Chicago Cubs infielders Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank
Chance formed the most memorable double-play combination in the
history of baseball. In our marketing efforts, we can learn a
valuable lesson from this "double-play" concept.
While email is nice to use in your ads, it is not structured, and
you may not get the information you really need. You can have
them reply to a specific email address or to an email with a
special address such as: bob@adv-marketing.com'subjectBOB1234
this will allow you to act upon that email. If you use a mail
reader such as Eudora, you can automatically send a response to
any mail with the subject BOB1234. Of course, you can have
different offers with different subjects work the same way. This
can also work wonders for tracking purposes so you know where
your leads are coming from.
Another way, is to have your contact information point to your
web site where you have a form they can fill out.
The form will allow them to send you an email in a precise
format. Example - When someone subscribes to one of our
Newsletters, we get the information in exactly the same format
from everyone who subscribes.
Will you lose an occasional customer who won't visit your web
site? Sure, but they're probably "tire kickers" anyway. If you
provide a link in your ad to the precise page to fill out the
form, the loss will be minimal, and the benefits will far
outweigh any potential loss.
Since the information is now in an exact format when received as
an email, there are things that can be done that would be
extremely difficult to do with regular email. When fielded by
your email system, the first thing done is to immediately send a
confirmation notice that it was received. This is your first
contact back, and it lets them know they have made contact.
Various email programs allow you to filter messages and act upon
the keywords you select. When an email is received that matches
the keywords, the next player in this double-play combination
automatically stores the message in a special mailbox that will
be used in the third part of this process.
When the email has been transferred to this mailbox, you can then
capture the information you wish, and place it in a file or data
base. Once there, you can use this for follow up purposes. You
can do this final step manually, depending upon your time
available and the volume received. If you get a large number
every day however, you may wish to invest in some software that
can do this for you.
Sure, you can use autoresponders that automatically follow up
with multiple emails for you, but for the most part, they are
becoming passe. I call these "nag notices". Many times, they
create the opposite effect of what you hoped for, and some people
simply block all email from the domain that sends them.
To follow up yourself, you must have an email account that allows
true "Post Office Protocol" (POP). If your ISP doesn't support
this, you can get one for about $5 per month. Combine this with
some free software from Eudora, and you are in business.
Anyone will tell you that "follow up" is one of the most
important things you must do when trying to do business on the
web. This "double-play" can be the difference you need to win the
marketing game.
About the Author
Bob publishes the free weekly "Your Business" Newsletter.
Visit his Web Site at http://adv-marketing.com/business to
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