Customer relationships shouldn’t end as soon as you land a sale. The key to good relationship marketing is to keep customers coming back. And you do that by staying in touch well after the initial sale. Fortunately, you have plenty of options for keeping in touch, and your business writer can help you with any of them.
Here are five ways your or your business writer can keep your company in regular contact with customers.
1. Your Company Blog
Use your company’s blog to share news and special offers with customers. Allow them to leave comments. And make sure you respond to those comments when it’s appropriate.
2.Email
Send surveys, special offers, coupons, and announcements to existing customers on your email marketing list. Just don’t forget to give them the opportunity to opt out of future emails. You don’t want to violate the CAN-SPAM Act.
3. Social Media Updates
You can use your company’s social media accounts much like you would use your company blog to stay in touch with customers. Link to your blog posts. Share news, discounts, and coupon codes directly. Pay attention to what your customers say about you, your company, and your products and services.
Respond when it makes sense to do so (such as answering basic questions or inviting unhappy customers to contact you offline with further details about their problems so you can work things out — you do not have to respond to trolls who do nothing but try to bash your company).
4. Phone Follow-ups
While it won’t make sense for all companies, if you have your customers’ phone numbers, you might want to follow up with them with a call. Calling customers just to try to up-sell them is a sure way to annoy, though it can work in moderation. But sometimes it can be helpful to call with an offer to help — such as noticing a new customer hasn’t fully set up an online account or used their service yet. As an example, one of the domain name registrars I’ve used calls customers shortly before domain names are up for renewal to make sure they don’t forget to renew.
5. Snail Mail
Snail mail is still a great way for some companies to stay in touch with customers. You can send postcards announcing big sales or offering coupons. You can send circulars if that’s normal for your industry. Or you can even send surveys after a big purchase.
No matter how you choose to stay in touch with your customers, solid business writing is at the heart of effective relationship marketing, whether that means writing copy for a brochure, writing business blog posts, or writing phone scripts for your customer service representatives.
Do you need a hand with your business communications? Let a professional business writer help you with any of the projects I’ve mentioned here. Contact me to discuss your project.
MA’M, is it okay to write slangs and acronyms in business letters?
should i include anecdotes or humor in letters?
Slang? Not in a business letter. Acronyms should be fine as long as you use them properly (they’re commonly-known in your industry and / or you include the full names the first time the acronyms are used). Anecdotes and humor depend on the type of letter, but in business communication it’s generally best to keep it professional and get to the point.