Communication and consistency of communication are the most important and significant variables to building and maintaining good client relationships in the small-business (or any) markets.

Although the Internet is an excellent tool for consistent client communication, it should never take the place of direct communication from you from time to time. It does, however, allow you to communicate with prospects and clients, promote your services and products, drive traffic to your Web site, build "top of mind" awareness and consistently touch your clients with relative ease. E-mail is somewhere between a verbal conversation and a written document. Here are some Internet-based marketing tools and techniques:

1. A Web site can outline your philosophy, services, profile, target clients, client service agreement and much more. You can also utilize its interactivity with forms and important questions. Remember, a Web site without a marketing strategy to drive traffic to it is useless.
2. A newsletter via e-mail is a great idea for adding value, keeping "top of mind" and using virtual marketing to build your "pipeline" of prospects. Check out our eReferral Campaign for more information on using an eNewsletter to get quality, on-profile referrals. Be mindful, however, of any limitations your state(s) places on contacting prospects via e-mail (e.g., prospects on a state's "do not e-mail" list.)
3. General e-mail correspondence for administrative tasks can be powerful and is often preferred by busy people. With e-mail administrative communication, your clients won't get interrupted when you call, and they can respond when they are ready. In addition, your staff won't be on the phone trying to contact clients all day. Create templates for communication and save these scripted messages for future contact. Learn to use technology (i.e., encrypt messages for security and then e-mail scanned documents instead of faxing; scan forms and fill in on PC using Adobe Acrobat form layer — very easy to set up).
4. ADVANCED — You can even integrate client service into your Web site. Have an "admin section" where clients can initiate administrative inquiries by selecting typical areas of concern. You can then have an e-mail sent to the right staff member with clear subject headings for ease in understanding and responding. Upon submitting an inquiry, you can send an auto-response, which indicates you received the message and will be responding to it within a specified number of hours.

All of these tools are simple, inexpensive and are often more efficient than traditional methods.