The Top 10 E-Commerce Ways to Follow up with Clients - Part 1

By Judy Cullins
Posted Monday, November 8, 2004

Did you know that 80% of all sales are made after the 5th contact?

The biggest mistake we make is not following up with our clients regularly. We not only lose the chance to offer other services and products, we lose the chance for satisfied clients' referrals.

Building your practice needs consistent bi-monthly follow-ups.

If you think this takes too much time, follow my lead and delegate some of it where you will spend only 6-8 hours a week. Remember, only marketing and promotion builds income and business, the rest are expenses.

Here's the top ten ways:

1. Keep track of every one who contacts you, in person or by email about coaching or other service.

Treat email addresses like gold. These are already qualified, targeted future clients. Copy and paste their email note, date, and question into Textpad or notepad under the name "potential clients." Print it out and keep in a hard file named the same.

2. Don't throw away email addresses.

When someone connects with you, copy and paste their address into your computer folder called "eLists." Place the address where you think it belongs. Name one file "potential clients." If they are past clients, create another list and call it "past clients." If present clients, make a file for them too. Categorized into groups, you can personalize your note to each one. Every month you'll want contact one of these groups and offer them something special.

3. Keep track of your ezine subscribers' emails separately.

While you may use a company to send out your ezine, you may also want to have that list handy in your own office. My assistant uses (http://www.textpad.com) shareware program to manage all of my different email lists. Since I only send out my ezine on book coaching and business tip monthly, I follow up in between with a thank you or special offer. It takes less than 3 minutes to send out through text pad.

4. Choose the appropriate follow up message for each group.

For your monthly ezine, you may want to send out a mini "marketing survey." You ask 4-8 questions. For any who takes the time to respond, you offer them a fre.e eBook or report. In one follow up I asked, "What are the 3 top questions you want answered about writing and publishing a book?" My subscribers knew I was thinking about them and appreciated it by signing up for the follow up small cost book coaching marathon teleclass.

People love fre.ebies, so when your follow up offers a fre.e tip or question and answer, your potential clients will see your value.

5. Leverage big results from just a little effort.

Don't waste any information that helps you promote. After you get responses to your mini survey, use them again and again. After you answer the questions, keep them in a folder called Q and A. Create a new web site link and post them as new content for your hungry web site visitors.

When other professionals ask me for an interview for their ezines and sites, I get them via email, answer them and get promoted by others through their ezines and Web sites.

At the same time, I divide these interviews into articles under 1000 words and submit them to opt-in ezines looking for free content.

From just one ezine interview, several high power professionals called me to order books first, then to become business clients.

Don't think you are bothering your contacts. If they don't want your news, they can opt-out. Thank you's and free gifts keep your name in front of your buyers. It tells them you appreciate them and let's them know what new things you can offer them. Follow up is good business.

Part two of this article is available at (www.bookcoaching.com/freearticles/article-130.shtml).

About the Author
Judy Cullins, 20-year book coach works with emerging authors who want to write a print or an ebook, make a difference in people lives, and make a consistent life-long income from it. JHer 10 published books include "Write your eBook and Print Book at the Same Time," 10 Non-Techie Ways to Marketing your Book Online, and "How to Drastically Increase Website Traffic and Sales." (http://www.bookcoaching.com) Judy@bookcoaching.com