The term “stay in touch marketing” means just what it says – it is the process of staying in touch (regularly) with your clients in order to keep your brand or your business at the top of your clients mind – using the various platforms available to you. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and even email and SMS can be used to keep your brand or your identity fresh in your clients mind.
I am not referring to junk or spam because we all know that junk mail or getting an overload of tweets is not an effective marketing strategy; it is in fact, a sure way to lose clientele. To use these platforms successfully it needs to be about relevance and not excess or, in other words, it’s about quality and not quantity.
The marketeer
I am currently being exposed to such an elegant example of this type of marketing and its power. The “marketeer” is my new personal trainer at gym. He is self-employed and since I’m on a month-to-month contract with no guarantee that I’ll sign-up for the upcoming months, and because there are other trainers at this gym, he must keep my confidence for continued business.
My personal trainer is too busy to deliver emails or to write blogs so he has chosen to stay in touch with a daily quote sent to me via the WhatsApp SMS application. The quotes are well chosen anecdotes about exercise, health and well-being. They encourage me to stay focused on my routines and my fitness but, more importantly, they show me on a daily basis, that this guy cares and this guy is passionate about health.
Staying in touch tips
There are a few rules when it comes to this type of communication and there is a fine line between getting it right and becoming just another annoying sms or email which people end up deleting. Things to remember when “staying in touch”:
- Keep it relevant – don’t share only what you find interesting, share information that you think your clients will benefit from.
- Keep it short and stay on focus – When we receive Tweets or see Facebook updates we want a quick fix as we often don’t have time (or energy) to read a long-winded story – keep to the point.
- Think innovatively about the platform you choose to use when keeping in touch with your clients. What will work for you AND your market?
- Always deliver at the coal face – you need to deliver a service which echoes your marketing information. Be your word and live up to your marketing promises.
There are as many ways to keep in touch as there are industries out there, make sure that you choose the messaging and the channel of communication which is in-line with your target market so that you can actually add some value which your market can relate to.
