Everyone reading the Digital Media Services monthly newsletters knows how much more effort and expense is required to gain new clients than it is to retain existing ones, right? One of the most effective practices for nurturing client relationships is in maintaining regular communications. Clients like to know that you’re thinking about them, that they’re important to you and that they are the primary focus of your business. You should certainly dedicate resources to bringing on new clients, but not at the expense of loosing existing ones. I sometimes get frustrated when I see my local cable company, newspaper provider, etc. offering all these special deals to prospective customers. It makes me think, “What about us existing customers who’ve been paying for your services for years? Don’t we deserve something special?”
There’s an abundance of ways to keep up regular communications with your clients, many of which can be somewhat automated. Keeping records of clients’ birthdays and other significant dates allows you to set up a calendar reminder for sending out a card or note. Scheduled email communications can be sent out en masse to your client base. Holding regular open house events can help keep up that oh-so-important face-to-face contact. Of course, Facebook and Twitter accounts have their place, too. If you like to include a sales component in your communications, sending out a “new products and services” memo every so often can inform your clients of new ways you can serve them.
Looking for some examples? Well, for starters, this newsletter is one. But we have a few others for you. Over the past six months or so, we’ve been refining our contact database and have created a few segmented groups of contacts based on what types of communications would be relevant to them. For our many ad agency contacts we’ve created a series of mailers reminding them of the top five reasons our clients choose to work with us (only two have been revealed, so far). We’ve started sending another group of contacts a series of photo cards featuring our specialty photography services.
One of our most effective and appreciated forms of communication is personal emails. While we certainly don’t make an attempt to send ongoing personal emails to every single individual in our address book, we do frequently forward our contacts links to appropriate articles, short notes about current events or follow-ups to previous conversations.
Studies have shown that the preferred frequency of business-to-client contacts is somewhere around 2.6 times per month. Are you sending out monthly newsletters or account statements? There’s one. Emailing your clients monthly about industry and product updates? There’s two. I suggest making the additional contacts more personal, such as mailing note cards, sending personal emails or holding account reviews or open house events where you can talk in person.
One final note: think about all the solicitations you receive from vendors, service providers and sales persons wanting your business. Now, remind yourself that your clients are receiving similar material from all of your competitors. Don’t let other providers out-communicate you with your own clients! Keep in touch.
