Make Sure Your Clients Never Forget You
| Category: Customer Service | Date: 2001-07-12 |
Letting clients forget about you is one of the single biggest mistakes you can make as a guru. But all too many gurus do just that, simply because they neglect to stay in touch with clients theyve worked with in the past. Its naive to assume that just because youve worked with them before, clients will think of you for future work. Youve got to make sure youre the first person they think of when new projects come up.
Thats why I came up with a strategy I call "Keep-in-Touch Marketing." As the name implies, its a way of staying in touch with clients -- past, present, and future -- and therefore staying at the top of the list of gurus they turn to on a regular basis. Following a few simple steps on a regular basis, youll not only be remembered by previous clients, you can also generate a steady stream of referrals and new business.
What You Need to Know
Clients are a lot like your mother: They like you to pay attention, to show that you care, to stay in touch, and to be accessible. When you act like a negligent son or daughter, clients complain, "They dont call, they dont write - dont they care?"
Its Business, Its Personal
You cant take it personally when past clients dont call. After all, if youre out of sight, youre out of mind. All too often, gurus interpret client silence to mean, "They dont value my work." Gurus think, "If they really needed me, theyd call," and "I dont want to bother them by calling them." In each case, unless you made a real mess of your last assignment, chances are youre dead wrong. More often than not clients are thinking, "Gee, I havent heard from so-and-so in a long time," or "I wonder if so-and-so is still doing the same kind of work," or "I wish theyd stay in touch."
The problem is, many of us labor under the mistaken notion that the only time we need to call clients is when we need work. When business slows down, we start to get desperate and dig out our client list and start making marketing calls. Thats a lot like calling your parents only when you need money. Clients dont like these calls any more than you like long-distance phone companies interrupting your dinner. Is it any wonder you dread making them?
AT&T once had a great marketing slogan: "The best business calls are personal calls." I thought that was brilliant -- and its the key to Keep-in-Touch Marketing. In the course of working closely with clients, you often get to know and even to like each other. Do you call up friends and acquaintances only when you need something? If so, they wont be friends and acquaintances for long.
Personal relationships are built on all the little points of contact you make -- and business relationships can be built the same way. Keep-in-Touch Marketing is all about making that kind of informal, non-goal-oriented contact. Dont you think clients would appreciate a call just to find out how theyre doing? Interestingly enough, such calls are more likely to turn up business than calls you make explicitly to solicit new work.
Gonna Write a Little Letter
If youve been working as a guru for a while, you cant be calling all your old clients all the time -- itd be like having 20 or 30 mothers! If you called all your old clients on a consistent basis, youd have no time to get any real work done. The solution? Write a letter -- or a newsletter, an email, or an e-zine -- keeping past clients posted on what youre up to and sharing some useful ideas in the process. Writing should form the core of your keep-in-touch program. You can then reserve the phone calls for special clients who deserve that extra personal touch.
Unfortunately, writing short, casual, keep-in-touch notes intimidates many gurus more than assembling 100-page reports. "What do I say?" they ask me. "What are clients interested in?" Fair questions. If you receive any newsletters or e-zines yourself, you know that all too few of them grab your attention, let alone deepen your relationship with the sender.
The three biggest mistakes I see in these kinds of notes: Theyre too impersonal, theyre too conceptual, or theyre too self-centered. Good communications are personal -- as if you were talking to the reader one-on-one. Theyre also experiential, based on stories and real-life anecdotes. And theyre about the reader and reader benefits, not about the writer.
Your goal should be to develop a regular writing program to stay in touch with all your old clients, then use the phone to stay in touch with clients who are ready and willing to talk. The idea is to never make a cold marketing call again. When you call past clients, you can really make that call personal, because you wont be desperate for new business.
What You Need to Do
Staying in touch with clients requires commitment. Its not a luxury. Its not an option. You need to set a firm policy to be in touch on a regular basis. Go to your calendar and actually mark the day youll send out your keep-in-touch writings. Think of it as an appointment with yourself -- an appointment thats as important as any you make with your clients.
