  just short term sales
• Kill two
  birds with one stone and send a customer survey out - it reminds people
  about your business and gives you the chance to get some good testimonials
  or some learnings for your business.
• Use a
  variety of methods - email, direct mail, social media, events and special
  offers, rather than doing the same thing all the time - customers respond
  to different things at different times and will get bored if they only
  hear from you in one way.

If you do this,
you will always find some customers out there who find it all a bit too much.
But they are generally the minority - the majority will be happy with the
approach and view you as more of a partner than a sales channel. And from those
people, next time they are thinking about who to buy from, guess who will be
top of their mind?

Take action NOW
- this week build a communication plan for the next quarter to make sure you
are always in peoples' minds AND click here for more tips to boost your profits.

Want help
improving your business results? Visit our website to get our free report -
"52 Ways to Boost Your Profits". Kate Marsden is founder of Ignition
Key Ltd and has 20 years business experience working at Director level for a
number for well-known organisations. Kate provides businesses with advisory,
support, coaching and mentoring services to enable them to step change their
performance and results. For more information visit http://www.ignitionkey.co.uk


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6815547

Four Secrets to Follow Up Success

 

Secret #1

Start collecting information from your customers.  This would be their name, address, phone number, email address, cell phone number and their birthday. You need to offer them something special in order to receive their information.  For example, if you own a restaurant, you could offer them a free dessert on their birthday.  When their birthday month arrives, you send them a physical card or an email to remind them of the gift.  If you do this you will be amazed at how many names you will have just after one month! 

Secret #2

Now we are going to talk about your customers and clients that you do have information about and what to do with it.  Perhaps you already have the information on an excel spread sheet.  If you do, give yourself a pat on the back!  If not, you need to put your customer information on one.  If you are not sure how to do this, hire someone who can do it for you.  When you use this type of system, you can go back and sort the information so you know who has birthdays this month or where your customers live.  You can make it very specific so you know the exact area of town where the majority of your clients are from.  So, hire someone to put in this information or you can do it yourself or have an employee do it for you.

Secret #3

Suppose you have information on your customers but not all of their information.  This is a good excuse to call them and let them know that you are updating your records.  This will also remind them of your business without the sales pitch.  They will realize that you care about them.  Add this additional information to your excel spreadsheets.  They might ask you why you need their email address or cell number.  Just tell them you are starting a newsletter about what is going on in your business and want to keep them informed.  So, get on the phone and gather information.  This again could be done by an employee or an intern. 

 

Secret #4

Once you have your customer list complete, it is time to put a plan into place.  What we have done is put our customer list in ABC order which can be done on the excel spreadsheet.  Then you must make a list of the follow up methods that you will use with your customers.  The follow up methods are:  Email, Texting, Phone Calls, Direct Mail and Social Media.  Now buy a calendar for the year where you have room to write several things for each day.  You might also want to visit http://www.productiveflourishing.com/ for free calendars.  These are what I use to put this plan together.

Here is an example of how you will do this.  Print off the free calendars.  I use the Monthly Action Planner and The Blog Post Calendar.  All of these methods can and should be automated.

Week #1

Email your list.  This again depends on your business.  A restaurant might want to email once a week to let their customers know about events and specials.  Some just want to send a newsletter once a month with information.  Each business is different so you have to look at your business and decide how often you want to send emails.

Using Ping, send a message to Facebook, LinkedIn, Tweeter, your blog etc.  You might want to send these messages each day.  Make sure it is useful information that people want to know about, not just a sales pitch.  Pick an article that you think they might enjoy or perhaps a cute video.  These things remind them about you and your business.

Week #2

Text your list.  This again depends on your business.  A restaurant might want to text once a week to let their customers know about events and specials.  Some just want to send a text about a special offer.  Each business is different so you have to look at your business and decide how often you want to send texts.

Using Ping, send a message to Facebook, LinkedIn, Tweeter, your blog etc.  You might want to send these messages each day.  Make sure it is useful information that people want to know about, not just a sales pitch.  Pick an article that you think they might enjoy or perhaps a cute video.  These things remind them about you and your business.

 

Week #3

Call your list.  Again, this depends on the size of your list.  If you have 5000 on your list, calling them once a month might be overwhelming unless you use an automated system.  If you want to make personal calls to your clients, then you might want to break up your ABC list and just call A-B in January, C-D in February, etc.

Using Ping, send a message to Facebook, LinkedIn, Tweeter, your blog etc.  You might want to send these messages each day.  Make sure it is useful information that people want to know about, not just a sales pitch.  Pick an article that you think they might enjoy or perhaps a cute video.  These things remind them about you and your business.

 

Week #4

Send your list a note, card or other direct mail piece.  If you don’t want to send something once a month to your list, you can divide your ABC list by 12 and Just send to group A-B in January, C-D in February, E-F in March, G-H in April, etc.  This is up to you on how you do the direct mail since that is the most expensive.  Another method is bag deliveries.  This is where you or a service delivers door to door a bag with information about your business.  You might want to target the areas closest to you. 

Using Ping, send a message to Facebook, LinkedIn, Tweeter, your blog etc.  You might want to send these messages each day.  Make sure it is useful information that people want to know about, not just a sales pitch.  Pick an article that you think they might enjoy or perhaps a cute video.  These things remind them about you and your business.

Be sure to do each step in order.  If you find that you never finish step #1, you might want to consider scheduling a free consultation with us so we can help you get started.  Best of luck and let us know how this goes.

Sincerely,

Jim and Pam Lutey

www.followupmarketingexperts.com

pam@followupmarketingexperts.com

(970) 587-2869