Hello all..
This is probably one of the most important “make or break” points of internet marketing. The reason I say that is because most people have no idea how to follow up with their leads correctly, and it’s why they fail most of the time.
Here’s the scenario..
Through your marketing you receive an email indicating that someone has entered their information into one of your lead capture forms. In other words, you just generated a lead..
So what do you do now? Well, my immediate advice would be to call them, but let’s assume in this case your new lead hasn’t entered in their phone number. You just have an email address and a name.
Your only option is to reply and email them back.
This is where you either pass or fail.
Most of the time, the new marketer (the ‘rookie’) will send an email to their new lead with the full intention of getting a sale or a signup out of them. Some generic sounding email that includes their affiliate link: “Sign up now!”
That action is, in a word, wrong.. and pretty useless.
What I do, and what most experienced marketers will do, is email the lead immediately WITHOUT ANY intention of making a sale or getting a signup. Weird, huh?
The whole point of this email is NOT to make a sale, but to start a conversation with the lead and to further qualify this prospect as well. You want INTERACTION, you want to open a line of communication with them on a personal level.
The main reasons for your email is to:
- Get interaction from your prospect
- Start a conversation with your prospect
- Begin to qualify the prospect as a business partner
- Lead to further conversation via phone or Skype..
Note I said on a ‘personal’ level. If your email looks like an automated message, your lead will treat it like an automated message – they’ll probably ignore it. That means if you just send them a signup link, it looks fake, and you’ll get nothing from them.
Make it conversational. Ask questions. Comment on what you already know about them. Be friendly 🙂 You will have NO idea whether this personal will be a good fit for your business if you don’t ask questions.
Here’s a hint: If you have their IP address (usually included when they subscribe), you can get a basic knowledge of where they live by typing in their IP address at this site: http://geoiptool.com/
If you know approximately where they live through their IP address, it’s much easier to start a ‘personal’ conversation with them: “Hi Joe, I notice that you live in Texas. Are you in the Houston area? My wife’s family is from there and we’re thinking of heading that way this summer, any tips on what to see while we’re there..? etc..”
The key here is to make sure your email does NOT sound like an automated followup. Put it this way, if your emails all sounded like generic autoresponder messages, I would choose to NOT do business with you. If you can’t connect with me as a professional, I will not connect with you.
That said, if you do it right, your prospects will see you as someone they want to work with.
Let the conversation continue below if you have any comments..
..How to YOU follow up?
Thanks.
– Geoff Stephen
Once again you hit the head on the nail Geoff. Personal communication is SO important, and as so many times in this industry, people tend to forget to keep it SIMPLE, because that’s exactly what it is. Keep it up Bro’
Ulf
I wish MLM/Network Marketing were referred to as Relationship marketing… because people buy into people not opportunities.
When we realise this and engage people socially then they begin to trust our intentions. Many people are looking for help – coaching. They will not respond to a link – they respond to a conversation!
Great article , Geoff, as always.
Have a great end of month everyone! Chase those leaderboards!!
Pete
Agreed.
Geoff,
I agree with this personal touch entirely.
Thanks for sharing this with us.
John
Thanks for the awesome tip, Geoff!
I’m looking forward to using geoiptool to start a conversation with prospects. It’s fun to discover where people are from who opt in and I’m looking forward to using this tool.
Thanks again,
Nathan
Yes, I would be delighted to get info from my sponsor, about what he/she is all about. Over the years I have been online, I may have had a personal conversation with my sponsor one time – ONE – and that stinks!
I would reply by email first and ask permission to call and send them to my personal website which will tell them a lot about me first and foremost. I am going to edit my website and eliminate all the links to various opportunities……
Ron,
I understand, some people just don’t take responsibility – and they don’t deserve your business.
Personally I would check out my sponsor before I join anything under them. It’s up to you to find a good sponsor in the opportunity you want to join. Otherwise you don’t know who you’ll be stuck dealing with.
I am glad to hear the personal touch is the way to go. I’m really new to this but I’ve found myself changing each of my autoresponder emails a little and I have also sent a personal welcome email to each of my (3) prospects. It’s fairly easy to tell a canned email and I want these people to know I’m real, ready and willing to help them. So I wasn’t sure if that was proper but it felt like it was the right thing to do. Sheryl
Sheryl, the “personal touch” is always the way to go.
Thanks man! Currently I am failing at follow-ups.
Your tips are really valuable. It is going to help me.
Glad to help!
– Geoff
Thanks Geoff, those are very solid tips, something I am probably guilty of from time to time. This is a good reminder!
What would the correct procedure be with autoresponder stuff?
Regards,
Ron
Ron, not sure what you mean by the “correct procedure..”?
Geoff, You are so right on with this post.
I believe in make a friend before you try to make a sale.
Relationship marketing is more personal and you can create longevity in your business by caring about others first.
Thank you for the reminder to care first.
Exactly. It’s a person to person business, so why wouldn’t we be more personal?
I couldn’t agree with you more, what are we doing here if not meeting people and building relationships? The bottom line, with truth comes trust and a meeting of the minds and voila, you’re open for business. You can’t be in a relationship based business with people you don’t even know, so why frustrate yourself? Friend to friend, I hope you get out there ASAP and make new friends every where, and then go make some money together. How cool is that?
Thanks for this post. It is very helpful to read good information like this, instead of the junk that most other people try to teach you.
I believe that we will get much further by treating people like human beings, rather than as a meal-ticket.
I have received “leads” through ad campaigns where all I got was an email address. There was no chance to be personable in any way.
I am looking forward to getting leads that are already engaged and looking for connection.
And thanks for the “insight” to connecting with PEOPLE rather than pelting “leads” with links and “opportunities.”
Thanks again Geoff for awesome info, the personal touch is the way to go, now days it seems that we have been lied too about being personal, look at all of the hands free programs out there, promoting the $ instead of ourselves! Thanks Bill
Hello Geoff
more great marketing tips, I keep finding them on your sites, one thing to remember is it really helps when you engage with your prospects, but teach that principal to them and hopefully they will benefit from it and teach it to their prospects, eventually it will be of long term benefit to you.
I’m in a few different programs with pre-loaded professionally written copy.
Do you think ditching that in favor of a personalized random email would be more profitable? If so, doesn’t this go against the 7 exposures until they buy rule?
Thanks ~ Rich
I suppose it depends on what you’re doing. I would always recommend writing your own emails in your own style.
Or re-write the pre-loaded copy and make it your own.
I have found that adding your own personal touch is the only way to go, plus a photo and even a video of your self
I totally agree to your strategy on personal and friendly touch in following up your leads…. Good idea. I’ll do this on my next follow-up of my leads…