Will CRM Bring You A Happy New Year?
The holiday time is definitely when people do a lot of reflecting, resting, spending time with family and reloading for another run at the “brass ring”, or whatever their big goals in their work and professional life happen to be. The one thing I find very interesting every year is how many completely ‘disconnected’ emails asking me to have a happy holiday season from people or companies that I have not spoken with or talked to all year. Being in the CRM game for quite a few years I took some time to analyze what’s happening here and the possible effects to my relationship, or lack thereof with many of these organizations.
First, reminding me who you are at a time when I am reading messages from people that kept in contact all year doesn’t do anyone any favors. And, in the midst of getting ready for next year, it might even remind me how important the relationships are that have been built and maintained where I might give someone a break or the benefit of the doubt if they had a few slipups or problems during the year. The other downside here is that people value their inbox way more than their actual mailbox and if I don’t remember you or recognize you I may just opt out or block you from future consideration even though you may have quality products or services.
As you head into the new year if you want to be sure that you have the right approach to your customers and prospects here are a few tips for getting the most out of your marketing efforts:
- Have a strategy for communications and marketing and not just a list and incorporate that into your holiday messaging.
- When the summer is over and people start to get back into the swing of things take the time to go through and validate the contacts in your database so that when you start sending out messaging the people and the communications are appropriately lined up.
- Try and understand what the other times are during the year that are important to your customers and prospects to take advantage of opportunities other than holidays.
- Get feedback from your customers and prospects on the different messages you send them and ask them “face to face” what they might change or want that you could provide.
- Think about the other communications you have in place like Quotes, Proposal and Invoices and see how you might also message or communicate more effectively since you send those things all year.
As always we at Net at Work want to wish you a happy and healthy New Year and if you want some help getting your CRM or your CRM strategy into shape gives us a call.
