In order to increase your sales from current business relationships and attract more automatic referrals, you need to be in front of your contacts on an ongoing basis. There are 2 ways to increase your leads and sales with online methods that target your current business relationships.
Email Marketing and Newsletters
Stay in contact with your current email database with twice a month newsletters. The content should be varied. Don’t always push your current offerings, but always try to provide a new or proven business strategy that will help your client’s improve their businesses or life in some way, and don’t be afraid to ask for referrals in the email. Keep the content interesting and exciting. Even providing a joke or a humorous story is good. The goal is to not flood them with newsletters – that’s why twice a month is the maximum I would suggest – but to be there when the timing is right and to provide them with updates about your products and services.
Social Marketing
With all the social platforms online, how do you know which to focus on? It’s actually fairly easy and if done right, can pay off in large dividends.
Take a spreadsheet and build out a list of 45 to 90 messages. Only make 1 out of 8 or 10 a call to action for your services. Make the messages interesting tidbits of information about your industry or company’s offerings that would be perceived as useful. Then load them onto an online platform such as HootSuite or SocialOomph so that they are drip fed onto the platforms automatically every day or two. Then you can possibly recycle them every 3 months or so. This works will with LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
Note: LinkedIn is best for B2B, and Twitter and Facebook will work better for B2C companies.
But, in order to make the most out of social platforms, you need to stay connected and involved on a daily basis to keep it personal. Just automating only, will not produce the results you are wanting.