What To Do After the Outreach

The idea of being alone in the cosmos is pretty deep. But that’s exactly what you never want your prospect or repeat client to feel: alone. What happens after the outreach? You’ve engaged them in a great postcard campaign, they’ve responded in one way or another, and then what? How do you keep your prospect, who obviously has at least a passing curiosity about your product or service, interested in getting to the next stage in your process for them?

I’ve got 3 Great Tips for Staying in Touch with your prospects:

1. Deliver what you promised in a timely manner – The fastest way to lose a client or turn off a prospect is by NOT giving what you advertised when promised. You need to be dedicated, organized, and as my grandfather used to say, ‘Johnny on the Spot’ when it comes to turnaround. Lack of response in marketing is the equivalent of dead air on the radio. It’s awkward and gives the impression that someone isn’t paying attention. This is especially crucial when part of your Call-to-Action requests they reach out to you [as a way to indicate interest]. Send them that whitepaper, give them a call with more information about the product or service, apply the early bird discount. Whatever the case may be, the postcard was the first date. Keep them interested in you.
2. Consider an autoresponder follow up – A lot of what we talk about revolves around postcard campaigns. We both know they are a brilliant, low cost-of-entry method to grab prospects, and repeat sales. But don’t be afraid to partner postcards with another method. If postcards truly are the first date, and you’re tracking your responses to the mailings, an autoresponder email is a GREAT way to stay in front of your audience. You’ve asked for their email address on a landing page, or for them to email you directly, which opens the door for quick notes to them as reminder of sales or new product launches. Don’t sell in the email! Just use them to keep your company name at the front of their brain.
3. Selling Outside the Funnel – In the spirit of discovering new worlds outside of our own, I think it’s critical to experiment with your postcard campaigns, as well. Yes, you have and maintain a core set of target clients (and areas). But every once in a while, it pays to look outside of your funnel, outside of your typical target market or geographical area. You might find a diamond in the rough, or an as-yet-untapped market hiding in plain sight. These outreaches can be purely informative. It never hurts to spread your name farther and wider, and as you gain traction with the outliers, adding 5 or 10 or 15 names to the campaign for your ‘regulars’ keeps you fresh in their minds and preserves the mental link to what you can provide for them.

I know how crazy it sounds when I say it is imperative that you jump on responses as quickly as possible, making sure you don’t procrastinate on acknowledging their interest in you or your service. It’s like waiting too long to deposit a check (remember those?) from a client. Once you hit the stale date on that check, you’re out of luck. There is a ton of potential opportunity out there for you to try and grab. Your initial message needs to be strong enough to capture their attention. But the contact after the outreach is just as important.

Give Opportunity Knocks a call today. Our Success Coaches may not be space nerds, but they’re experts at identifying the most intelligent ways to bring life to a postcard campaign…from first contact to repeat interaction…for out of this world results!