You probably have heard the saying: Out of sight, out of mind. It means that if you don’t show up and be seen from time to time then you might be forgotten by your audience. Be assured that if you are not showing up, or even if you are showing up, your competition is always trying to get into the door of your clients. The competition just doesn’t give up.
So, what is an effective marketing strategy to combat the competition and remain visible to your clients? Have you ever heard of a Drip Marketing Program? In the agricultural industry, studies have shown that if you slowly drip water onto your crops, they will grow better than if you splash a large amount of water on them in one single watering.
Communicating more frequently with your clients in small ways is more productive than communicating infrequently with big promotional campaigns. Another name for a Drip Marketing Program is a “Top of Mind Marketing Program” or a “Keep in Touch Marketing Program.” The key marketing strategy is to communicate more frequently and consistently with clients with smaller amounts of information.
What are a few examples of how you may construct your own Drip Marketing Program? Here is a sample list of the things you could do to consistently communicate more frequently with your clients.
• Holiday greeting card – At least once a year send a holiday card to your clients. A printed card has residual value in that after they read it people often hang them in their office.
• Monthly e-newsletter – Every month send your clients a monthly e-newsletter to keep your logo in front of their face. The amount of information in the newsletter is insignificant. The content could be something relevant to their life, a list of fun information or something to showcase your products and services.
• Statement stuffers – insert a statement stuffer and share information about additional products and services in order to cross sell more items to your clients. *Trade show participation – Attend the trade shows that most of your clients attend so they see your face. Mixing and mingling with clients always is a great way to strengthen relationships. • Webinar – Conduct a webinar over the Internet. More and more clients are moving to the Internet to interact, so a webinar gets you into the Internet game and allows you to talk to many, many people in one meeting.
• Sales visits – Meeting a client in their office is a very powerful communication strategy. Clients are busy multi-tasking, so an office visit takes them out of their daily routine and offers them a nice break.
• Thank you cards – How often do you get a thank you card from a vendor? A thank you card is a powerful personalized technique to making a client feel important.
So, the key points of a Drip Marketing Program are to communicate consistently and frequently with your clients and communicate through a number of media – Internet, direct mail, face-to-face.
Now that you understand the fundamentals of a Drip Marketing Program, go out and start growing more customers and sales and, in the process, don’t get wet.
Gene Gutierrez is a regular contributor to this newspaper. He may be contacted by calling 305-373-1919 or via email at gene@growingmoresales.com
By Gene Gutierrez
