Fan engagement

The Carolina Panthers NFL franchise made quite the stir when they responded to the request of a 12 year old boy from Oklahoma who emailed all the NFL teams asking them why he should be a fan of their franchise. The only team to respond was the Panthers, and they did so in dramatic fashion: the owner of the team hand wrote a personal note to the boy and sent an autographed helmet to boot. That is certainly quite the way to earn a new fan, and keep your existing ones.

You definitely do not need to be a Professional sport team to learn from this simple gesture. When a client, potential client, or anyone for that matter, takes the time to contact you, return the favor. Think about how you feel when a manager responds to your inquiries and do likewise.  Acknowledging those that reach out to you is a great way to build trust, rapport and loyalty in your business. Instead of viewing the task as tedious reframe it as an opportunity.

Whenever someone contacts you, it is a chance to share how great your business is and how much you look forward to sharing it with others. To make the task easier you can develop templates for common inquiries and add a personal touch to ensure that it does not have the feel of a form letter.

When you look at your schedule and amount of tasks that you have to do, remember that taking time every day to respond to emails and letters is a great marketing and engagement tool.