Pick a Format
Youve got two main options when it comes to staying in touch via writing: print or electronic. These days, it makes most sense to go electronic -- meaning quick, personal emails or a regular e-zine. Emails are good for quick, one-on-one communications, in which youre talking directly to one client; e-zines are good for communicating with a larger readership. Both are easy to produce, and neither requires postage. The best part: Both formats are easy for readers to pass along to friends and colleagues.
Emailing individual clients is just like writing to friends and family. Use the first person, stick with personal anecdotes, and by all means resist the urge to sell anything. Alexandria Browns Guru Guide to Shameless Self-Promotion goes into great detail on the specifics of producing an e-zine.
Start Writing
Once youve decided on a form, start brainstorming a long list of every single possible topic you could write about. Dont stop at five or 10. Try 20 or 30. One way to do this is to think of all the problems you help your clients solve. Break them into a few major areas. In my case, I advise clients to use what I call the "5 P" model to market their business services -- those Ps being Positioning, Packaging, Promotion, Persuasion, and Performance. So when I brainstorm topics, I come up with several topics for each of the 5 Ps.
Next, turn those topics into compelling titles. Titles should incorporate a user benefit, target a specific audience, and lead that audience into the body of your message. Its tricky at first, but quite doable with a little practice. Take for example, an e-zine entitled, How 10 High-Tech Managers Doubled the Productivity of Their Departments.In one line, youve described the benefit (doubling productivity), targeted an audience (high-tech managers), and, by putting the word "how" at the beginning, youve positioned the copy as a simple narrative, not as a dry treatise.
Once youve got your topic and title, start writing. Describe situations that your readers have experienced. If youre specific enough, and you know your audience well enough, youll have them thinking, "How would I have done this? How would I have reacted?" Then go on to describe the strategies and techniques that these managers used to get results. What youre aiming for is something viral: a story or other content thats compelling enough to induce readers to pass it along. You cant buy better marketing than that.
Finally, mail the sucker. You should have email addresses for all your past clients. Send out an initial mailing to that list. Make sure you place a disclaimer prominently at the top, explaining to the recipient why he or she received the mailing and how to unsubscribe. The last thing you want to do is get a reputation as a spammer. Also, be sure to use whatever tools your email software has to hide the names of your recipients; the last thing you want is for your clients to see who else youre mailing to. While specific steps vary from package to package, you can typically use one of two tricks: Either create a mailing list whose name will appear in the "To" line of your message (instead of individual names) or use the BCC line to hide the names of other addressees.
Use Your Website for Leverage
Once youve got your writing program up and running, you need to leverage it to generate more business. The best way to do this: Put the articles youve written on your website. (You do have a website, dont you? If not, check out Jeffrey Veens This is Me.com and make building your own Web presence a top priority).
Create an articles section on your website and fill it with all the e-zine articles youve written. Put a simple sign-up form on the site urging your visitors to subscribe to your e-zine and get more of these great articles. Getting your website into the act give your marketing program a whole new dimension. You started by keeping in touch with just your past clients. Now, when people visit your website (often because your e-zine has been passed around from clients to their associates), they also sign up for your e-zine. Youre now expanding your keep-in-touch program to prospective clients as well. This is when it starts to get fun.
Use your mailings to send people directly to your website to view a special article or report. I recently sent a very short email note to everyone on my list directing them to a special article on my site titled "The Top Ten Ways NOT to Attract New Clients." About 900 people -- about 25 percent of my total email list -- clicked onto that article. Several hundred of those people also clicked over to a page about my taped marketing program. Bottom line: I spent less than an hour writing the article, and it generated a couple of thousands in sales in about two weeks.
Use your keep-in-touch list to make offers you simply couldnt make through cold calls or direct mail. My number one favorite: Invite people to events. This past winter, I invited the people on my email list to an introductory workshop on marketing. About 25 percent of the people on my local email list -- 170 people -- showed up. Im still generating business from that event.
The point is, a keep-in-touch program can do more than remind clients that youre still in business. It can build your stature and credibility as a guru by sharing valuable information and ideas. You can then leverage that credibility to attract more people to your website. Finally, you can make compelling offers to those on your keep-in-touch list. All of it will motivate past and future clients to do business with you again and again.
