We all know that marketing is a continuous process, and that you have to keep priming the pump if you want to create a steady pipeline of prospects and customers. But the reality is that when you’re up to your eyeballs in work, marketing may not be your top priority. The secret to success is often to do as much as possible in advance on your slower days. For example, before I launched this newsletter I wrote the first 7 articles, set up the first few issues and then scheduled these issues to be automatically sent on the appointed days. Two weeks later when things got busy, I was able to focus on my customers’ deadlines rather than worrying about the next deadline for my own project.

Linda Coss
949-699-2749

When was the last time you contacted your top customers? How about the 2nd & 3rd tier of your customer list, your database of potential customers and all of your other contacts? If you don’t have a formal program for keeping in touch, you should. The key is to stay top-of-mind so that when someone has a need for your products or services, you’ll be the one they call.

 

What Are Your Options?
There are many different ways to stay in touch. Depending on your circumstances, your program may include telephone calls, direct mail, email, newsletters, blogs, personalized greeting cards, and other vehicles.

What’s the Perfect Frequency?
Unfortunately, there’s no “one size fits all” answer here, but at a minimum most companies should keep in contact with their customers on a quarterly basis. I receive emails once or twice a week from one of the major national bookstore chains, and I find this a little excessive. I also receive a handful of e-zines that arrive weekly, and I eagerly open each one. The difference? The bookstore is just trying to sell me something, while the e-zines provide information to help make my

In marketing, the old adage “out of sight, out of mind” is often true. Create a system that ensures you’ll keep in contact with your customers on a regular basis, and watch your sales increase.

 

Coyote Creek Consulting

Coyote Creek Consulting is a San Jose-based IT consulting firm that helps clients solve complex IT infrastructure engineering problems in large-scale (i.e. “Enterprise level”) environments.

 

Coyote Creek recently launched a regular email program. An informational newsletter designed is sent out monthly to the customer list, an informative but more sales-oriented message is sent out quarterly to the prospect list, and a quarterly “what’s new” update is sent to the “friends of the firm” list. To make implementing this program an easy process, Coyote Creek (a) created an editorial schedule for the year and (b) hired me to interview the content experts, write up the articles and format and schedule the emails – all well in advance of the deadlines.

 

To read a sample issue of the Coyote Creek Connection, click here.

 

 

 

 

click here or call 949-699-2749!