When I talk with clients and bring up the subject of how and when they stay in touch with prospects and customers most people look at their shoes and mumble something about ‘not wanting to be a nuisance'.  And of course setting out to annoy your target audience is likely to be counterproductive.  But the problem only really exists if want you have to say is unwelcome - which probably means irrelevant to their needs.

I don't know the origin, but I often hear it quoted that it takes 7 contacts to convert a customer.  And I recently heard that 90% of leads captured are followed up less than 4 times - leaving a fair amount of untapped potential sitting in those leads.  Contact can be in many forms - reading about you in the press, seeing adverts, phone conversations, mail/newsletters (post or electronic) - not just a simple repetition of the same message and media.  But each contact is an opportunity to grow awareness of your brand, understanding of the value you can offer, and ultimately to increase sales. 

So the question is ‘what is too often'?  And the answer, as always, is ‘it depends'.  It depends on whether you have something new or interesting to say or offer, it depends on the type of product or service you sell, it depends on likely frequency of purchase, it depends on what your competitors are doing, it depends what you can handle in terms of delivery (personally I think daily blogging is going too far!).  And it also depends on what kind of a choice you offer your market over whether they have to listen or can turn you off!  You need to weigh up what you know about your customers with your goals and objectives.  What is clear is that one contact is unlikely to be enough - so for most of the people I speak with there is a long way to go before they risk alienating potential buyers!

The best way to grow a business is to stay in touch with your existing client base - whether it is to sell them more of the same, something new, or to get referrals to new customers.  A local painter and decorator always send his past clients Christmas cards with a personal message and business cards to pass on.  Guess who is top of the list to call when the next room needs a lick of paint?

I think it is a good idea to mix the different types (phone, email, etc.), but the advent of email and internet has given all of us a cost effective and accessible means of maintaining regular contact.  Software to manage email campaigns and newsletters is readily available, and building up a database of leads, prospects and customers is an essential business tool.  If you're not using this means of marketing to some degree already then you are just plain crazy! 

If you have a list that you are sending messages to regularly, and if you are tracking who opens your emails, you may get downhearted and question the point of doing it when there appear to be large numbers of people not reading your efforts but not bothering to unsubscribe either.  These people are usually referred to as ‘emotionally unsubscribed'.  And some e-marketing organisations recommend you ‘cull' your list as including these people in your statistics make your results look poor.

However, in an article at MarketingProfs I came across another view - that these people should be termed ‘unemotionally subscribed', meaning they remain interested but just don't need what you are selling right now.  Ignoring your messages until they are ready to buy is easier than finding you again at a later date.   They quote some interesting statistics:

• Ten percent of one company's revenue in 2008 came from subscribers who opened not a single email in 2007.
• An outstanding offer from another company generated £70,000 in sales from subscribers who had not opened the previous 25 to 40 email messages.

This makes sense to me - I get quite a few promotional emails that I don't open or respond to right away.  As long as you provide an easy opt-out mechanism then I think it is safe to assume that your customers are thinking that they might need you someday - just not yet!

The bottom line is that your business needs a planned contact strategy for leads, prospects and customers - how you do it needs to be right for you and them, but being afraid of being annoying is not a good excuse for no contact at all!