How should I follow up with a new website contact?

A big part of the point of your website and marketing is to get potential new clients to contact you. But what do you do once the initial contact is made? You can’t let those valuable contacts fall through the cracks!

Before you do anything, though, you should know that how you choose to follow up is a big factor in how well you can turn those contacts into clients and fans of your brand. If you aren’t ready to meet them—the right way—at this critical stage in their “customer journey,” then they’re likely to turn around and move on. 

So, how should you follow up after someone contacts you through your website? Here are our seven best tips for getting it just right for your potential clients.    

#1 Tip: Choose Marketing Software That Makes it Easy to Follow Up With Contacts

Before we get into our other tips for following up with your contacts, we need to talk about your marketing software. Why? The very best tip we can give you is that the software you choose has a huge impact on how easily you’re able to collect information about your contacts and follow up with them. 

For example, all our websites are built and maintained using DSS (Dynamic Self-Syndication), which gives our clients a lot of options. 

With DSS, you create the contact forms that encourage people on your website to reach out, and you choose what kind of information is automatically collected from those forms. You are notified when people contact you, and you set up the follow-up emails that they receive when they do. You never lose the contact information that people share with you, and you can quickly tag and manage your contact list as it grows. It’s even easy to add dynamic call-tracking numbers! 

You are still in control of the strategy and the message, but your website and DSS automate all the routine tasks and moving parts to give your follow-up strategy a pro-level polish.  

Imagine trying to do all those tasks manually, before you even get the strategy, content, and messaging going! When your website and software are already built with follow-up strategies in mind, you save yourself a ton of time and frustration. 

6 More Ways to Maximize the Effectiveness of Your Follow-Up 

Whether your website automates some of your follow-up tasks with contacts, or you do it manually, you still need to:

1. Act fast. Some attorneys and podiatrists wait a week or more to follow up with potential clients after they’ve reached out, which gives contacts plenty of time to go elsewhere, get frustrated, or forget about you. In general, you should return contact within 24 hours of an email or phone call—and you should aim for immediately wherever you can! This is why automated follow-up sequences make such a difference in conversion. When people reach out to you, they immediately get a response and know that you got the message—even if you plan to also respond personally later.   
2. Be specific. When you write your follow-up emails or direct-mail letters, don’t write a generic form letter or general “thank you” response. Instead, use that content to talk specifically about your contacts’ concerns. It shows them that you are listening and have thought about their issues during the time between contacts. Want to nail this? Check out Dave Frees’ tips for creating powerful follow-up content.  
3. Send helpful information. The purpose of a follow-up strategy isn’t exactly to try to pitch the benefits of your law firm or medical practice over and over again. Instead, you want to give your potential clients something of value that creates a link between what they need and what you offer. When you send them helpful information that’s relevant to their problems, you show them that you have the knowledge and experience to help.
4. Establish your credibility. The first few interactions your potential clients have with your law firm or medical practice are critical. This is the point where they come to a decision about whether they really want to work with you! Sending contacts your book and other helpful information goes a long way, but this is also a great time to build your credibility in their minds by including some testimonials, case stories, and reviews in your follow-up materials.  
5. Tell them what to expect. Your follow-up campaigns work best when they tell people what to expect next. Is this the only contact they will receive? When should they expect to hear from you? What do they need to do? What happens next? This can also include information about how to take the next step toward becoming a client. For example, if they requested your book through your website, the next step might be to come in for a free consultation with you. 
6. Include your contact information. A lot of the follow-up you do with potential clients happens off your website, where your name, phone number, and other contact information isn’t in view. As simple as it sounds, just remembering to include that kind of information in your follow-up content makes it much easier for contacts to take the next step or reach out with questions. Consistency matters here! The customizable email templates in DSS make it easy to make sure you include the right contact information, every time. 

Getting new contacts to come to your website and reach out to you is tough, so you need to be sure that you’re ready to nurture them into leads and clients when they do take action. 

Want to step up your follow-up game? Want to save time and energy while doing follow-up better? Request a DSS demo to see our powerful software in action, or give us a call at 888.886.0939. Just mention that you’re interested in what you can do with follow-up campaigns!

Are You Considering Adding Marketing Automation Software To Your Law Firm or Medical Practice Strategy?

If you feel you're missing out on your share of leads for your law firm or medical practice there's a good chance you are. The good news is Foster Web Marketing is here to help! Please contact us online or call our office directly at 888.866.0939 to schedule your free consultation with our experienced marketing team. We've been helping clients throughout the United States and internationally since 1998 and are confident we can help you not only reach, but exceed your goals.