Follow-up With Your Leads

What is Follow-up?

In the world of marketing, there is probably nothing more important than following up with your leads.  After all, you paid for them already!

A follow-up campaign, also known as a drip campaign, is a series of contacts or correspondences you send to those who request your free offer (also known as a “lead magnet”).

The most effective follow-up campaigns don't rely solely on emails but use all sources of communication … reliance on email is a common mistake many attorneys make.

Instead, they should include:

• Phone Calls (YES!  Still use the phone!)
• eMail with relevant content (based on the segmented client’s interest)
• Mailed letters (sometimes called “direct mail”) and/or Postcards
• CDs of an interview you did (or, Podcasts for those so inclined)
• DVDs of you speaking at a professional event such as a business lunch or an educational talk
• SMS (also known as text-messaging)

A study done by the Association of Sales Executives in the early 2010’s revealed that 81% of all sales happens on or after the fifth contact. Today, most advice is 15 or more contacts with your prospects over a six to eight-month period.

If you’re an attorney or small business owner and you are only sending one or two follow-ups you are leaving your leads with too many other choices.

Imagine all the business you’re losing!

Change your processes – today!

Consistent follow-up creates a predictable and profitable stream of prospects and customers that buy. Small businesses that capture leads and follow-up with them enjoy higher conversion rates and a higher percentage of referrals than those that don’t.

Are you worried that you don’t have staff?
Or, are you too busy?
But, do you still want (or need) more business and customers?

Check out your systems… In many cases, increasing your yield on prospects is not a capacity question … it is a systems question.

What Does a Good Follow Up System Look Like?

A good follow up marketing system should have three key 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. To know this, you need a way to track performance of the system.
3. It should require minimal interaction, meaning it should be able to run on autopilot.

Three Types of Follow Ups 

There are three types of people you should be following up with:

1. ​leads (people in your target marketplace),
2. prospects (people who have responded to your marketing but have not purchased, and
3. customers (people who have purchased something from you.)

​Each follow up message and offer will be different for each type of person.

With leads, you’ll want to lure them to call you or visit your office.
With prospects, you need to persuade them to make their first purchase.
And with customers, you want to convince them to come back and do more business with you and give you referrals.

Probably the hardest type of person to follow up with is a lead because they haven’t shown any interest and you usually don’t have their contact information.

What should be in your marketing, anyway?

You need to first define your ideal contact (That is a topic for another day). Then, get into their heads.

The questions you might ask are:

• What are their interests?
• What do they NEED today?
• What are you providing to THEM?
• How can they take action NOW?

Some additional thoughts include these:

1. Speak their language.
   As a lawyer, or other professional, you use “terms of art” or other specific jargon. Don’t use that in your marketing! It is confusing to the outside world. It's crucial that you speak in terms your ideal client will understand.
   • Speak to your audience in words and phrases they understand.
   • Listen to your clients when they’re talking to you—that’s how you need to write!
   • Clear communication is foundational to your success.
     
     

2. Address their fears or concerns.
   It doesn't matter if you're a doctor or an attorney or another professional; people come to you because they are in need of a service. They are looking for guidance from someone who can alleviate their fears and answer their questions. Ensure that each part of your follow-up campaign acknowledges their concerns and offers solutions.
   
   
3. Leave them looking forward to the next part.
   You've read books that you simply couldn't put down. Why can’t your marketing be like that? Your goal is to create that cliffhanger feeling throughout your follow-up campaign. Give them most of the information they want, and then promise to dig further into the subject with your next email. You want your audience waiting for your next email, letter, or CD. Achieve this, and you will have created a truly powerful conversion tool.
4. Stay connected.
   Add links in your email letters that go back to relevant content on your website or to your Twitter feed or Facebook pages. Your prospects will come back to your website to read more and will follow you on social media.

How to Make Your Follow Up Marketing System Work for YOU 

Automation is the key to developing a powerful follow up marketing system because it overcomes the number one reason most businesses don’t follow up... they believe it takes time and personal attention.

You must automate your follow up system as much as possible so that there are few,i f any, personal interactions from your employees with the system. It’s the required physical interactions (i.e. printing letters, sending emails, inputting leads etc.) where all the breakdowns happen in follow up marketing systems.

To automate your follow-ups you should consider using existing internal steps, with third-party automated marketing systems, and then outsourcing any manual interactions (such as stuffing envelopes or answering phone calls).  

For example, to capture your leads you could consider using Facebook or other Social Media to capture their contact information, automatically saving it and sending this information to you or uploading to the Infusionsoft Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) in real-time, or even in a Google spreadsheet every day.   

If you’re using a direct mail follow up system (and it should be one part of your system), find a fulfillment house (such as 3DMail Results) to do the mailings for you. If you want to stay local, in most places, your local printer can refer you to a fulfillment house in your area.

Now, imagine running a new ad to a new narrowly defined lead group, and having your prospect call up and give their contact information to your virtual receptionists 24x7.Then, after the contact details are entered, the system automatically requests the Shock and Awe package to be sent, and your automated system follows-up by sending out a series of emails and hard-copy mail pieces all containing your most persuasive marketing message… without you lifting a finger!

Want to learn more?

Read this eBook Why Followup with your leads? 
Get useful information about what Follow-up is, and how to do it.  Then, contact us if you’d like help!

You can reach us at 984-234-5880.
Call anytime!

More than one way to followup?  Wondering about using SMS for communicating with your clients?
Read this post.