Building your business takes more than just looking for leads and doing paperwork. Creating repeat business and referrals is the easiest way to continually grow your business, but doing so takes trust. To build trust it means you have to build and maintain relationships.
It’s easy to maintain a relationship when you’re in the middle of a transaction. Regular follow-ups and check-ins are a must to keep things moving along. However, when you’ve moved on from that deal and are focusing on successfully navigating through new ones, it’s hard to remember to devote the time and energy to maintaining the relationships that you’ve built with previous clients.
That’s where your marketing plan comes in - it’s not just about capturing new potential leads, but also about maintaining contact with previous clients, future clients, friends and family!
So as you’re putting together the perfect recipe for your marketing plan, make sure one of the ingredients is a campaign designed to build relationships. It’s worth doing a mental check to make sure that the campaign incorporates the 4 R’s of Relationship Building:
Reliable
Is it consistently delivered so that it builds familiarity? (People have to remember your name)
Refreshing
Is it something unexpected and different than they get all the time? (People get enough spam)
Real
Does it feel generic or like something you hand-picked? (People appreciate the personal touch)
Representative
Does it align with your values? (Birds of a feather flock together)
When you’ve found the right combination of marketing pieces that align with the 4 Rs, you’ll find it’s easy to maintain the relationships you need to keep your business moving. You may even find that you grow true friendships from your client relationships!