Tag: client retention

Commit to Relationship Marketing This Year

Often small businesses owners put a lot of time, attention, and focus on meeting and building relationships with new people. They don’t spend nearly enough of that energy on relationship building or retention with connections they’ve already made. 

If you want to encourage brand loyalty and stay top of mind with your current network, you’ll need a plan for that. While some people are natural connectors, it’s simple to let valuable relationship-building efforts slip through the cracks in the daily hustle of running a company.

Follow-Up Strategy

Wherever you go out and represent your brand in public, it’s likely you will meet people and establish connections. Whether it’s a cold lead, a warm prospect, a member of your target audience, or a potential collaboration partner – it’s essential that you follow up with the people you meet to stay top of mind and begin building that professional relationship. Common follow-up strategies include:

  • Bring a sharpie with you to jot down notes on the back of the business card of the individual.
  • Using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to organize your contacts and notes.
  • Create a follow-up schedule and use a spreadsheet or software to keep you on track.
  • Create a sequence of actions that ensures you touch base with each person several times. This could look like an email, a handwritten card, a phone call, or an invitation to another event. 

Building Relationships

People want to be seen and heard. Do your clients know that you ‘get them’ and that you are in their corner – rooting and cheering for them? Honestly, there are probably plenty of companies that provide similar services to yours. This means that building loyalty is important for client retention. 

Do your clients hear from you on a monthly basis via email, zoom meetings, and handwritten notes or gifts? If not, what plan do you have to keep communication open between you and your clients and to nurture the relationship you are building with them? Your marketing and business strategy is essential but so is developing a plan for client retention and nurturing your leads.

Getting to Know People

A one-size-fits-all strategy rarely works as well as business owners would like. Yes, it is simpler and less time-consuming to create a client appreciation or retention strategy for everyone on your list. However, to really make an impact with your people you need to get personal. A personal touch will go much further, and inspire more loyalty, than a non-personalized approach.

One way to personalize your efforts is to uncover your client’s love language. Why? While some people respond well to gifts, other people don’t care anything at all about receiving gifts. The same could be said of the other languages of love including words of affirmation, quality time, or acts of service. While the love languages were designed to improve romantic relationships, it’s not too large of a leap to envision how they can apply to the relationships you are creating and nurturing with your business. To find out more about the five love languages, visit this website.

Looking for a new networking group to meet people and try out your new follow-up plan? Expand your professional network and build authentic connections in a community of like-minded women.  Join us for our WEBOs Lunch and WEBOs After Hours Networking events. Open to all women entrepreneurs and business owners.

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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

Celebrate Your Client Retention Goals

Many small business owners set annual goals, but nowhere near as many make goals that relate to client retention. I think most people know by now that it costs more money to replace a client than to nurture and appreciate your current ones, but still businesses just don’t consider the importance of client retention efforts (often until it’s too late).

If you did set goals for client retention this year, take a moment to celebrate your thoughtfulness and follow through on those goals.

Then check out these ideas for client retention that you can implement this year:

Purposeful Partnerships

Have you been keeping your eyes open for possible collaboration opportunities with your clients? Teaming up and working on something together – whether it be a new launch or a community service endeavor – is a great way to celebrate your business relationship by creating something that makes the world better. Be certain to share your successes on your website and on social media.

Share Your Customer’s Success Stories

Hopefully, you have connected to your clients on social media already. If you are, then spend time each week reviewing their most recent posts, engaging with their content, and sharing their successes on your own social media feeds. It’s a fantastic way to show your clients that you appreciate them and what they do and shows your audience how dedicated you are to your clients at the same time.

Client Appreciation

The middle of the year is a great time to think about client appreciation, especially if you haven’t gotten around to showing your gratitude yet. This could look like many things:

  • Sharing how much you appreciate your client on social media.
  • Hosting an online or in-person appreciation event (promoting it through social media or creating an online group where everyone can connect and celebrate together).
  • Writing a handwritten note.
  • Sending a thoughtful gift.

It’s good to do something thoughtful, that puts your clients in the spotlight, at least once a year. If you haven’t had a chance yet, now is a great time to start planning how you will show your appreciation for their belief in you and your business.

Profits and your bottom line are important. Spreading awareness about your business is important. Finding new leads to keep your company growing is important. However, don’t take your attention away once a lead signs on the dotted line and becomes a customer. Client retention is one of the most important aspects of running a successful business. Solid client relationships will pay dividends in the long run and are worth celebrating often.

By celebrating your clients on social media, you are showcasing to your potential customers what they can expect when doing business with you. Did you know that every social media platform is searchable? Each channel is its own search engine and also appears in the results of popular web browsers (like Google). Every word matters. Have you completely filled out your social media profiles? Is your messaging current? Have you optimized your opportunities to be found in search using your social media accounts? If not, now is the time to get your channels revamped! You’ll be amazed at the results. Book a discovery session here and ask us about Robust Profile Optimizations.

