The Power of Effective Follow-Up in Marketing

In a post about using social media sites for networking a few days ago, I mentioned a website called Geni.com. As a result of the post I was contacted by someone at the company and they have now offered to send me some fun branded swag. It was never my intention to get cool free stuff by writing this blog, however I’ll take it.

Why should anyone care?
FREE PUBLICITY!
This type of thing happens every day by good companies. It is called a follow-up. As I offered positive publicity for the company in the form of a review, they felt compelled to thank me, and rightly so. They now have more publicity (this post), and if I get something great like a sweatshirt / t-shirt / jacket (hint - lol), I’ll roam the streets wearing their brand on my chest. On top of that, I’ll probably write yet another post about this once I do receive the swag, if it is indeed something cool, and bring even more attention to the company.

What is the lesson we can take away here?
The lesson is not “If you send me cool things I’ll write about it”, but is that if you effectively follow up with your users you do much more then you know. Another prime example of this can be seen in a post I wrote yesterday about a company that failed to follow up with me on a problem I had with their website. Instead of putting out positive energy for the company, they now have a nice scathing review. Even despite the post, they have not to this point gotten back to me.

To build a strong and effective marketing campaign, you must keep your follow-up in mind. Failure to do so can become your downfall . . . be careful!