Easiest Marketing Win #3: Stay in Touch with Current Customers
“I just didn’t feel valued.”
“I thought they were taking our business for granted.”
“We used to meet with them a lot to talk about the business, but now I only hear from them when they want a re-order.”
A customer relationship is just that – a relationship. In any relationship, when you stop communicating, both parties start assuming things about the other, and problems arise.
One of the easiest marketing wins for B2B companies is to build a plan that ensures you continually communicate with current customers so that you continue to foster long-term relationships and maintain loyalty. A bonus is that staying in touch allows you to get feedback, understand evolving needs, and make improvements to your products or services based on insights from your customers.
Some things to think about when building a plan to stay in touch with current customers:
- Cadence: Think about the cadence that makes the most sense. For some customers this might be every day, for others once a week, and for some once a month.
- Consistency: Establish a regular schedule that includes a mix of proactive outreach, follow-ups, and relevant updates that help you stay top of mind. Also, it can be powerful to let your customers know about how often they can expect to hear from you. Once you set that expectation, you must meet it.
- Channels: Use various channels, such as email, phone, in-person meetings, customer events, and social media to increase the chances of meaningful interactions. Sales, leadership, and marketing should be coordinating and sharing the responsibility for keeping in touch.
- Personalization: Marketing emails are fine – good, even. But the content must be helpful, relevant, and interesting. The same is true of sales outreach. It is not relevant or helpful when a rep calls or emails to say, “just checking in”. You will get much more actional feedback when you ask a more specific question that can deepen the relationship. Something like, “Is there anything we could do better to make the roll-out easier?”
Extra Tip: It is a wonderful thing to reach out to current customers during the holidays, but generic holiday greetings often fall a little flat or get lost in a sea of holiday cards and gifts. Consider doing this kind of outreach in a way that stands out and has more impact. Think about your company, your brand, and your history and look for something more meaningful. As an example, for an accounting firm, instead of sending a box of chocolates and a card in December, instead maybe send cookies with “Happy National Accounting Day” on them.
Haven’t talked to your customers in a while? Check out this Customer Re-engagement Plan.
If you found this insightful, be sure to read our other Easiest Marketing Wins and our 5 Marketing Pitfalls:
- Easiest Marketing Win #1: Be Very Clear on Who You Want to Serve
- Easiest Marketing Win #2: Conduct a Source of Business Analysis BEFORE Creating Your Marketing Plan
- Marketing Pitfall #1: Not Being Clear on Business Goals
- Marketing Pitfall #2: Not Having a Clear Brand Strategy
- Marketing Pitfall #3: Not Tracking Metrics or Tracking the Wrong Ones
- Marketing Pitfall #4: Doing a little bit of everything and expecting it to work
- Marketing Pitfall #5: Expecting A Lot with Little Support