Q: How do you stay in touch with someone who is not ready to buy off you at this point of time? How do you stay in touch with a customer who just made a purchase and is not likely to make another one for a few years?
A:To keep at the top of your prospects mind the answer to the question is Drip marketing.
Drip marketing is the process of sending repeated, relevant and informative messages to your prospects and customers until they are ready to buy. By collecting your prospects contact details through your website and other marketing channels you can then begin to communicate to your audience. The information that your provide to your prospects and customers should be material that is of value to them, this will be a lot easier if you have done your market research and when delivering the information you want to be thinking stage two of your sales process “Nurture”.
By adding value to your customers and prospects through information, they will start to see you as the expert in your field and when they are ready to buy you will be at the top of their mind.
To start putting this process into action, you need to build a foundation.
The foundation being your:
- Website: to build your database and make sales.
- Blog: to provide quality information that adds value to your customer and prospects experience and links to your email marketing.
- Database : This is your audience that you email and direct mail. Once you get your information strategy sorted, all you need to worry about is stage one of your sales process ‘”Generate Leads”.
- Email Marketing Software: so you can easily manage and report on the success of your email marketing.
So what information do you provide to your database? Here are some ideas.
• New Product Announcements
• Article Reprints
• Blogs (Email a link to recent posts, think information not promotion)
• Brochures
• Case Studies
• Holiday greeting cards
• Customer Satisfaction Surveys
• Emails (Informative, not promotional)
• Invitations (to a trade show or customer event)
• Letters
• Media clippings (Articles written about your firm)
• Newsletters (Print or email – if you are wanting to be different, a traditional printed newsletter is the new black. Try it in an envelope with an addressed letter as part of your direct mail.
• Special Reports
