5 Engaging Ways To Stay Connected to Past Clients

I once heard Joe Stumpf of "By Referral Only" fame say, “The system is the solution.”  

Building your business by referrals is both a philosophy and a mindset and it takes a system to make it all happen. By creating a system to keep in touch with and to stay connected to your past and current clients, your connections and your fans you can consistently reap referrals. 

Your past customers may have known, liked and trusted you at one time, but will they remember you? Will they refer you to their friends a month or year from now?

How are you staying visible? What are some engaging ways to stay in touch?. Newsletters are great, but what else can you do?

Consider all the ways you can stay connected with your contacts. Be creative. Then, create a systematic plan so you can consistently stay in front of your connections and fans. A plan might include Facebook time from 3:00 to 4:00 pm every day, blogging on Monday and Wednesday or shooting a short video every Friday morning. You might set a deadline for yourself to get a newsletter out by the 20th or to write an article for a neighborhood newspaper once a month.

If you're anything like me, if I don't plan it and put it in my smart phone to remind me, the chances of it happening are pretty slim. So, make some decisions, talk it over with your team, write your plan down, schedule it and make it a priority to get started this week.

Here are 5 engaging ways to stay connected:

Use permission-based emails that give value and education. Link to some interesting blogs and articles. Send Newsletters that contain news and humor. I like to use ConstantContact for my email campaigns. It's simple and easy to manage with an unsubscribe feature.

Blog for your audience. Entertain your connections with enticing content. Share valuable information that is closely related to what you sell. Educate people so that they continue to know, like and trust you enough to do more business with you and to refer you to their friends. I like Google's Blogger best. That's just my preference. When I finish with a blog, it seamlessly blasts it out on Google+. Then my husband, Todd, sends it out to our other social media sites. If you need help with content join Copyblogger.com. 

Video and YouTube are excellent ways to demonstrate what you do. Post your short videos on social media websites along with your blog. When I create a video, I just use my smart phone, which is set up on a stand in front of me. I make sure that the background is fairly neutral and that the light source is behind the camera and not me. It's fast and easy to upload it to YouTube. I don't personally care for videos shot from a laptop camera. It can have a fish-bowl look and nobody wants to look like a fish. 

Create a Facebook Group. Like-minded friends and customers can grow into a community with common interests. Post a weekly topic and encourage comments. Connect to your blog and company videos. Encourage discussions. This one only takes minutes to set up and you'll be amazed at how close you get to the people who join your group.

 Events can be fun and are a great way to stay connected. Invite your past clients, current connections and friends to at least one event a year. For example, you could invite them to  join you at a sporting event, charitable fundraiser or a seminar. Consider having a party to watch a great TV show or an event like the Oscars. Better yet, once a year have a family day at the Zoo, rent a bowling alley or have a business networking event.

Keep in touch and stay connected.

You are only as limited as your imagination.