 | Major Communications |  |
| Major Communications | |
TOP 42 MOST POWERFUL WAYS TO BUILD A TARGETED (AND FRIENDLY) PROSPECT LIST By Jim Turner INTRODUCTION As an online market (or offline), you must continually generate new leads. Yes, the most profitable leads you have can be found in your existing customer base. But you must still acquire new leads if you want to expand and grow your business. Your existing customers will remain loyal to you as long as you continue to deliver a high-value-added product. In other words, as long as you are meeting their needs and desires. By getting new customers, you can bring life into older products that your existing customers already own. Your new prospects will buy those products because they don't currently own them. Your customer list is the most valuable asset that your business has. Most arrogant, self-centered marketers believe that there product is the most valuable asset. I would argue that you can have the most brilliant product since sliced-bread, but if you don't have anyone to sell it to, all your product has is potential. We all know that potential will not pay the mortgage, send the kids to college, or pay the car note. If I had a choice between losing my current product line or losing my customer list, I'd rather someone take my products. Why? They can be re-generated much easier than 5,000 or 7,000 customers. So, guard your customer list as a pot of gold and continue to make it bigger. It increases the value of your business. These are the most common sources for generating prospects. Note that many of these sources rely on traditional marketing activities like advertising and public relations. This is an important realization about e-mail marketing: it doesn't replace traditional marketing efforts - it co-exists with them. It's important to continue the activities you're currently involved with that are working - never stop an activity that generates profits! Simply add email marketing to your existing mix and leverage your other activities with the power of email! SOURCE #1 - ADVERTISING If you're currently doing advertising and you're not listing your email address and web address in your ad, you have a flashing red light on your forehead that says, "Kick me!" You must give readers, viewers or listeners the option of contacting you via the Internet - and this is especially true in the high-tech industry. No matter what kind of advertising you do: radio, television, print, or even web advertising, you must make sure you are offering people the option to visit your web site or send you e-mail. As you do this, you will be generating a stream of highly qualified e-mail prospects you can add to your database. Tips for Advertising (1) Offer a free report (Powerful) (2) Offer an eBook or software (doesn't have to produced by you) (3) Offer a free ezine, if you publish one (if you're not, shame on you) (Powerful) (4) Sell a low-priced product as a loss leader -- backend them later with your high-end product (5) Offer a free sample (Powerful) (6) Exchange ads with other ezine publishers -- send them a personalized email offering to run their ad if they will do the same for you (Powerful) SOURCE #2 - PUBLIC RELATIONS Public relations is one of the most powerful and cost-effective ways to generate qualified leads while increasing the awareness of your product. Best of all, public relations is a lot less expensive than advertising. If you're not currently using public relations as part of your overall marketing strategy, you're missing out on a huge opportunity. Even if you are taking advantage of public relations, are you sure you're taking advantage of the new technology that streamlines public relations activities? PR is essential for accomplishing your prospect gathering goals. The most important thing to remember is this: make sure you include your email address and web address in your press releases. This way, when other ezines or magazines and newspapers print stories about you, they are more likely to include your web address as a service to their readers. When the readers visit your web site, they will have the option of filling out a form if they would like to receive more information from you. Some of the best marketing is free. It's free media publicity. When you or your business has a new product to sell, a special event, or can relate to headlines in the news, you've got a story that media will be interested in. In the past you had to send your press release through the mail. The cost of stamps added up and many of the releases were never opened. Now almost everyone in the media has e-mail. You can send your release almost for free. Many editors are much more likely to read their e-mail than the bags of regular mail that arrive each day. Press Release Tips (7) There are a number of services that will email your release for you. Email them copies about your new product or service. Check out these: www.usanews.net www.businesswire.com www.xpresspress.com www.newsbureau.com www.pressflash.com www.prnewswire.com www.press-releases.net (8)Some services will also fax your release. Few know all the editors personally, but most can give you some tips on what editors like best. (9) Your press release should read like a news article. It should identify a problem that the publishers audience is experiencing and tell how your product or service can solve that problem. And, of course, your