How to Effectively Re-Engage Cold Prospects (Hint: Multichannel Marketing)

Going through your old database from time to time can be very useful. Find some perspective and valuable contacts and try to re-engage them.

It is best if you consider every opportunity to provide useful information so multichannel marketing will maximize your efficiency and the following strategies will show you how to make the most of every channel.

1 Website

Your website can be a great solution to sparking up the interest of cold prospects.

First of all, you need to make sure that your web content is high-quality and that it offers useful content. Don’t be hesitant to invest in the content creation.

The way you can exploit your website is to emerge the link of your website in other people’s blogs or web posts so that the prospect is exposed to your business.

Do some research on who the company that you want to re-engage with follows and reach out to that business. Ask them if they would be willing to feature you in their blog or post and offer some discount or similar service in return.

You can also contact the businesses in the related field and ask them if they would be interested in including you in their content. The next step would be to connect with the prospects by sharing with them that you’ve been featured in someone’s blog or website and that they can take a look if they are interested.

It can be a great introduction for your brand that will show the prospects that other businesses respect and promote your work.

From there, you can easily mention any other information that you wish and try to get them on your good side.

2 Blog

If you already have a blog that’s great, but if you don’t, you should think about starting one.

Blogs have become essential for any business. They are an effective way to inform the audience about useful topics or to introduce them more closely to your company.

You can also use your blog content as an excuse to contact the prospects. Ask them if you can feature them in your blog post.

Companies love feeling important and by showing appreciation for what they do by including them in your content will give them just that.

Once you have established a connection, you can easily introduce them to what you do and what you have to offer.

3 Email

If you want to go all out and cover every approach, connecting via email is an unavoidable strategy.

However, instead of sending a traditional sales email, try to be less official and email them something more personal. Ask them for some information or advice, or anything else that will give you a reason to contact them.

Let’s say that you are attending an event in a prospect’s headquarters town, you can email them to ask about some suggestions on what to visit while you are in the city or the best place to eat dinner at. You can simply slip in the question if they would like to meet you while you are in town. Don’t talk about your products or services, just show an interest in meeting them.

An example email

Another way to email them is by sending an interesting picture or video that you think will get their attention.

What you can do is to email them over the weekend. This can be very effective since people tend to receive fewer emails during that time so it will be easier for them to notice you.

It doesn’t even have to take off your free time. Just use tools like Sidekick or Streak to write the email during work hours, and schedule it to deliver a day or two later.

4 Social Media

While other channels may be overused by now, social media is still a new approach and will be less cluttered with promotional material.

Sales reps who use social media are 50% more likely to meet or exceed their sales quota. There is no reason why you shouldn’t be one of them.

Send the prospects a quick tweet or message them on Facebook. You can even tag them in your post if you can find a relevant topic that can serve the purpose.

The important thing is that they notice you.

Social media also gives you an opportunity to inquire more about the prospects. It can show you their less official side since companies sometimes post more interesting information on social media.

James Daily, head of the content department at Flashessay.com shares the following tip – “Show that you are thorough and that you’ve done your homework by reading up on the company’s recent news coverage by following their social media channels.”

If you want to keep track of their activity, you can use Google Alerts. These alerts can actually inform you when somebody is mentioned or active on the web, which you can use in your outreach. It is a great tool for finding conversation-starters based on recent activities or achievements.

Source: https://twitter.com/natlibscot/status/1010098724792602624/photo/1

5 Brochure

While brochures are more an old-school marketing channel, they can still come in handy especially in a situation like this.

You can use the brochure as a reason for your reconnection and simply ask them if they can give some suggestions on what you can improve by sharing their opinion on your previous brochure.

How this works is that you’ll subtly get them to take a look at your old brochure again and remind them of your service.

It will also give you an opportunity to talk about new products by introducing them to what you want to incorporate in the upcoming brochure.

If you want to reconnect with local companies, you can even pay them a visit and bring them the brochure yourself.

Salespeople don’t do this as often as they used to so the prospects will certainly remember you. In addition, they may be open to having a talk so you’ll be able to have a direct communication.

6 Calling

Sometimes it can work best if you just pick up the phone and give them a call.

Maybe there is a reason why they haven’t reached out. Speaking to them directly and honestly will get you memorized.

Calling your prospects is also a good solution if you have a project that you want to explain more in depth.

People find that long emails are tiring and often don’t even read them so if you want to share an elaborate information, giving them a call is the best option.

However, don’t go into too much detail and be aware of when you need to stop. If you bore them, they probably won’t want to reconnect with you again.

“Call prospecting or reaching out to targets to get their attention or an initial meeting is one of the hardest parts of sales. Much prospecting success is determined in this first interaction so what you should focus on during the call is to make the conversation relevant and to offer real value to the other side” – says Sarah Allen, a marketing communication manager at Resumescentre.com.

7 Chatbots

Customers are invaded every day with content and information. They get almost suffocated by the excessive content which fills their email inbox, social media, and so on. Therefore, marketers should double their efforts to create a personalized approach for their clients. Among the variety of marketing tools, they can use to impress the target audience, chatbots are among the most popular and effective ones.

For instance, you can create bots that can quickly identify what the clients are searching. They can filter the content and offer your clients personalized answers to their questions, based on the content they have been searching. Thus, thanks to chatbots, you are able to surprise your customers and create a personalized interaction with them. What is more, you will increase your brand’s trustworthiness. This ability to literally predict your customers’ needs can become a huge advantage and improve your chances to re-engage old prospects.

8 The Best Approach

Now that we’ve covered different marketing channels and their purpose in reconnecting with the cold prospects, it is time to address the issue of HOW to approach them.

No matter if you are creating content for the blog or email, or you are directly speaking to them, there are some pointers which can help you to take the right attitude.

• Add a little humor – Business is business, but a little laugh can do harm to no one. You should still be professional but adding a funny meme or a gif when appropriate will loosen up the conversation.
• Be honest – They know that you want to sell, and you know it too so once you start talking, keep it direct and genuine.
• Think outside the box – Take all the suggestions on how to reach out to the prospects and make them your own. It’s important that you put your twist on it and show your originality. Using some marketing psychology know-how can also improve your chances for success.
• Personalize it – Show them that you are following their work and mention their new project or something they’ve posted about to let them know that you respect their business.
• Offer to help – Don’t just promote your services but present yourself as an advocate for their success as well.
• Show respect – Be patient and don’t go overboard with sending multiple messages from different channels. You need to respect their time and show understanding for their busy schedule.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to use all the channels and especially not for the same prospect. These are just options which you should consider and choose the best one based on a particular situation.

That’s why it’s important that you have an overview of all available channels and different approaches so that you can mix it up and choose the best one for every occasion.