Aweber - An Organized Approach to
Business 
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.
Are you losing
profits due to inconsistent and 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.
Consistent follow up gets results!
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.
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