A strategic follow up plan for online and offline lead generation and repeat business is critical for success. Many business owners and professionals lose sight of the fact that it is much easier to sell to an existing client or customer than to sell to a new one. And yet, how many of your satisfied customers have limited knowledge of what you do or are under using your services? Your customers are not likely the main traffic on your website unless you are giving them an incentive to visit through blogging, newsletters, and special offers.

Email Campaigns, Automations, & Newsletters

Customer follow-up through email marketing can be particularly effective in building a list of prospects, staying in touch and rewarding existing customers. Strategies for list building with newsletters and autoresponders for targeted lists can pay for itself many times over. Email reminders do much more than clog up an inbox. They can be highly effective in strengthening your brand. When you mail to an opt-in or customer list, these are hot leads and loyal customers who know your name, trust you and are interested in what you have to say.

SMS Coupons, Promotions, & Customer Loyalty Rewards

Sending coupons, discounts, special offers, white papers, and customer loyalty rewards via bulk SMS text marketing can also be a particularly effective method of staying on your customer’s radar and acquiring repeat business. Almost everyone owns a smartphone and 98% of text messages are opened, most within a short period of time.

Automated Phone Messaging

When your lead generation and sales are through live events or direct mail, building a phone database of customers with use of automated phone messages can be an effective strategy.

Pay per click with ad remarketing is the fastest way to generate high quality leads that turn into customers. Unlike traditional forms of interruption advertising where you pay regardless of how the ad performs, PPC or pay per click is based on click performance. You only pay when there is a click-through from the ad to your landing page.

Google AdWords, YouTube advertising, and Facebook provide good advertising opportunities for local businesses and entrepreneurs. Ad remarketing is a low cost strategy that gets the same ad to be shown in high traffic popular sites to someone who originally clicked on the main ad.

Many businesses try to cut corners and handle PPC advertising on their own. Unfortunately, they often make serious mistakes with their ads, campaign set up and landing pages that lead to dismal results with an extremely poor ROI. Working with a company who has expertise in Google AdWords, YouTube, Facebook, and remarketing programs can be an extremely valuable use of advertising dollars.

Getting your company and information in front of the media in a timely and positive way is one of the best strategies for generating quality free leads and customers. When you attract the attention of the media because of something that is newsworthy and trending, you may very well hit a home run. You will achieve instant credibility if the media has taken their time and resources to do a story about you or to promote your products or services. This is generally because you have done something that your competitors have not done – something that sets you apart as you solve a big problem for a large number of people or businesses.

The media may put the spotlight on you for your contribution at a major community event. Participating in fundraising events and volunteering for a good cause will help build your brand and get you noticed for your community support.

Webinar events have proven to be the most cost effective and profitable venture for entrepreneurs online. Since the pandemic, almost everyone has acquired a comfort level with Zoom for online meetings and other events. The key to successful webinars is having a strategic plan and crafting the program in advance for building prelaunch excitement and motivation for taking action at the time of launch.

Using a direct mail approach to fill rooms with targeted prospects in your local area, can be an effective strategy for increasing your brand and reputation as well as acquiring new leads and customers. People will gladly show up for a program of interest with the proper incentives and when they feel that it will be a good use of their time. The promotional piece must be professional and compelling, establishing that the speaker is well qualified and will help them solve an important problem that they care about.

Other effective strategies for live local events is to include allied businesses as presenters. Each company represented would provide a non-competing service that is closely related and of interest to the targeted audience. Using synergy through strategic offers for each represented company can be highly productive and profitable.

One of the best ways to convert leads into loyal customers is to provide an excellent product or service that is needed and wanted by your market. Asking customers for feedback in surveys can help you to better understand their needs and how they feel about what you do. Remember that it is far easier and less costly to grow your company through satisfied existing customers who buy from you again and again than to rely on converting new prospects into customers.

Positive reviews are an important part of lead generation. They are a powerful local business online marketing strategy. People are much more likely to select a business on Google, Facebook or Yelp when it is associated with positive ratings and reviews.

When you provide exceptional services, don’t expect your customers to seek you out on Google, Facebook or Yelp to leave a review. If you don’t ask for reviews, the only ones you are likely to get are the negative comments and star ratings that can be very damaging.

Before requesting reviews, you must first have a strategy to solicit reviews on sites where you want them. Google, Facebook and Yelp are the most important for local businesses. Always make it easy for customers to find your page and add their review. Giving customers a link that takes them to the exact place where the rating and review is added, will help you to earn this valuable online feedback. Providing an unsolicited reward is something you may consider for their valuable contribution.