How Do You Stay Top of Mind With Potential Customers?

Years back, I had an experience that made it so clear to me how important it is to consistently stay in touch with people. I had been a member of the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce for years. I had been busy so I hadn’t been attending their monthly gatherings and showed up with the plan of reengaging. While there, a photographer, a fellow chamber member, come over to take some photos of a group of us. After he was done, I got with him to catch up. He was someone I knew casually but had heard great things about his work. I had no reason NOT to refer him to customers, but I hadn’t heard from him in forever.  I took his card to remind me.

A week later, I’m at a law office customer of mine. I was building a website for their practice. They were needing headshots taken of their entire staff and asked me if I knew someone. I pulled out the photographer’s card from my bag and said, “Give this guy a call. He’ll take care of you.”

If my law office contact would have asked me a few weeks earlier, I would not have referred this guy.  I just plain would NOT have remembered. Now if I had been hearing from from this guy on social media or had been receiving a monthly email message from him, I probably would have. I just needed a reminder.

I can’t stress enough how effective a monthly email message or social media postings can be for staying top of mind with people. Publishing content in some format or another that’s easy for you to create consistently is an excellent way to be remembered. The goal is to stay top of mind with existing customers, potential customers and people that can refer you to their circle of contacts.

Those of you that know me (and are reading this article), know that I publish a lot of content. I am not calling you to start a content production house like I have. I mean I:

• Publish several articles a week on several websites.
• Broadcast out one or two email messages a week.
• Post a daily inspirational meme across all my social media accounts.
• Produce a monthly magazine on marketing for small businesses.
• Host a weekly podcast and am very active on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin.

What I do recommend is to set up something simple to information out monthly. That means you only need to do it 12 times a year.

Here are some ideas that might help get you started. For someone like the photographer, this is easy. The guy’s taking pictures all the time. On a weekly basis, publish a few pictures on Facebook and Linkedin with a paragraph or so describing the picture. Post a few pictures and say something like, “I took these pictures a few weeks back at the chamber meeting.  What a great presentation they gave on topic XYZ. Maybe I’ll see you there next week.”  Make sure and tag the people in the photo so they know they can see a picture of themselves online.

Since photographers are taking pictures all the time, post those too. Post pictures of your kids, grandkids, family outings, vacations, sunset, etc. Say things in the post like, “My passion is taking photos of the family. I don’t know how they put up with me.” Have fun with it. The only thing you are wanting to do is get people thinking, “Note to self.  This guy’s a pretty good photographer.”

I get a lot of people tell me, I cannot write. I completely understand. How are you recording videos? Can you record selfie style videos? Put your phone to work. Use your laptop webcam and Zoom recording. You don’t need fancy equipment, lighting or anything special.

If you spend a lot of time in the car, get yourself a dashboard phone holder and talk to yourself while your driving. What a great way to make use of wasted commuting time.  (My auto insurance guy saw one of my videos and was very concerned. Please be careful.) Tell stories about things that come up at work. Give answers to frequently asked questions. Start off with something like, “I was talking to xyz the other day and he asked me, this…” Then give your answer.  You don’t need Hollywood production quality. You’ll be a little rough at the beginning, but you’ll get better. Do make sure the sound quality is decent and keep your videos at 1 to 3 minutes. That about as long as people will listen anyway.

I started my podcast to promote my www.CelebratingRelationships.com movement to get people to harness the power of community and grow relationships. You’d be surprised how easy it is to run a podcast. If you have a Zoom account, you have the recording side of things covered. I’d be happy to share with you what else it takes. The biggest benefit is that it enables me to connect with people I might not otherwise be able to contact. Only once in the 100+ episodes I’ve recorded, I’ve only once had someone turn down the invitation to join me as a guest. People are usually honored and then promote the episode to their circle of contacts.

If you spend just a little time thinking about it, you should be able to get started without having to spend a lot of time and money doing something that should quickly more than pay for itself in new connections and paying business.