You know the old adage, out of sight, out of mind. That goes for your clients and prospects, too. I hate to burst your bubble, but your customers are not sitting around thinking of you, wondering what you’re up to, thinking about all the great items you have for sale.

Chances are, on an everyday basis, the thought of you doesn’t even enter your customers’ minds. Ouch! What’s a small business owner to do?

The easiest thing to do is simply remind them about you. And the hardest thing to do is simply remind them about you. Let me explain…

I always coach my small business clients to create a “keep in touch strategy” to maintain contact with customers and prospects at least 26 times each year. It’s just a matter of saying “Hello” every now and then. You don’t need to have a major piece of breaking news. You don’t need to have a new item to sell. You just need to remind your customers that you exist. (In fact, a keep in touch strategy is more effective when you don’t combine it with sales or other promotions.) It really is a relatively easy concept.

And yet, it seems so hard. I always get major resistance from clients when it comes time to outline the actual strategy. They’re afraid they won’t have anything to say to their prospects on a regular basis. They’re concerned that there aren’t enough reasons to just stop and say “Hello”.

If that’s what you’re thinking, I’ve got great news for you. There are tons of reasons and ways to stay in touch with your prospects. The idea is to be a little different, to avoid all the same old cliché reasons your competitors are using to stay in touch. You want to be a little wacky and memorable. You want to stand out from the crowd. Here are a few real-life examples:

Find a signature item you can send to new prospects. Here in Indiana, we have a great local company called Endangered Species Chocolates who make, as you might have guessed, specialty chocolates. Part of their proceeds go to support species, habitat and humanity. The chocolate bars have very unusual and eye catching labels highlighting an endangered animal. I love to send these unique chocolate bars to new prospects with a note about all the great things that come from Indiana, including a really helpful techno-marketing consultant (wink, wink). The chocolates are unusual enough to be remembered, and, of course, they’re delicious.

Drop your prospect a hand-written note. In today’s world of email and text messages, almost no one receives hand written notes anymore. It doesn’t even matter what your note says, the fact that it’s hand written will make it memorable. I’ve created several different types of note cards with my logo on front. I keep a stack of them on my desk and periodically send them out to clients and prospects, for no reason at all.

Celebrate your client’s “birthday”. No, no, not that birthday… the day they became your new client. Thanks to databases and spreadsheets, and even some accounting software, it’s easy to pull up a listing of clients by specific dates. My web design clients always receive a “birthday card” with a picture of their website wearing a party hat, celebrating the day their new site was born. Again, it’s unusual enough to be remembered.

Last week we talked about creating your own holiday (if you missed that article, you can read it here). Now take your new holiday and run with it. Send your prospects a “National Whatever Day” greeting card. You won’t be able to find these cards at your local Hallmark store, but your graphic designer should be able to create something unique for you. Have them professionally printed and keep a bunch on hand.

Send postcards for other wacky holidays. Chase’s Calendar of Events lists over 10,000 obscure and unknown holidays. You’re sure to find at least one that correlates with your business. Include a cute message that pertains to you or your company, but try to avoid direct selling. I send my copywriting clients postcards to celebrate National Punctuation Day and I include a handy list of the most common punctuation errors. It’s always fun to see those postcards hanging in clients’ offices months later.

Celebrate a local event. Here in Indianapolis, the Indy 500 is a huge event every May. Parties and parades and “track days” last the entire month. I involve my non-Hoosier clients in the celebration by sending checkered flags, photos and other memorabilia. It’s a neat way to just say “Hi, I was thinking of you…”

Remind them of something unusual about yourself. Since I’m left-handed (most of the time) I always notice when I meet a left-handed prospect. After our initial meeting, I send a backwards-opening greeting card to celebrate our mutual left-handedness. It definitely gets me remembered.

Send copies of your articles. When one of your articles appears in a publication, send copies to your prospects and clients (check the publication’s reprint policy first). Chances are, your clients could benefit from the information in your article, and they will be thrilled that you thought to share it with them. And it’s a nice way to remind your prospects of your expertise.

Don’t forget their four-legged friends. When I work with clients on a long-term basis I get to know them pretty well. Inevitably, we end up discussing kids and pets at one time or another. Once a year, I send inexpensive dog treats and kitty toys to my pet-loving clients. Most pet owners are fanatical (me included) and they are overjoyed to receive these off-the-wall surprises.

You should be able to take all of these ideas and tweak them to fit your needs. Get as outrageous as you can without going overboard. You want your keep in touch strategy to be memorable, but you also need to maintain a bit of professionalism.

Remember, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune to keep in touch with your prospects. Often it’s not more than the price of stamp. The most costly component will be your time. But if you set up a system that you can easily follow on a regular basis, your keep in touch program will be on autopilot before you know it.

Action Item

1. List at least three wacky holidays you will use for sending postcards. Contact your graphic designer to create the original postcards.
2. Choose a local event, even if it’s just Mayor’s Day, that you will embrace to celebrate. Brainstorm a keep in touch program around that event.
3. Create a list of your past articles that you can include in your keep in touch strategy. Print several copies so you can have them on hand.

Now, go find some more clients!

Karen Scharf

Need to improve your website? Don’t pay thousands for a professional critique. Do it yourself with this…

You might also be interested in:

• 5 Small Business Marketing Strategies to Use Right Away
• Quicker Selling On Smaller Budgets
• 6 Common Mistakes in Referral Marketing
• What Does White Day Have To Do With Your Business?
• How To Turn Over 90% Of Referrals Into Customers

This entry was posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010 at 4:28 am and is filed under Small Business Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.