2007 May 05 |

Archive for May 5th, 2007

Building Sales and Relationships with Your Mailing List Subscribers

Yesterday I wrote about ways to use content to build a mailing list. But that’s just part of the equation you also must KEEP that mailing list. If, once you send an email, your respondents immediately opt-out, then you’ve wasted your time building a mailing list in the first place.

The Technical Aspects:

With anti-spam laws being serious business, you’ve got to make sure that you have explicit permission to send email to each recipient and a smart system for managing your opt-outs. In order to do this, it’s best to use an email marketing program.

You may also want to use an autoresponder if you’d like to follow up with your subscribers on regular intervals with pre-written, timed content (for example, a 7 day e-course that arrives each day for 7 days).

Building Strong Relationships

As Seth Goodin explains in his book Permission Marketing:

“Consumers will grant a company permission to communicate only if they know what’s in it for them. A company has to reward consumers, explicitly or implicitly, for paying attention to its messages.”

When someone subscribes to your mailing list, they are already a warm contact and you should address them as such. Use their first name in the email whenever possible and use a more conversational tone.

Meanwhile, promote your products and services your audience has already expressed interest in them, so feed them with colorful images and benefits-rich descriptions and product explanations.

Also important is to make contact on a regular basis. On an obvious note, the more you make contact, the more you will be in front of your customers. But also, if you wait too long to contact them you may lose the fire of interest you’ve worked so hard to create on your website.

May 05 2007 | Marketing | 3 Comments »

The Customer is Not Always Right…

You have probably all heard the quote, “The customer is always right.” I would like to point out that those words are only part of the quote. The full quote is, “Right or wrong, the customer is always right.” Marshall Field knew that there is no way that the customer can always be right. But, he also knew that they should be treated as if they were right.

One of my favorite stories about this way of thinking in action is about an elderly man who brought some tires to a store to return them. He was seen by the store owner at the service desk in an argument with a clerk. The store manager came over to see what the problem was. The man told the owner that the clerk would not give him his money back. The owner apologized for the misunderstanding and gave the money to the man.

The clerk told the manager that they didn’t even sell that brand of tire so the man had to be wrong. The owner said that he knew they didn’t sell that brand. He then explained that the elderly man was the father of his biggest client. He knew that the man would tell his son about the experience in the store and that he would keep a valued client. The client would bring in far more money than the cost of the tires.

Now don’t think I mean that you should let customers abuse you or your employees. Not every situation can be handled like the story above. Sometimes you will get a customer that you will never be able to please. In this situation it might be necessary to “fire” the customer. But, always treat them as if they are right. Never yell or mistreat them because this could lead to loosing other customers.

May 05 2007 | Marketing | 2 Comments »