contact information should be included, with primary emphasis on your email address. Since you really do want the prospects email address, the easiest way to get is to have him email you. That's it, plain and simple. Some try to make a big deal out of writing press release, but they are really simple to do. (10) Kelley Williams, publisher of the Marketing News Daily eZine, provides a FREE press releases submission service, mailto:kwilliams@imsday.com To subscribe mailto:marketingnewsdaily-subscribe@egroups.com Kelley publishes 7 different ezines. She took one of her ezines from 0 to 12,000 subscribers in four months. That's right, 12,000 subscribers. SOURCE #3 - REFERRALS Naturally, referrals are an important part of any marketing system. This is especially true in email marketing, where it's extremely easy for your customers to send you referrals - no stamp needed, no phone call, no fax, just an email message. And remember that if you're keeping in touch with your customers and offering a quality product or service, they will actually *appreciate* giving you referrals. Referral Tips (11) Sponsor a contest for who generates the most referral in certain time period (12) Offer discounts on product for existing customers making referrals (13) Give FREE product to each customer that refers 5 new customers in a month, provided the new customer name buys product (Powerful) (14) Give a FREE subscription to those who provide you with new subscribers to your paid publication SOURCE #4 - EXISTING CUSTOMERS Always remember the incredible inherent value of your existing customers. These are the people who have already committed money to your company in exchange for a product or service. These people are already aware of the quality you offer, and these are the people who are most likely to purchase from you again. If you don't have the email addresses for your existing customer, you need to get them! Call them up or contact them by mail. Ask those who are online to send you an email or visit your web site. Whatever method you use, you need to collect the email addresses from your loyal customers, because these are the people who are going to be the most likely to buy from you again and who require almost no additional marketing dollars to be spent in order to gain their email addresses. Existing Customer Tips (15) Offer them something that requires them to email you to get it, such as FREE report about your new product line, your price list, FAQ about a product that they recently ordered from you. (16) When you send them your ezine, ask them to share it with their friends by forwarding them a copy, completely in the original form. (17) Offer to give them a discount or FREE product or service for sending you the names of new prospects, but it can only be done using email. (18) When they call to order product, ask for their email address. Tell them you want it to keep them updated on new products or service coming out. (19) Offer them discounted prices on pre-released products, if they request by email. (20) Require them to get certain information they need from your autoresponder, such as price list, customer service phone numbers, price lists, ad rate sheets, back issues of a publication, more details about a product or service, warranty agreements, to subscribe to your ezine, etc. SOURCE #5 - DIRECT MAIL As with advertising, if you're currently doing direct mail campaigns and you've been using business reply response cards or 800 numbers, you must now include your web site address and email address in your direct mail. Give your recipients the option of contacting you electronically. Some will use it, some won't, but for those who do, you will automatically have their email address. In addition, you'll be able to test the results of your direct mail sooner! Email replies take a few minutes, compared to a few days for postal mail. Tips for Direct Mail (21) When using direct mail, put your email address on everything that leaves your premises: envelopes, letterhead, business cards, postcards, brochures, booklets, invoices, checks, mailing labels, flyers, scratch pads, promotional items such as ink pens and coffee mugs. SOURCE #6 - LIST RENTALS Although the email list rental industry is still in its infancy, there are an increasing number of companies renting email lists of targeted prospects. I cannot currently recommend any particular list company, you can try http://www.postmasterdirect.com and http://www.demc.com Both of these are known to be very reliable and have competitive pricing. List Rental Tips (22) The best way to use list rental companies is to generate leads, not to make sales. I see many marketers trying to close the sale. What you want is for the prospect to respond to asking for more information, allowing you to capture their email address. (23) Offer a free report, free ebook, free software, free ezine subscription, free ad, free sample or refer them to a web page that allows you to capture their email address. WARNING you must respect the privacy of your prospects and customers. I recommend you do not make your in-house list available to others. Even though YOU will be looking for other lists, it doesn't mean you have to share yours! SOURCE #7 - WEB SITE FORMS Gathering email prospects from web forms is perhaps the easiest and most powerful way for building your prospect database. It's relatively simple and virtually cost-free. The