Keeping in touch – the ‘Tap on the Shoulder’
In part 1 of this series we looked at Search Engine Optimisation and the fact that despite so many businesses focusing their web-marketing strategy on getting page one rankings on Google rather than also looking at the value of keeping in touch.
The Problem
1. Are you looking for customers who deal with you once or do you want to build real business relationships? Google listings can certainly help generate new traffic to your site but have limited benefit in building long term customers. If someone visits your site after finding you on Google, and then contacts you, do you have a strategy for keeping in touch with them? If you don’t, you have missed an opportunity to build a business relationship and are ‘back in the mix’ with your competitors next time that customer is looking to buy. If you keep in touch with the contacts who engage with your business, they can get to know you better, find out more about who you are and what you offer and, most important, not forget you! 2. Are you happy to rely on Google or do you want to have some say in what messages you communicate? The content that appears in Google Listings is drawn from the Google database, NOT directly from your website. Depending on how frequently the Google robots visit your site, the information displayed by Google may not be your latest message. 3. Are you sure you can maintain your Google rankings? As we discussed last time, there is more and more competition for page 1 rankings which means you have to put more and more resource (time or money – or both!) into maintaining your position – so no, organic SEO rankings are not free!
The Solution
Contact maintains awareness By keeping in regular contact with your customers, you remind them you are still there, ready, willing and able to serve them. As you may know, we recommend email newsletters as a great way of keeping in touch. Even if someone receives your e-newsletter and doesn’t have time to read it, it is still a ‘tap on the shoulder‘ bringing your name to mind, with (hopefully!) positive thoughts about your business. Relevance maintains interest We also recommend that your e-newsletter should focus on content that is, first and foremost, interesting and relevant to the reader. Promoting specific products and services can , and should, be secondary. If people know your offering and have positive opinions, they will bring their enquiries to you. ‘Joined-up’ drives traffic Don’t feel you need to say everything in your e-newsletter. By keeping the email short, it is easy for readers to scan to get your headline messages. If possible, link to more in-depth content on your website. By encouraging readers to visit your website to ‘Read More…’ they also then have the opportunity to browse around your site. ‘Joined-up’ works This graph shows traffic to the BSAMarketing.com that is directly attributable to e-newsletters 
Guess when we send them! Email newsletters clearly deliver real web traffic. And never forget; more, relevant contact and more, relevant traffic means more enquiries means more business – This is what it is about!