About the Author
Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing works with professional service businesses to help them attract new clients. His web site is a valuable resource for anyone looking for effective marketing ideas.
:To contact see details below.
robmid@actionplan.com
http://www.actionplan.com
Thats why I came up with a strategy I call "Keep-in-Touch Marketing." As the name implies, its a way of staying in touch with clients -- past, present, and future -- and therefore staying at the top of the list of gurus they turn to on a regular basis. Following a few simple steps on a regular basis, youll not only be remembered by previous clients, you can also generate a steady stream of referrals and new business.
What You Need to Know
Clients are a lot like your mother: They like you to pay attention, to show that you care, to stay in touch, and to be accessible. When you act like a negligent son or daughter, clients complain, "They dont call, they dont write - dont they care?"
Its Business, Its Personal
You cant take it personally when past clients dont call. After all, if youre out of sight, youre out of mind. All too often, gurus interpret client silence to mean, "They dont value my work." Gurus think, "If they really needed me, theyd call," and "I dont want to bother them by calling them." In each case, unless you made a real mess of your last assignment, chances are youre dead wrong. More often than not clients are thinking, "Gee, I havent heard from so-and-so in a long time," or "I wonder if so-and-so is still doing the same kind of work," or "I wish theyd stay in touch."
The problem is, many of us labor under the mistaken notion that the only time we need to call clients is when we need work. When business slows down, we start to get desperate and dig out our client list and start making marketing calls. Thats a lot like calling your parents only when you need money. Clients dont like these calls any more than you like long-distance phone companies interrupting your dinner. Is it any wonder you dread making them?
AT&T once had a great marketing slogan: "The best business calls are personal calls." I thought that was brilliant -- and its the key to Keep-in-Touch Marketing. In the course of working closely with clients, you often get to know and even to like each other. Do you call up friends and acquaintances only when you need something? If so, they wont be friends and acquaintances for long.
Personal relationships are built on all the little points of contact you make -- and business relationships can be built the same way. Keep-in-Touch Marketing is all about making that kind of informal, non-goal-oriented contact. Dont you think clients would appreciate a call just to find out how theyre doing? Interestingly enough, such calls are more likely to turn up business than calls you make explicitly to solicit new work.
Gonna Write a Little Letter
If youve been working as a guru for a while, you cant be calling all your old clients all the time -- itd be like having 20 or 30 mothers! If you called all your old clients on a consistent basis, youd have no time to get any real work done. The solution? Write a letter -- or a newsletter, an email, or an e-zine -- keeping past clients posted on what youre up to and sharing some useful ideas in the process. Writing should form the core of your keep-in-touch program. You can then reserve the phone calls for special clients who deserve that extra personal touch.
Unfortunately, writing short, casual, keep-in-touch notes intimidates many gurus more than assembling 100-page reports. "What do I say?" they ask me. "What are clients interested in?" Fair questions. If you receive any newsletters or e-zines yourself, you know that all too few of them grab your attention, let alone deepen your relationship with the sender.
The three biggest mistakes I see in these kinds of notes: Theyre too impersonal, theyre too conceptual, or theyre too self-centered. Good communications are personal -- as if you were talking to the reader one-on-one. Theyre also experiential, based on stories and real-life anecdotes. And theyre about the reader and reader benefits, not about the writer.
Your goal should be to develop a regular writing program to stay in touch with all your old clients, then use the phone to stay in touch with clients who are ready and willing to talk. The idea is to never make a cold marketing call again. When you call past clients, you can really make that call personal, because you wont be desperate for new business.
What You Need to Do
Staying in touch with clients requires commitment. Its not a luxury. Its not an option. You need to set a firm policy to be in touch on a regular basis. Go to your calendar and actually mark the day youll send out your keep-in-touch writings. Think of it as an appointment with yourself -- an appointment thats as important as any you make with your clients.
Pick a Format
Youve got two main options when it comes to staying in touch via writing: print or electronic. These days, it makes most sense to go electronic -- meaning quick, personal emails or a regular e-zine. Emails are good for quick, one-on-one communications, in which youre talking directly to one client; e-zines are good for communicating with a larger readership. Both are easy to produce, and neither requires postage. The best part: Both formats are easy for readers to pass along to friends and colleagues.
