My mother worked in donor relations for a private school. Her job was to find rich parents in the school and ask them to donate money. If they did she would write thank you notes and/or get the head of school to write thank you notes. She was very successful. There are awards for public donor relations professionals that are named after her.

I forget the politician that said this, but when he received large donations he would write thank you notes and they would often come back with larger donations.

Gratitude is a critical emotion. Just look at the little guy on the cover image of this post. You can tell he's genuinely thankful for something. If a SPS stakeholder is willing to vote your validator one of the first things you should consider doing is saying thank you. @endecs and @bamlolx built a nice notification tool that pings validators when people vote them. I am grateful for this tool because it allows me to directly connect with the people voting for my account and I can say "thanks for supporting my validator!"

What next?

If you're ready to engage in a conversation you can ask some marketing style questions like

What about me made you want to vote for me?
What good do you think I'm going?

You can do other things like ask them "Hey Fella, you're a big whale and you're important to me, what kinda things are important to you and what should I prioritize to keep you as a supporter?"

And you can find out the things that are the priorities for the stakeholders that vote for you. You can take this information and make choices about the things you do and support to align what you value and what your stakeholders value. Find the overlap between what you do best and what voters are looking for and you may find it's appropriate to tune your message, your tools, or your objectives to the inciteful things they say.

Other things you can do that don't cost anything is follow their accounts, friend their discord, or reblog their posts if they author things. Sometimes just a little attention from someone elected can mean the world to a voter and that can impact retention, enthusiasm, and a feeling of connection to the community.

So, if someone votes for you, try to take a second to thank them, engage them, learn from them, and consider taking a moment to help them in little ways you can.