The journey of internet marketers towards establishing their own successful online businesses often presents a unique set of challenges. Once their online marketing strategies are functioning efficiently and generating a steady stream of leads, the real challenge emerges - maximizing profit from these leads. One key strategy to unlock this potential profit is persistent follow-up.
Many marketers, even seasoned ones, tend to overlook the importance of follow-up. They might send a single follow-up email, distribute a brochure or catalog, make a phone call, or send a fax, and then simply wait. They wait for the prospect to visit their website, place an order, or ask further questions. This passive approach can lead to missed opportunities.
Offline follow-up can be time-consuming and costly, considering the expenses involved in long-distance phone calls, fax transmissions, and mailing marketing materials. Email, due to its speed and low cost, is an ideal tool for follow-up marketing. However, without an efficient system for implementing email follow-up, challenges can still arise.
It's a well-known fact that most people don't make a purchase or take any other desired action as a result of an initial marketing contact, even if they are the perfect target for the offer. Follow-up marketing contacts can generate a similar percentage of sales or other desired actions as the initial contact.
There are numerous reasons why prospects might not take the desired action after the initial marketing contact. They might have forgotten about your offer, procrastinated, misplaced your offer, or accidentally deleted your email. They might be overwhelmed with other tasks, distracted by information overload, lack sufficient information to make a decision, or simply not have enough money to buy at the moment. Trust in you or your brand might also not be fully established.
As the old saying goes, "Marketing is a numbers game." The more contacts you have with a prospect, the higher the likelihood they will eventually respond to your offer. Prospects are at various stages of the sales process. Some might be just one follow-up contact away from responding to your offer, while others might require several more contacts.
The question is, are you persistent enough in your follow-up to motivate your prospects to respond to your offer? Follow-up might seem like a mundane task, but if you want to maximize sales, both online and offline, you should seriously consider implementing a systematic follow-up system. Otherwise, you might be wasting a significant portion of the resources you invest in acquiring leads and overlooking a potential gold mine.
One useful tool for automating email follow-up is Postmaster. This desktop application works with MS Access 97 or comes with its own standalone database. It features automatic scheduling, excellent personalization, and more. By signing up, you can also get your own Associate’s reseller website for free and earn money by recommending this powerful software to others.
