Do Potential Customers Forget About You?
| Category: Home Based Business - Marketing | Date: 2003-06-17 |
With a web business you probably have customers inquiring about your products or services from around the globe. When you get an inquiry via email or your website you try to rapidly send more information to that hot prospect. By satisfying that persons need for information quickly you can dramatically increase the likely hood of making the sale.
Once you deliver the first bit of information to your prospect do you send any further information?
Most internet marketers do not.
When you dont follow up with additional information you are letting valuable customers slip from your grasp. These are customers that may have been very interested in your products but simply lost your information or were to busy when your first information letter was sent. Some customers even purposely wait to see if you find them important enough to follow up with. When they dont receive a follow up message they take their business else where.
Are you loosing profits due to inconsistent or ineffective follow up?
Follow up is more than just a process, its an art. To do it effectively you need a system and then you need to stick to that system everday! If you dont follow up with prospects consistently and in a timely fashion regarding their individual information request then you might as well forget the whole process.
Consistent follow up gets results.
When I first started marketing and following up with prospects I used what I call the "list technique". I had a large database of names and email addresses of people that had specifically requested information about my products and services in the past. Since they had already seen my first letter when they made their information request I usually used the latest news from the company for a follow up piece. Once I had my follow up letter written I would send it to everyone that had previously requested information from me. While this gained me a few additional orders it wasnt totally effective. Lets look at why this method is not effective.
It wasnt consistent because I only sent it when the company had "big news".
It didnt give the buyer additional information about my services so they could make an informed buying decision. It merely told them about our latest news. Why should they care if we just moved into Canada when they wanted to use our service in California?
The "big list" mentality. When I wrote the follow up message I was writing a bulletin to everyone, not the individual that made the information request.
OK, so what method have I discovered that really works?
Individual follow up at preset times with pre written messages will dramatically increase your sales. I have spoken with several others who use this same technique and they have all at least doubled their sales of various products. To setup this system you need to do some planning.
First youll need to develop your follow up messages. If youve been marketing on the internet for any length of time then you should already have your first information letter. Your second letter (or first follow up) should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill in with additional details where you didnt have space to do so in your first letter. Make sure you stress your product or services BENEFITS.
Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short and stress the benefits. Make lists of benefits and potential uses for your product and services. Write the letters so your prospect can skim the contents and get the full force of your message.
For your last couple of follow up messages you should create a sense of urgency in your prospects mind. Make a special offer to give them a reason to order now instead of waiting longer. The key is creating urgency so youll need to look at your product or service and see how you can make your prospect want to order immediately.
The final 1 or 2 follow up messages should be in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why they havent ordered? Try to get them to respond. Ask if the price was to high, the product wasnt the right color, not the right features, or were they looking for something else. By this time its unlikely the person will order from you but their feedback could help you modify your follow up letters or product and services so that other prospects will order from you.
The timing of your follow up letters is also important. You dont want to have one prospect receive a follow up the next day when another prospect waited over 3 weeks for a follow up. You should always send the first follow up 24 hours after the information request. You want a hot prospect to have more information quickly so they can make an informed buying decision. The next 2-3 follow up messages should be sent between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot and is probably still shopping around for information. Provide them with the benefits they want and you will make the sale. The final follow up messages should be sent with much more time in between them. You dont want to annoy your prospect so make sure the letters are at least 4 days apart.
About the Author
Tom Kulzer, Editor Electro-MLM Digest, a moderated list devoted to answering your networking questions to help you become successful.
tom@electsuccess.com
http://www.electsuccess.com
Once you deliver the first bit of information to your prospect do you send any further information?
Most internet marketers do not.
When you dont follow up with additional information you are letting valuable customers slip from your grasp. These are customers that may have been very interested in your products but simply lost your information or were to busy when your first information letter was sent. Some customers even purposely wait to see if you find them important enough to follow up with. When they dont receive a follow up message they take their business else where.
Are you loosing profits due to inconsistent or ineffective follow up?
Follow up is more than just a process, its an art. To do it effectively you need a system and then you need to stick to that system everday! If you dont follow up with prospects consistently and in a timely fashion regarding their individual information request then you might as well forget the whole process.
Consistent follow up gets results.
When I first started marketing and following up with prospects I used what I call the "list technique". I had a large database of names and email addresses of people that had specifically requested information about my products and services in the past. Since they had already seen my first letter when they made their information request I usually used the latest news from the company for a follow up piece. Once I had my follow up letter written I would send it to everyone that had previously requested information from me. While this gained me a few additional orders it wasnt totally effective. Lets look at why this method is not effective.
It wasnt consistent because I only sent it when the company had "big news".
It didnt give the buyer additional information about my services so they could make an informed buying decision. It merely told them about our latest news. Why should they care if we just moved into Canada when they wanted to use our service in California?
The "big list" mentality. When I wrote the follow up message I was writing a bulletin to everyone, not the individual that made the information request.
OK, so what method have I discovered that really works?
Individual follow up at preset times with pre written messages will dramatically increase your sales. I have spoken with several others who use this same technique and they have all at least doubled their sales of various products. To setup this system you need to do some planning.
First youll need to develop your follow up messages. If youve been marketing on the internet for any length of time then you should already have your first information letter. Your second letter (or first follow up) should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill in with additional details where you didnt have space to do so in your first letter. Make sure you stress your product or services BENEFITS.
Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short and stress the benefits. Make lists of benefits and potential uses for your product and services. Write the letters so your prospect can skim the contents and get the full force of your message.
For your last couple of follow up messages you should create a sense of urgency in your prospects mind. Make a special offer to give them a reason to order now instead of waiting longer. The key is creating urgency so youll need to look at your product or service and see how you can make your prospect want to order immediately.
The final 1 or 2 follow up messages should be in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why they havent ordered? Try to get them to respond. Ask if the price was to high, the product wasnt the right color, not the right features, or were they looking for something else. By this time its unlikely the person will order from you but their feedback could help you modify your follow up letters or product and services so that other prospects will order from you.
The timing of your follow up letters is also important. You dont want to have one prospect receive a follow up the next day when another prospect waited over 3 weeks for a follow up. You should always send the first follow up 24 hours after the information request. You want a hot prospect to have more information quickly so they can make an informed buying decision. The next 2-3 follow up messages should be sent between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot and is probably still shopping around for information. Provide them with the benefits they want and you will make the sale. The final follow up messages should be sent with much more time in between them. You dont want to annoy your prospect so make sure the letters are at least 4 days apart.
About the Author
Tom Kulzer, Editor Electro-MLM Digest, a moderated list devoted to answering your networking questions to help you become successful.
tom@electsuccess.com
http://www.electsuccess.com
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