Marketing Follow-Up Strategy: You've Got to Have One
Marketing Follow-Up Strategy: You've Got to Have One
If this is your follow-up strategy - whether with a new prospect or a long-time customer - then you've got to formalize it more and put it on auto-pilot. I've seen the statistic that around 80% of sales are lost because no one followed up. Is this you?
Marketing is all about fostering a relationship with people and one of the key ways to do this is by having consistent and relevant follow-up as part of your marketing strategy. Remember, you're not following up to pester someone to purchase - you are keeping the lines of communication open and providing important information that can help the prospect or customer.
Below are 13 ways for you to make sure that ongoing follow-up is a part of your marketing strategy:
1. When someone requests information give it to them immediately.
2. When someone asks a question respond within 24-48 hours.
3. When someone makes the first contact (i.e. downloads your free give-away), follow up with emails every few days providing helpful information, highlighting specific ideas, or providing some tips.
4. When you have a time-limited special on a service or product, make sure to remind your prospects frequently. People always buy on the last day, so send a friendly reminder email that today's the last day to get the discount.
5. Call or send an email to a customer who has just purchased something from your website. Say "thank you" and ask them if they need any questions answered or anything clarified.
6. If you're offering a tele-seminar, give enough advance notice and send reminder emails providing the pertinent details.
7. If someone has made an appointment, do a reminder phone call or email a day before the scheduled time.
8. If someone sends in a contact via your website form, make sure you get back to them within 48 hours.
9. If you've made a good contact at a seminar or networking event, send them an email or better yet, a handwritten note, expressing your desire to keep in touch. Then mark a date in your calendar in one month to follow up with a phone call or email.
10. Send "thank you's" promptly to people - i.e. they've given you a referral, a great piece of information, someone's name as a possible Joint Venture partner, etc.
11. Have a system in place that captures people's names and contact information so that you can keep in touch.
12. Keep track of clients' birthdays, business anniversary dates, when you started working together, and send cards (via mail or email) to mark these milestones.
13. Send out a weekly or bi-weekly ezine or newsletter to all your prospects and customers.
If you incorporate a consistent follow-up strategy into your marketing activities, it will allow people to know, like and trust you; give them information that they can use; exhibit the value and results you can provide, and of course, see your sales climb!
Marketing FollowUp Strategy Youve Got to Have One - To learn more about this author, visit Jody Gabourie's Website.
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As small business owners, we worry about contacting people too much - but no one tells us how much is too much! Many of us think that a follow-up strategy is to email or call someone a week or two after the initial contact and then maybe touch base occasionally over the next few months.
If this is your follow-up strategy - whether with a new prospect or a long-time customer - then you've got to formalize it more and put it on auto-pilot. I've seen the statistic that around 80% of sales are lost because no one followed up. Is this you?
Marketing is all about fostering a relationship with people and one of the key ways to do this is by having consistent and relevant follow-up as part of your marketing strategy. Remember, you're not following up to pester someone to purchase - you are keeping the lines of communication open and providing important information that can help the prospect or customer.
Below are 13 ways for you to make sure that ongoing follow-up is a part of your marketing strategy:
1. When someone requests information give it to them immediately.
2. When someone asks a question respond within 24-48 hours.
3. When someone makes the first contact (i.e. downloads your free give-away), follow up with emails every few days providing helpful information, highlighting specific ideas, or providing some tips.
4. When you have a time-limited special on a service or product, make sure to remind your prospects frequently. People always buy on the last day, so send a friendly reminder email that today's the last day to get the discount.
5. Call or send an email to a customer who has just purchased something from your website. Say "thank you" and ask them if they need any questions answered or anything clarified.
6. If you're offering a tele-seminar, give enough advance notice and send reminder emails providing the pertinent details.
7. If someone has made an appointment, do a reminder phone call or email a day before the scheduled time.
8. If someone sends in a contact via your website form, make sure you get back to them within 48 hours.
9. If you've made a good contact at a seminar or networking event, send them an email or better yet, a handwritten note, expressing your desire to keep in touch. Then mark a date in your calendar in one month to follow up with a phone call or email.
10. Send "thank you's" promptly to people - i.e. they've given you a referral, a great piece of information, someone's name as a possible Joint Venture partner, etc.
11. Have a system in place that captures people's names and contact information so that you can keep in touch.
12. Keep track of clients' birthdays, business anniversary dates, when you started working together, and send cards (via mail or email) to mark these milestones.
13. Send out a weekly or bi-weekly ezine or newsletter to all your prospects and customers.
If you incorporate a consistent follow-up strategy into your marketing activities, it will allow people to know, like and trust you; give them information that they can use; exhibit the value and results you can provide, and of course, see your sales climb!
Marketing FollowUp Strategy Youve Got to Have One - To learn more about this author, visit Jody Gabourie's Website.
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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