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