Loading Most people don’t think of following up with the customers that they already have as marketing. That is why they normally don’t have a budget for it. They think that since a person has bought from them in the past, of course they will buy from them the next time they need an XYZ Widget. What they don’t realize is that if they haven’t been following up with them on a regular basis, their customer(s) might have already been stolen out from under their nose without them even realizing it.
When I sit down with a new client one of the first things they always say is that they want to have a marketing campaign that will get more customers. I respond that we will indeed get to that, eventually. But the most important thing that we need to start with is making sure that they are keeping the customers that they already have. In other words we need to stop up the holes in the bucket before we put more water in it.
What good does it do to keep putting water in a bucket that is full of holes? Every new customer you bring in will buy the one time and without a way to keep them they very well might go right on out one of your holes. What would that customer have been worth to you had you kept them for a month? a year? 3 years? 10 years?
An example I often use is with mortgage brokers. The average person moves or refinances every 3-7 years. If a mortgage broker just follows up on a regular basis they will stay top of mind and the next time that person moves or refinances, their chances of getting the business go way up. My husband and I bought our home 3 years ago. Since then we have not heard from the mortgage broker that did our mortgage once. We are now in the process of refinancing that same home. Who do you think we called? Someone else! I can’t even remember the name of the person who did it before, and since then we have come across several mortgage brokers. We chose the one whom we felt the most familiar with.
But what is the best way to follow up? How often? In what form? The answer to that could fill up a book, so I will break the surface of it in my next post.
