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Nobody likes to feel that they have been forgotten and this is never truer for your existing customers.  Keeping in touch can actually drive repeat sales either directly from your customer or through the word-of-mouth marketing they are doing on your behalf.   They may not need your product or services again right now but they may know someone who does.

If you keep top of their mind they will think of you when asked by business colleagues, friends or family if you know someone who can help them out with their particular need or problem.

Keeping in touch is great but if you can engage your customers or prospects to respond even better. Two way communication is always better than one-way. One way though is better than none at all!

How do you show the love?

Here are some suggestions to get you in communication mode!

• The phone call.  Yes, this is still one of the most powerful ways of keeping in touch.  Most people respond well to verbal communication so if you know that you have a particular customer who prefers this style of keeping in touch over the written style then schedule in a call every now and again. You don’t need to have a long conversation and indeed your customer may not have the time.
   
• The newsletter. This can actually be in the form of an online newsletter or a printed newsletter . Yes, people do still print and post newsletters and to be honest these are the ones that tend to get the most attention as they are so rare these days!  Your newsletter should be regular and probably no more than once a month.  It should contain news about your company, products or services, any tips that you can offer, industry news or perhaps links to interesting articles.
   
• The blog.  Blogs provide a great way for your to communicate and engage with your customers.  They don’t need to be very long but they do need to be relevant to your business.  There are so many topics that you can use for your blogs but the best ones are ones that provide tips and guidance i.e. the How To type of blog.  Ask for comments.  Blogs are not only great for engagement but also the Search Engines love them (as long as they stay relevant to your business) as you are providing new and regular content on to your website.

• Social Media. This could be LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Google+ for example.  Not all these will be right for you but choose the ones that are and use them to communicate to people.  Using Social Media as a communications tool is the best way to engage with your customer s and prospects. The possibilities to engage are endless and warrants a separate blog on the subject!  As a start, have a look what others are doing and get ideas that way. Do make sure you communicate regularly as the online world can be a fickle one so you need to regularly stay top of mind by posting, tweeting or updating.
   
• Popping in.  I am sure some of your customers would love to see you and even more so if you bring them morning tea or a round of coffees. You don’t need to stay too long, unless invited to of course, but it shows that you care and that your customer is not forgotten.

None of these ideas are rocket science but are very simple ways to communicate and show the love.  We don’t always have the time to do these things but if we want more business then we really need to get calling, visiting or writing.

We would love to hear what methods of communication have worked the best for your business so please do comment below.