Emailing individual clients is just like writing to friends and family. Use the first person, stick with personal anecdotes, and by all means resist the urge to sell anything. Alexandria Browns Guru Guide to Shameless Self-Promotion goes into great detail on the specifics of producing an e-zine.
Start Writing
Once youve decided on a form, start brainstorming a long list of every single possible topic you could write about. Dont stop at five or 10. Try 20 or 30. One way to do this is to think of all the problems you help your clients solve. Break them into a few major areas. In my case, I advise clients to use what I call the "5 P" model to market their business services -- those Ps being Positioning, Packaging, Promotion, Persuasion, and Performance. So when I brainstorm topics, I come up with several topics for each of the 5 Ps.
Next, turn those topics into compelling titles. Titles should incorporate a user benefit, target a specific audience, and lead that audience into the body of your message. Its tricky at first, but quite doable with a little practice. Take for example, an e-zine entitled, How 10 High-Tech Managers Doubled the Productivity of Their Departments.In one line, youve described the benefit (doubling productivity), targeted an audience (high-tech managers), and, by putting the word "how" at the beginning, youve positioned the copy as a simple narrative, not as a dry treatise.
Once youve got your topic and title, start writing. Describe situations that your readers have experienced. If youre specific enough, and you know your audience well enough, youll have them thinking, "How would I have done this? How would I have reacted?" Then go on to describe the strategies and techniques that these managers used to get results. What youre aiming for is something viral: a story or other content thats compelling enough to induce readers to pass it along. You cant buy better marketing than that.
Finally, mail the sucker. You should have email addresses for all your past clients. Send out an initial mailing to that list. Make sure you place a disclaimer prominently at the top, explaining to the recipient why he or she received the mailing and how to unsubscribe. The last thing you want to do is get a reputation as a spammer. Also, be sure to use whatever tools your email software has to hide the names of your recipients; the last thing you want is for your clients to see who else youre mailing to. While specific steps vary from package to package, you can typically use one of two tricks: Either create a mailing list whose name will appear in the "To" line of your message (instead of individual names) or use the BCC line to hide the names of other addressees.
Use Your Website for Leverage
Once youve got your writing program up and running, you need to leverage it to generate more business. The best way to do this: Put the articles youve written on your website. (You do have a website, dont you? If not, check out Jeffrey Veens This is Me.com and make building your own Web presence a top priority).
Create an articles section on your website and fill it with all the e-zine articles youve written. Put a simple sign-up form on the site urging your visitors to subscribe to your e-zine and get more of these great articles. Getting your website into the act give your marketing program a whole new dimension. You started by keeping in touch with just your past clients. Now, when people visit your website (often because your e-zine has been passed around from clients to their associates), they also sign up for your e-zine. Youre now expanding your keep-in-touch program to prospective clients as well. This is when it starts to get fun.
Use your mailings to send people directly to your website to view a special article or report. I recently sent a very short email note to everyone on my list directing them to a special article on my site titled "The Top Ten Ways NOT to Attract New Clients." About 900 people -- about 25 percent of my total email list -- clicked onto that article. Several hundred of those people also clicked over to a page about my taped marketing program. Bottom line: I spent less than an hour writing the article, and it generated a couple of thousands in sales in about two weeks.
Use your keep-in-touch list to make offers you simply couldnt make through cold calls or direct mail. My number one favorite: Invite people to events. This past winter, I invited the people on my email list to an introductory workshop on marketing. About 25 percent of the people on my local email list -- 170 people -- showed up. Im still generating business from that event.
The point is, a keep-in-touch program can do more than remind clients that youre still in business. It can build your stature and credibility as a guru by sharing valuable information and ideas. You can then leverage that credibility to attract more people to your website. Finally, you can make compelling offers to those on your keep-in-touch list. All of it will motivate past and future clients to do business with you again and again.
About the Author
Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing works with professional service businesses to help them attract new clients. His web site is a valuable resource for anyone looking for effective marketing ideas.
:To contact see details below.
robmid@actionplan.com
http://www.actionplan.com
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