Follow Up: Thank You, Personal & Gather Information

There are 6 main areas, or reasons, to employ follow-up tactics in your day-to-day business life: thank you; personal; gather information; administration; provide information; and product and service sales.

In this article I'll look at 3 of these areas in detail. I've listed the marketing strategies you can use (under each key area) and also examples of the type of content for each of these follow-up tactics.

1. Thank you

Saying thank you is a key part of your follow-up marketing strategies. Send a hand-written note, a short email or pick up the phone and express your thanks quickly and sincerely.

Everyone loves to be appreciated and it goes a long way in fostering a good relationship. Don't forget you can always send a small token of your appreciation as well, such as a magazine, movie tickets, online gift card - use your imagination!

Here are some instances where you could be expressing a heartfelt thank you:

* referral

--> say thanks to the person who gave you the referral, right after you've spoken or met with the referred person, even if no business immediately comes out of it. If you do end up getting a new client from the referral, then send another quick note thanking the referring person again.

* someone gives you a great piece of information

--> always show your appreciation for anything useful (i.e. a person's name, a link, book, article) someone passes along your way - it shows they were thinking of you and a thank you shows them the same consideration

* testimonial

--> always thank people for taking the time to provide a testimonial - they're willing to publicly endorse you, so the least you can do is tell them how much you appreciate it

* someone compliments you

--> if someone gives you a great compliment, acknowledge it and return the gesture to them if you can

* when you get a new client

--> your hand-written note will make them feel confident about engaging you and assures them they've made a smart decision

* when a project, program or service ends

--> a sincere thank you at the end of your "time" together expresses your appreciation and also increases the chances that they will engage your services again

2. Personal

None of us likes to feel "like a number" or just another client, so follow-up marketing tactics that acknowledge the personal side of doing business with someone always goes a long way to making people feel special, remembered and valued.

Gather and store information about your client's personal information and use this as a basis to keep in touch and strengthen the business relationship.

* birthdays

--> send a note or small gift (depending on the length and quality of the client relationship) celebrating their birthday or a family member's birthday

--> also, use the date of your birthday to contact people with special birthday discounts, a promotion, etc.

* family

--> listen to what's happening in your client's family life and send along something useful (a book or helpful article) that could benefit your client's family in some way

--> for example, if your customer's daughter is starting university, maybe send along a helpful book about settling into life as a college student

* hobbies

--> pay attention to hobbies that are an important part of your client's, your partner's or your colleague's life (we've all come across golfing fanatics!) and follow up with a relevant gift, book, tickets and so on

* holidays

--> share your joy and appreciation of holidays (traditional ones such as Christmas or quirky ones such as Halloween or Groundhog Day) by shooting off a quick card to your list

* anniversary dates

--> keep track of when your customer bought their first product from you or started a coaching or consulting program with you, and acknowledge these anniversary dates with a follow-up communication

* nice-to-meet you

--> send a quick email or card to express your pleasure at meeting someone new - at a networking event, seminar, workshop, business lunch, etc.

3. Gather information

It's important to stay on top of what your clients and prospects want, need and expect from you and your business. It's also vital to gather information about what people think of your products and services, and find out ways of improving your offerings.

You can follow up with clients via several different ways like your blog, website, an email, a phone call, a personal visit and so on. Below are various marketing tactics to gather what information you need:

* surveys

--> you can have a quick survey asking people a couple questions - such as top issues/problems, suggested improvements, product or services they'd like to have, etc.

* testimonials

--> you need to be proactively asking for testimonials, as these are key to the credibility of you, your company, products and services

--> follow up with people for testimonials after they've been at a workshop, on a teleseminar, bought a product, started a program with you, become an affiliate and so on

* referrals

--> you also need to gather referrals on a consistent basis, so follow up after everything you do with clients, partners, colleagues and affiliates and ask if they know of anyone who could benefit from your services and products

* feedback

--> use follow-up marketing strategies to get feedback from your prospects, affiliates, partners and clients on anything and everything you can think of that impacts them and you - i.e. new website, new services, product upgrade or add-on, programs, seminars and workshops

Take a look at your business and marketing activities and try to see where you can fit in some of these follow-up strategies. Utilizing follow-up marketing can make a huge difference in your success.