Finding customers makes sense but keeping customers makes more sense. So why is it that so many companies have a sales department and a marketing/advertising department but fail to capacitate follow-up groups for both divisions?

Most businesses can understand the marketing and advertising benefits of following up with their customers (or with interested website visitors) but they don't always have the time to do it. After all, it can seem like a time consuming process that doesn't always appear to be necessary. However, your marketing and advertising follow-up department can be one of the easiest processes to manage if you simply make it a process that doesn't require intense or expensive manual labor.

An online businessknowhow article suggests that every [marketing and advertising] follow up process should in fact include the following attributes:

1) “It should be systematic, meaning that the follow up process is done the same way every time.”
2) “It should generate consistent, predictable results.”
3) “It should require minimal physical interaction to make it run, meaning it should be able to run on autopilot.”

Making Your Marketing and Advertising Follow Up Process Work for You
To follow up with your existing customers, you don't have to hire a slew of telemarketers. It's simply not necessary. Besides, you likely know as well as anyone else the basic percentage of those who actually like receiving telemarketer-type calls. Yuck! Who needs it?

Instead, when you follow-up after your marketing and advertising efforts, make your follow-up effort more like gifts and friendly gestures than annoyances. Find those in your company who can write copy or design (or hire them) and put them to work creating the informational collateral that you will need to impress your clients.

A Marketing and Advertising Follow Up Example
Let's say you own a community theater. You notice that the customers who once purchased season tickets now only purchase one or two tickets per year and you would like to send them follow-up material to encourage them to purchase annual season ticket packages. You decided to have your writers and designers create attractive brochures and information marketing and advertising copy that vividly describes each play in it's best light and lets your customers know how much they can save by purchasing their tickets in an annual package. If you can, send a key chain or other promotional device to your best clients. When you provide this type of information to people who are already interested in your products, they certainly won't be annoyed... they will be grateful. One of the best types of marketing and advertising is the type that truly elicits gratitude and purchases from your customers.

The businessknowhow.com article also recommends that you “Remember to always include a "next-step-offer" to accompany your educational materials. If the next step is to visit the store, then entice them with an appropriate offer or if the next step is to call you, entice your prospect to call you immediately.”

For instance, with the season tickets option, the money that your customers will save if they purchase yearly season tickets may be more than enough of an offer to get them to call or to order their tickets online. This marketing and advertising follow-up technique may be just what you need to get an initial batch of visitors to your website. You can then passively solicit their email information and use email as another marketing and advertising follow-up tool (read below).

Email as a Marketing and Advertising Follow-Up Tool
Email can also be a non-intrusive way to send your clients marketing and advertising follow-up information and inquiries. Make sure that those visitors who reach your web site and inquire after information provide their name and email address (and possibly additional information if necessary) first so that you can have means to contact them later whether they purchase materials or not. Use email and an autoresponder feature to answer basic inquiries or sign ups that occur on your website. Never spam. Always use white hat email tactics to market your clients or potentials clients.

Remember, that the most important aspect of the marketing and advertising follow-up messages is to show your appreciation for your customers' first (and renewed) business. Make sure that all of your messages come accompanied with a warm thank you and show of gratitude. It will make a difference.

¹ businessknowhow.com/marketing/less_effort.htm