I’ve talked about Rhythm and Flow and how Winners Make Plans and Practice. I combine these ideas with communication pulse points to stay in constant touch with customers.
It always amazes me how much we take our customers for granted. For many, customers are a major source of recurring revenue and referrals of new customers, keeping in touch with customers via regular pulse points takes planning, effort, and execution. The results often make the difference between success and failure.
Each market and often each segment have their own pulse. In Vancouver, we tend to be in touch with nature’s pulse, whether it is a hot summer sunset or a grey winter day. As marketers we need to get in touch with our customer’s pulse, staying aligned with what is going on for them. The goal is to stay in constant touch with customers keeping top of mind awareness. Here are some examples:
- Tradeshows. When are the major trade shows in your industry? What outreach can you do to customers before, during, and after trade shows. At Robelle, we offered free training on our products throughout trade shows, gave presentations on leading technologies and ideas in our industry, and sent every customer a detailed calendar of the events that we were doing at the trade show. For key customers, we would personally highlight the events we thought they might be interested in.
- Busy season. Are there natural highs and lows in your market? Be aware of them and sensitive to when people will be hyper busy due to the peak of their natural selling season (e.g., Christmas for retailers).
- Newsletters. These have gone out of fashion, yet they can be powerful communication pieces. Nothing beats having an elegant newsletter in a person’s hands or sitting on a desk for all to see.
- Email. A rule of thumb is to always email every contact in your database at least once a quarter. For many, a weekly email with interesting information (hint — this is not information about your company or products), delivered at the same time on the same day, can show that you know how to deliver.
- Articles. I often combine going to a trade show with follow up in a newsletter or articles. Recent articles I’ve written using this technique are Data Quality at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Strategic Management of Enterprise Applications.
- Webinars. Regularly scheduled educational webinars create a feeling of action and success among your customers. Attendees go away feeling they learned something valuable and are more open to future purchases or referrals.
- Phone calls. Reaching out to customers with valuable information can be a way to connect and get a conversation started on your customers pulse.
Pulse points are all about staying in touch in a natural way. What are you doing about your market’s pulse points?
