Many of you will already have in place a range of communication activities to keep in touch with your clients throughout the year. These may include newsletters, invites to seminars and events, or perhaps birthday or Christmas cards. These communications aim to keep your clients up to speed with business or tax developments that may be relevant to them and also to keep them informed of any changes within the practice, e.g. staff leavers and joiners, office moves new services, etc.
But, what do you do to keep in touch with non-clients? And could you be missing a trick by not keeping in touch with these groups?
Who should you be keeping in touch with?
Firstly, what do we mean by ‘non-clients’? This is someone who is currently not a client and could include:
- Former clients who you only did a one-off assignment for – by keeping in touch could you look to secure other work with them, be that on a business or personal level?
- Clients who have since left the practice – for those clients that you would like to welcome back (and I appreciate there will be some you’d gladly wave off into the sunset!!), as part of the leaving process ask if they would like to remain on your marketing list. By doing so you keep the communication channels open and make it easy for them to contact you if they decide they’d like to come back.
- Prospective clients you’ve previously met – whether through meetings you have set up yourself, or perhaps from appointments that were generated from a third party lead generation/telemarketing company, there are likely to be some businesses you have spoken to that were not ready to change their accountant at that time. By keeping in touch with them you keep your name in their minds so that as and when they are looking to change accountants, they think of your practice first.
Ways to keep in touch
There are several ways of keeping in touch with the above groups, including:
- Monthly or quarterly newsletters.
- Linking, connecting and engaging with businesses and the relevant Individuals on LinkedIn, Twitter and possibly Facebook.
- Inviting them to seminars and events you are organising.
- Arranging to meet them at local networking events, perhaps organising to meet up for a coffee at a later date.
- Advertising or writing articles in publications you know they read, be it trade magazines or a local town or parish magazine.
- Writing to them offering to conduct a free consultation on their business or personal tax affairs, followed by making a follow-up phone call to try and book a meeting.
So, never fully close the door on a conversation/relationship. Where possible aim to keep in touch and keep the door ajar, so it makes it easy for people to reconnect with you.
