Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential
customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web
site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly
as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood
of making a sale by satisfying each person's need for
information
quickly!
But, after you've delivered that first bit of information to
your
prospect, do you send him any further information? If you are like most
Internet marketers, you don't.
When you don't follow that initial message with additional
information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp!
This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your
products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to
make a purchase when your first message reached him.
Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if
you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he
doesn't receive a follow up message from you, he will take
his
business elsewhere.
With
Broadcast QuickStats, you can see who is interacting with your emails,
what they are doing with them and create one-click
segments
Can You Have More Sales, Too?
Helping over 75,000 businesses like yours raise profits
and build customer relationships using AWeber's opt-in email marketing software
for over 10 years.
Take
a Free Test Drive today!
Are
you losing profits due to inconsistent & ineffective follow up?
Following up with leads is more than just a process,
it's
an art. In order to be effective, you need to design a follow up
system, and stick to it, EVERY DAY! If you don't follow up
with
your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in a timely fashion,
then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.
Publish your email newsletters
online and build your
list with the broadcast archive feature
Easily create great-looking
email signup forms with
AWeber's Web Form Generator!
When I first started marketing and following up with prospects, I used
a follow up method that I now call the "List
Technique". I
had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of
people who had specifically requested information about my products and
services. These prospects had already received my first letter by the
time they requested more information, so I used the company's
latest news as a follow up piece.
I would write follow up newsletters every now and then, and send them,
in one mass mailing, to everyone who had previously requested
information from me. While this probably did help me win a few
additional orders, it wasn't a very good follow up method.
Why
isn't the "List Technique" very effective?
The
List Technique isn't consistent. Proponents of the List
Technique
tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have "big
news".
List
Technique messages don't give the potential customer any
additional information about the product or service in question. He
can't make a more informed buying decision after receiving a
newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best
knick-knacks, what does he care that you've just moved your
headquarters?
List
Technique messages convey a "big list" mentality to
your potential
customers. When I used to write follow up messages using the List
Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone I knew! I should
have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted to
know more about my products.
How
To Add an aWeber Opt-In Form To Your Facebook Page
Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set
intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase
sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at
least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this
system up, though, you need to do some planning.
First, you'll need to develop your follow up messages. If
you've been marketing on the Internet for any length of time,
then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second
letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into
more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that
you didn't have the space to add to the first letter. Stress
the
BENEFITS of your products or services!
Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists
of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write
each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see
the full force of your message. The next couple of follow up messages
should create a sense of urgency
in your prospect's mind. Make a special offer, giving him a
reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these
follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!
Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a
question. Ask your prospect why he hasn't yet placed an
order?
Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the
product isn't the right color or doesn't have the
right
features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this
time, it's unlikely that this person will order from you.
However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or
products, so that other prospects will order from you.)
Building
Relationships via Email Marketing
Timing your
follow up letters is
just as important as the
content
You don't want one prospect to receive a follow up
the
day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another
prospect waits weeks for a follow up! Always send an initial,
informative letter as soon as it is requested,
and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot
prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed
buying decisions!
Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3
days apart. Your
prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him
about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your
competitors'. You will make the sale!
Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly
don't
want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at
least 4 days apart. Following up effectively seems complicated, but it
doesn't have
to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up & don't you want to be one of the few to get it
right?
"Automated
e-mail marketing has intensified the ability business owners and
entrepreneurs have to communicate and follow-up with prospects"