only drawback is the volume. Unless you are attracting thousands of visitors a day, you're not likely to get enough prospects from web forms alone. Of course, you can always increase your web traffic through web advertising, display advertising, search engine registration, and other methods...and those certainly help, too. Web Site Tips (24) Offer something free for signing up for your ezine. (25) Run a contest that requires the browser to fill out a form to register. (26) Set up a guest book. (27) Set up a Free For All Ad page. (28) Set up a classified ad page. (29) Provide free ePostcards. (30) Provide a reminder service. All of the above items require the potential to fill out a form, which the output goes to a database at your site. These are now yours to put on your mailing list. SOURCE #8 - JOINT VENTURES This is perhaps the most often overlooked method for quickly generating a large list of email prospects. How would you like to leverage the expenditures and efforts of other marketers who are already selling products or services to the same prospects you are? All you have to do is recognize who else is currently marketing to your prospects then contact them. Create a deal where by sharing their existing customer base with you - or by recommending your company to their customers - they benefit, you benefit, and the customers benefit. This could take the form of mentioning your company in their email newsletter or giving you permission to send one email message to all their customers. Carefully consider joint venture arrangements - they can mean near-instant success in the world of email marketing. Joint Venture Tips (31) One of the first things you should do is subscribe to as many ezines as you can possibly stand to come into your email box. Most of them are free, so cost should not be a factor. These ezines must be in your target market area. For a list of over 500 ezines, email Gary at Gpach98@aol.com. He publishes an ezine about ezine publisher. (32) Generate relationships with the publishers of those ezines that you would like to do JVs with. The most successful way to do this is to begin a dialog with the publisher by emailing him positive comments about his ezine or asking questions about a particular resource. You will be amazed at how helpful most of them will be to you. (33) One common JV among publishers is swapping ads. You run my ad and I'll run yours for an agreed upon number of issues. (Powerful) Provide a plug or recommendation for another publisher's or marketer's product in your ezine for a reciprocal action in theirs. (Powerful) (34) If you don't publish an ezine, make an agreement with a publisher that does. Ask him to review your product. If he likes it, offer to split the profits from any sales resulting from the JV. (Powerful) (35) Set up a JV with one or more other publishers by providing a form on your Web site that allows browsers that are subscribing to your ezine, to also sign up for your JV partners ezine. (Powerful) MISCELLANEOUS (36) Participate in newsgroup discussions. (37) Participate in unmoderated email discussion groups - become recognized as an expert. (38) Insert a signature (sig) file on every newsgroup, discussion group and email that goes out. As a minimum, your sig file should contain your URL, email address and offer something of value to the reader; free report, ezine subscription, or sample product as an example. Your sig file should be limited to about 6 or less lines, 65 characters long. (39) Submit articles for publication to other ezine publishers and for posting on the Web site of others. This is a very impactful strategy. It gives you credibility and lots of exposure, if you get published. Always ad a resource box at the end of your article, very much like a sig file. (40) Setup your own email discussion group with you as the moderator. (41) Publish your own ezine. (Double Powerful) (42) Obtain reciprocal links from similar businesses that are already on the web. You can trade links with virtually anyone, even your competitors. Remember, on the Web, we need to create strategic alliances. Unlike the old business model of "stab 'em in the back," while online, we must work with our competitors to normalize the consumers' experience of spending money on the Internet. Our biggest competition is the fear of online commerce in the mind of the prospect. NOTE: It is a given that in order to be a success and gain any amount of significant respect, you MUST publish an ezine. It gives you an extreme amount of credibility. That is a topic in and of itself, that I will be writing an eBook on in early '99. CLOSING COMMENTS This article was not meant to be an all-inclusive guide to lead generation, but to give you some of the easiest, most often over looked tactics for quickly generating a continuous stream of hungry prospects. The days of spamming to get new leads, is out. Plus it's very risky to the well being of your business. Although, there are some brave souls who still try it. You need new customers to grow your business. So pick 4 or 5 and put them to work for you. =============== For additional state-of-the-art, profit building Strategies from Jim, subscribe to WebPROFIT Tips Weekly Ezine, tips@webprofitsource.com or visit his Web site at http://www.WebProfitSource.com Article supplied by the Gallery at http://www.e-zinez.com
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