Part 2: 3 follow up activities

Today we are continuing the discussion of utilizing 3 follow up activities and how this can be essential if your aim is to gain business success over the long-term. In Part 1 (published Nov. 4th) we discussed what the 3 activities are. 

The next step is to ease the workload that yearly follow-ups require, and be ready to receive a lot of responses. By this I mean that if we have offered to introduce them to a contact we need to be ready to do so. If we know that we will be offering interviews on our blog to last year's contacts then we need to have some interview questions ready to send off.  Or if we plan on suggesting projects to collaborate on, we need to have all the information ready for any responses you may receive. 

It is helpful to develop 2 draft emails that can then be edited and personalized for each recipient. 

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0845RLK1X

• One draft email is short, and is meant to show appreciation for past networking activities, or media coverage, to invite continued networking in the future, and to wish them an amazing year ahead.

• The 2nd draft email is geared toward cold-call activities - this is one where I am following up on introduction and query situation. Here I'm checking to make sure that my email was lost in the busyness of life, and to see if they want to work with us in some way.

• You may decide to have a 3rd "response" draft email prepared as well. Here you would gather the information, links or other data for the project you have proposed. 

An example might be:

" Hi Gail,

I am doing the follow-up on 2022 communications... My records reveal that I reached out in mid-Dec '22 re:  possible networking options between us after I noticed we were both listed in the Federation of BC Writers directory. 

Just in case my info got lost in the fog of busyness I thought I'd reach out one more time - Let me know if you'd like to work with us. 

We can be found online HERE  and a couple "about us" videos can be found on the Brummet Media Channel (YouTube)  channel. 

Our most relevant links online can be found via either of these bio-link landing pages:

https://taplink.cc/brummet

https://linktr.ee/LillianBrummet

What I Am Looking For: 

I'm particularly interested in blogger, entrepreneur, or author interview opportunities or perhaps you would find our articles of use for your readers, a feature in your newsletter, blurb on your website etc. Perhaps we could feature you in our social networking outlets. There are many ways we could possibly network including interviews, poet features & product reviews that we host on our main blog that you may want to take advantage of ...or perhaps your contacts might find the opportunities useful as well.

Alternatively, supportive interaction such as: share, like, subscribe or comment on our blog posts, youtube channel or purchase and review one of our books. Of course we are open to creative networking ideas.

Wishing you a prosperous and joyous year ahead :) 

In appreciation,

Lillian "

That letter is then edited to suit each recipient and the communications I had with them up so far. My notes might reveal that this recipient is a blogger that I respect but have not invited to be a guest on our blog for a World of Blogging Interview. But I can still take that draft letter and just edit it accordingly. This saves me a heck of a lot of time and the resulting aching hands. 

Because I keep basic records with brief points telling me what we talked about when, I can make these emails highly personal. I also make sure to hyperlink anything I am referring to (last year's interview, for instance) so that the recipient never has to work for anything. 

Sounds like a lot of work? Well, it depends on how you look at it. Personally, I see that spread sheet filled with contacts that I worked hard to find, learn about, search out their contact information and took the time to reach out to them. If I walk away from all those doors I cracked open or knocked on, what a waste that would be!

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0845RLK1X

With that in mind, sending just one more email doesn't seem like all that much work now. Of course one has to go into this task fully expecting replies to trickle in over time, because people take time to think about what you are proposing, maybe they are on holiday and might not get back to me for a month or two depending on their schedule and whatever else is going on in their lives. 

So what is the result, the return on my year-end follow up activity? Well, by the end of February 2023 we had 150 immediate positive responses with leads to further activities with them in the upcoming year. By June that number grew to almost 300 responses. These are folks who want to continue working on existing projects, or have expressed interest in starting up new projects with us. 

We have many things to offer and a long list of networking ideas for our connections to consider as time marches forward and as such we get a wide array of responses. They may interested in contributing content or being a featured guest on one of our blogs. Perhaps they have invited us back on their radio show for a follow up discussion. Maybe they are part of a workshop series and want to bring us in a special guest. They might have a need for some of our articles that they can use for  their publications. A few might have expressed interest in our upcoming book release and want to reconnect when it is out. Or they might want to feature Dave on their show after having me on last year. There are all kinds of activities going on.  

What is important to note is that none of this would be happening if I did not nurture those relationships and keep in touch. You can be sure that our contacts do not forget us!

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Find the Brummet's Books @:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0845RLK1X

Find Them Online via:

https://taplink.cc/brummet

https://linktr.ee/LillianBrummet

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