Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

Did You Miss Your Follow Up Window?

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Did You Miss Your Follow Up Window_I received this text from a friend the other day…

Blog idea (for you): if you’ve forgotten to follow up…. how long is too long

It’s a GREAT idea and I realized I haven’t written about this much. When is it too late to follow up with someone?

It’s Never Too Late

Well, unless there was a deadline surrounding the follow up, then maybe it is. But, the thing with follow up is that my insane standards are my insane standards. And they’re a goal not a deadline. Sometimes you’ll leave an event go do 3 more things and then you open your bag a month later and find that business card you put in the perfect spot so you wouldn’t forget it. We’ve ALL done it.

There’s nothing wrong with a mea culpa. Be honest – “Hi Jack – I just opened a pocket in my bag and found your card. I’m so sorry for this incredibly delayed response. If you still need help…”

Don’t make up an excuse. Acknowledge that the delayed follow up is on you, apologize and move on to the follow up you initially intended to do.

If you were just busy and are now a week or two late – take this pro-tip from my follow up templates (in the future):

Having a crazy week? Unsure if you can get to them right away? Try saying this:
“I’ll send ___ over to you by the end of the week. The next few days are a bit crazy.”

It’s okay to use this tactic to give yourself some wiggle room, but you absolutely must do it within the time frame you promised. And then leap over tall buildings to get it to them before your competition swoops in.

Honesty is the best policy, you know this. It’s okay to admit you screwed up. I am much more likely to do work with someone who admits they dropped the ball than someone who makes up an excuse.

How do you handle delayed follow up? Or do you just count it as a loss and move on?

Why I Finally Joined My Local Chamber

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Why I Finally Joined the My Local ChamberI’ve lived in Hillsboro for 3 years now. I love my neighborhood and community since the moment we arrived. This past year I got more involved, participating in the Civic  Leadership Academy and getting to know the ins and outs of the (almost) 4th largest city in Oregon! During the program we researched and presented to the City Council a proposal to bring an entrepreneurial incubator space to town. It’s an idea that’s near and dear to my heart from my years with the Seattle start-up community and I have visions in my head of why my town needs this!

During the program I learned a TON about the amazing resources available in Hillsboro and the awesome resources that the chamber is providing to businesses. I knew it was time to stop talking about it and finally join the chamber. So, I setup a meeting with the president to talk about all the opportunities and find where I could best fit in. She mentioned the Small Business and Entrepreneurial Council was going to be looking into our proposal and that it would be a great fit for me. In December I joined the chamber and jumped in with both feet.

I love it. The organization is awesome and the members are fantastic. I’ve talked to other local business owners who haven’t had as much success with the chamber and they’ve owned up to the fact that it’s because they aren’t consistently going.

When you join ANY organization make sure that you talk to the people running the show to learn about all the benefits and opportunities available to you. Take advantaged of the ad in the newsletter, take advantage of the radio show interview, take advantage of that first luncheon free. Do your follow up. Reach out to members and introduce yourself.

With any networking or membership organization you always need to evaluate if it’s the right place for you and your business. I love my town, and the more I can do business with businesses IN my town, the better!

4 Ways to Increase Your Newsletter Open Rate

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I just had a phone call with someone about their newsletter. While we were chatting I asked how their open rate is. It was okay, but it could be better. As we looked at the numbers I noticed that it’s the same time and day each week (which can be good!) But those open rate numbers could be better. Before you panic…

Anything over 20% is a good open rate

I know right? So maybe you’re already crushing it and can stop reading now. Or maybe you’re panicked that 20% isn’t near where you are. That’s okay, I’ve got your back! Here’s 4 ideas to increase your open rate:

  1. Try A/B Testing – send the same campaign out at 2 different times to half your list (MailChimp will help you with this, as should most other email campaign programs). Try 7 am and 7 pm (for example) to see when your audience wants to hear from you.
  2. If you’re B2B then try early morning (6 or 7 AM), lunch (11:45 am is a time I often try to send at) or end of business day (5 pm when people are done with meetings and checking their inbox before they head home).
  3. If you’re B2C then try evenings and weekends. I have a couple of clients where we send their newsletter on Sunday evening. Kids are in bed and you’re sitting on the couch watching TV and flipping through your phone with time to actually open and read that lovely newsletter you built.
  4. Re-send your campaign. Yes – 4-5 days after I send out my newsletter I will re-send it to everyone who didn’t open it the first time. This increases my open rate and clicks AND it helps me to see if maybe I need to tweak my send time. I do this for a lot of my clients too. This is a great way to help you figure out if there’s a better time to send your newsletter too.

Bottom line – if you’re sending at 2pm on Tuesday’s and getting a 12% open rate it’s time to change the date and/or time. If you’re sending Monday’s at noon and have a 30% open rate – gold star for you!

Questions? You know where to find me…