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.

Did you know that 80% of all sales happen on or after the 5th contact? Yet most small business owners only do one or two follow-ups with their prospects and clients. That means you are missing out on a lot of business and leaving money on the table.

Although we worry about contacting people too much, studies show that most people need several contacts (that are useful and relevant to them) before they’ll say yes to being your client.

People need to learn to trust and like you before they’ll enter into a relationship with you and that takes consistent connection. Follow up with people to let them know that you are sincere in wanting to form and nurture an ongoing relationship, that you understand their concerns and problems and that you’re in for the “long haul”.

Also, people buy when they are ready, not when you’re ready to make a sale! It’s important to constantly keep in front of people so that when they’re ready to buy you’ll be there. In other words, you have to follow up with them regularly.

People usually need to be exposed to a marketing message several times before making a decision to purchase.

Another reason to stay top of mind in your prospect’s and client’s mind is that they may not be ready to purchase but they may know someone else who is. By staying in front of them with consistent follow up, they’ll have the information, confidence and trust to refer you to their friends, family, associates and others.

Start implementing some follow-up marketing strategies today to make ongoing, consistent contact with prospective and current customers - so that you can stop leaving money on the table!