My emails this week have focused on follow-up.

Mostly we do follow-up for short-term reasons. We chase up someone to see if they've done what they said they were going to do. Or we want to create a good impression after meeting someone, for example.

But follow-up can be much more strategic than that.

My regular emails are follow-up and they're about much more than just keeping in touch. Any systematic approach to follow-up works the same.

The more often I write, the more likely it is that I'll hit on something that makes you think “hey, that guy knows what he's talking about” (assuming I write decent emails, of course).

The more often I write, the more likely it is that you'll feel you kind of know me (assuming I can write in a friendly way and that I'm open to sharing more personal rather than just purely business information).

The more often I write, the more likely it is that you'll remember me.

When we need to memorise something we repeat it over and over again. Repetition reinforces neural pathways.

The same works if I want you to remember me. The more often you hear from me, the more likely you are to remember me at the right time later on (assuming I'm writing about a topic that it's useful to be remembered for). 

And the more often I write, the more often I get replies. The personal interactions that follow build much stronger relationships.

Almost all forms of regular follow-up work the same way.

Of course, you can take it too far. I know I email too frequently for some people. And if you're busy you might not be able to read everything I send all the time even if you really wanted to.

I can live with that, because the upside of building credibility, building trust, being memorable and triggering discussions is a big one :)

Could you up the frequency of your follow-up to get bigger, better results?