At the end of the day, you don’t need a massive email list to have a full, successful coaching or consulting practice.

In fact, many of my clients have an email list of less than 200 people, and yet their practices are thriving because they’ve created a process to engage their prospects, their former clients and key centers of influence to ensure they stay in meaningful dialogue with them on a regular basis and are top of mind when a need arises.

Create a Process that Works for You

The key to creating a successful engagement process is that it doesn’t feel like a process to the receiver; it should feel organic. And truly, it should feel ease-ful and natural to you, as well.

Even if you do have a larger list and you regularly send out newsletters, I recommend creating three separate lists that you engage with regularly.  A list of key:

• Centers of influence
• Prospects
• Former clients

Keep a spreadsheet of these names and first decide how often you want to engage with each one to keep that “just right” level of engagement (not too much, not too little). Then use the spreadsheet to track your interactions. Take notes of what they are interested in and gage when you want to reach out again based on your interaction.(Pro tip: if you use Microsoft Outlook or a CRM [customer relationship management] software, you can integrate your email, calendar and to-do list and set reminders for yourself to reach out to folks at the specific times you’ve noted in your spreadsheet.)

When you run across articles, Ted Talks, blogs or videos on topics that you know they’d care about, send it over with a note saying, “I ran across this and thought of you because I know you’re really interested in X.”

One final tip: I have learned that when you think of somebody, make a point to reach out to them, even if just to say “you crossed my mind today and so I thought I’d reach out and say hi!”. When you do, you’ll be amazed how often the person responds with, “Oh my gosh! I was just thinking about you!” And you never know where this may lead. At the very least, they will likely feel flattered that you thought of them.

What process do you use to make sure that you’re staying in regular dialogue with your key prospects, former clients and centers of influence? What will you do differently as a result of reading this article?

With appreciation,

Tara Butler Floch