Here’s the last 3 components that you need to ensure that your follow-up marketing strategies are as effective and efficient as possible for you.

Follow up needs to be automated

Try to automate your follow-up marketing as much as you can.  All of us are busy and the more we can systematize our marketing, the easier and quicker we can start reaping the rewards.

Luckily there is an abundance of tools and people you can use to simplify and automate your follow-up activities - from autoresponders to full contact management systems to Virtual Assistants.

An example of automating your follow-up marketing would be a shopping cart program that sends out automatic emails in a series after someone purchases your product, or a company that formats and sends out your ezine, or a VA who produces and sends out electronic greeting and thank you cards for you.

Follow up needs reliable data

To take advantage of many of the ways to follow up with your prospects and clients, you need to have a system in place that captures information about people and keeps track of interactions and communications you have with everyone.

Use software such as Aweber and 1Shopping Cart to gather and store information like client’s birthdays, business anniversary dates, purchasing information, emails that were sent, and so on.

Follow up needs to have varied delivery methods

Keep your follow-up marketing interesting and keep people intrigued by using different methods of delivery.  Incorporate email, telephone, direct mail, audio and so on, to provide variety in how you connect with people and grab their attention.

By varying the way you communicate and follow up with people, you’re showing that you are creative and interested in talking to them in different ways.  It shows commitment on your part and an understanding that freshness and variety is key in making any business relationship strong.

Take a look at how you are implementing your follow-up marketing tactics - are you using all 8 components (as outlined in the last 3 blog postings)?  If not, take some time today to see how you can make your follow-up marketing run as quickly, easily and profitably as possible.

There are 8 components that will help you make the most of your follow-up marketing strategies and ensure they are as effective as possible.  Here are 3 more of the components you need to pay attention to.

Follow up needs to be consistent

Not only does follow up need to be frequent, it needs to be consistent.

As with any marketing strategy you choose to do, if you do not do it on a regular basis and do it haphazardly, then that’s what you’ll get in return - haphazard results.

Remember that marketing (including follow up) is about building a relationship and if people hear from you a couple times and then not for a few months, they’re not going to get a warm, fuzzy feeling about you.  Consistently following up shows people that you value them, are reliable and committed to providing a service to them.

Follow up needs to build momentum

Frequency and consistency with follow-up marketing allows for momentum to occur.  I define momentum in marketing as each strategy and communication builds on each other and are linked together.

For example, you might start your second email by saying, “8 days ago I sent you an email…”   Or after they’ve purchased a product or downloaded an ebook, send them a handful of emails that highlight something specific about the product or in the report that can help them.

Referencing the previous communication links what you’re saying with what you’ve already said, and reminds your prospect that you care enough to continue the conversation.

Follow up needs to be organized

To ensure that your follow-up marketing is consistent, you need to organize it by putting it in your calendar and on your to-do list.

When you carve out time in your daily and weekly schedule for follow-up activities, then you go a long way towards actually doing them!  How many of us get things done that we haven’t made time for?  Not very many of us I’ll bet!

So put a half-hour aside each Friday to write some thank you notes, and schedule an hour each Monday to write your weekly ezine, and an hour every second Wednesday to write a new email message to send to your list.

There are 8 components that will help you make the most of your follow-up marketing strategies and ensure they are as effective as possible. Over the next few blogs I will talk about these components in detail.

Pay attention to these different components because they will help you to systematize your follow-up activities so that you can find the time to do them - quickly and easily.

Follow up needs to be timely

Always follow-up sooner rather than later. For every day you wait, you lessen the impact of the follow-up communication.

For follow-up strategies such as acknowledging referrals, testimonials, new acquaintances, new business and so on, do your best to follow up in one or two days.

Obviously, for follow-up activities that are centered around specific dates (birthdays, end of promotion, workshop sign-up, program enrollment) the follow up needs to occur on the actual day. It doesn’t do much for your credibility to send out Christmas cards in February!

Follow up needs to be frequent

We already talked about people needing to hear your message a certain number of times before they’ll notice or act upon it. That’s why for your follow-up to have any effect, it needs to be frequent.

The frequency and amount of follow-up needed depends on the reason and method for your follow-up. For example, if you are following up regarding an upcoming teleseminar, you may be contacting your list a total of 5 times over the two weeks leading up to and including the date of the teleseminar.

Or if you’re following up after someone has downloaded your free giveaway, you may have 20 follow-up emails in your autoresponder sequence that go out over a six month period to them.

Don’t be afraid of following up too frequently. And remember to always provide a way for them to remove themselves from the conversation (virtual or other) you’ve started with them.