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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

Setting Goals with Your Client Retention

As small business owners, we are always focused on building relationships with people in hopes that those connections will convert into paying clients at some point. What many of us fail to do, however, is to create a plan and be intentional about nurturing our current client relationships. We all know that it costs less money to retain a current client than to onboard a new one and yet, we struggle to build a client retention plan or process into our yearly task list. If you look at client retention during goal setting, you can become specific about how you will love on your clients and can then calendar out those goals to ensure that client appreciation doesn’t fall through the cracks.

Building Trust & Loyalty

There are some obvious things that every business must do in order to build trust and earn loyalty from their clients. The first step in client retention is ensuring your current processes are already set up to make your clients happy.

  • Communication – Each client will prefer a different level of communication. Have a conversation during the onboarding process about how the customer prefers to communicate and how much communication they think they’ll need. This will help ensure you are meeting those targets and generating satisfaction in the exchange.
  • Keep Your Promises – Be realistic and honest about expectations regarding cost, timeline and delivery. Set expectations early and don’t change things unless you have to and you have properly communicated those changes in advance.
  • Check-Ins – Assumptions are counterproductive to a successful business. Schedule regular check-ins with your clients to discuss what is (and isn’t) working, adapt what you can, and really listen to their pain points and challenges. A good team member wants everyone to be successful!

Client Appreciation

Client Appreciation is the process of doing something on a regular basis (monthly, quarterly, or annually) to give back to your clients or show them how much they are appreciated. It can be as simple as a monthly call just to check on them and see how they are doing (and how you can be of service) but remember: no sales on client appreciation calls! Handwritten letters or cards work great as well.

Some companies give holiday gifts or send their clients tickets to events or host events throughout the year to love on their clients in person. What you do is less important than making it a priority to do something for your clients on a regular basis.

Types of Client Retention Goals

It probably wasn’t difficult to convince you that creating client retention goals would have a beneficial turnaround for your business. Where does a small business owner start? Well, anything you do that improves the customer experience is worth doing. Here is a list of ideas to inspire you or jumpstart your brainstorming process.

  1. Create an onboarding program for new clients.
  2. Schedule regular client appreciation touches.
  3. Have a plan for getting regular feedback from clients.
  4. Create a customer loyalty program.
  5. Develop a social responsibility program to give your customers a way to make an even bigger impact.
  6. Invest in better customer service tools and processes.
  7. Improve processes to make things more convenient and easier to use.
  8. Highlight your clients on your social media marketing channels.
  9. Collaborate with your clients on an event, project, or social giveback initiative.
  10. Make it a point to talk about and recommend your clients often.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with this year to really champion your clients and nurture those ever-important relationships!

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

#KindnessIsAwesome – Loving Your Clients on Social Media


We all know the power of social media for getting new customers and building a community. After all, the purpose of spending all those dollars and hours is to create engagement. And when social media works, it’s magic. Those positive reviews and comments make us feel great and make it all worth it.

If getting feedback on social media makes us feel good and helps our business, then it’s a pretty good bet that it can do the same for our clients. If you are looking for a way to how your clients a little extra love, then social media is the perfect place.

8 Ways to Love Your Clients on Social Media:

1) Say Thank You: Showing appreciation goes a long way and doesn’t cost you a thing. Thanking your client will make both you and your client feel good.

2) Celebrate Them: When your client or one of their representatives does something noteworthy, mention it on your social media. Pro Tip: Be sure to follow your customers on social media if you aren’t already.

3) Write a Review or Testimonial: If you know and use your client’s product or service and you appreciate it, talk about it. If you are comfortable and it is appropriate, leave a review on their social media profiles or share a testimonial on your own pages.

4) Share Their Content: If your clients have content that makes sense to share on your pages, then you should spread the word! Take a look at what they have, ask if it’s ok for you to post. Always be sure to give credit and/or tag when you’re sharing their content. If they have posted the content to their own social media pages, then sharing, liking with a comment, or retweeting will probably do the trick.

5) Support Their Events: When your clients hold events, share the information with your own social media community. To show real support, attend the event and post a photo with a tag.

6) Feature Them: A great way to recognize the accomplishments of your clients is to feature them in a post with a company or personnel profile. These type of posts can help your social media community get to know both you and your client better.

7) Reward Them: We all like to be rewarded. Special offers or exclusive promotions can make your clients feel special and appreciated.

8) Collaborate: Inviting a client to write a guest blog or offering to provide them with a post or blog article is a great way to connect with your clients.

Loving your clients on social media will reap big rewards. It can help strengthen relationships, improve job satisfaction, and help the bottom line. It doesn’t cost must and it’s simply a nice thing to do.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!
Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+,YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.



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