30 Sep Best Ways to Keep Clients Engaged with Your Business (and buying after the sale)
Smart salespeople know a client relationship is only beginning once you close the sale. Clients that continue to engage with you and your business continue to buy. They will refer your services and reduce your acquisition costs. All of this makes ongoing engagement a key part of a successful business. Today we’re sharing some of the best ways to keep clients engaged with your business, which will, in turn, increase your following and sales.
Want to address gaps in your marketing plan & how it may help increase engagement? Sign up for a 30-minute business discovery call with our founder, and expert sales & business strategist – Krista Chapman.
Do Good Work
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Do good work with integrity. When your work supports client needs and exceeds expectations, marketing is a whole lot easier. Honesty and commitment to excellence in your work will serve your business by allowing you to genuinely connect with clients and foster long-term relationships. And that is the bread and butter for a successful business.
Build an Email List
An email list organizes your clients & prospects from a variety of channels to one space. A space you own (super crucial in a noisy online world) that allows you to communicate to your audience when you want. Focus on creating content that encourages the recipients to re-engage with your brand and business. Keep them up to date on current offers or promotions, resources that speak to their pain points, and your offerings or services. Your audience is not as aware of your offerings as you think – email marketing is a great way to communicate this.
Do be careful of vanity metrics. Your email list doesn’t mean much if it isn’t healthy and your subscribers aren’t engaging. Take the time to maintain a healthy list, removing inactive subscribers or making it easy for people to opt-out. A good salesperson also knows pitching to people who are not interested is not a good use of their time. Stuck on how to get people to sign up for your email list? Read our post on how to create a sales funnel.
Create a Community
One of the best ways to encourage engagement is by creating a space or program that fosters a community around your business. Your clients often have a lot in common with each other and connecting around your brand keeps them engaged. You want to foster a community where your clients not only get to engage with you but one another. Empowering users to speak for your brand removes work from your plate (and increases referrals). There are numerous platforms where you can create a community and the one you choose depends on your clients. One of the most popular is a Facebook community, which can be a branch off of your existing business page.
Note: if your vendor partners or peers are the real drivers of your sales, focus on creating a community for them. This can be done through networking, vendor appreciation events or a peer mastermind. With sales as the goal, your business model may be more successful focusing here.
Referral Program
The best advocate for your business is a happy customer or client. People trust no one as much as their own family and friends, making references essential. Therefore, one of the best ways to encourage engagement is with a thoughtful referral program. Offer existing clients a bonus, reward or gift when they send you business. For the people who truly back your business, offering referrals often occurs in natural conversation. But an existing referral program can help encourage them to go a step further and promote your brand for you.
Show Your Appreciation
When people genuinely support your business, it’s essential that you take the time to show your appreciation. This will help foster a long-term relationship, not just on a business level but on a personal level. In terms of how you show appreciation, our favorite is a hand-written note. Annual client gifts or appreciation events are another option. Here are just a few ways to show your customers appreciation year-round. Pick one that feels authentic to your brand and aligns with your budget.
Personal Follow-Up
In addition to a general email newsletter, personal emails or messages are important. Especially follow-ups! Following up on a customer’s experience in regards to a service or product is an effective way to tell your customers that they are more than an income and that you value the relationship, as well as their feedback. Sending follow-ups are also simple. You will want to check in on their experience, ask about a referral, and/or offer a reward for their referral. If your customer had an especially stellar experience, don’t be afraid to ask if they would be willing to give you a testimonial.
Connect on Social Media
If you haven’t already invested your time and energy into social media for your business, you should. But engaging on social media goes beyond a business page. Plenty of business owners engage with their clients directly and from their personal pages. Oftentimes on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. This helps to build a much stronger, genuine connection with top customers. Depending on the services you are offering, it is also extremely relevant. If you are a family photographer, for example, it’s important to engage with a client’s post about the birth of their child.
If you need help strategizing the best ways to keep clients engaged with your business, we can help. Schedule a business evaluation & discovery call with our founder Krista Chapman, expert sales & business strategist. Need help creating effective follow-up emails? Grab our Copy & Paste: Follow-up Sales Emails, over in the shop!