Business History Books » Business Consultant » Ideas for improving Internet marketing
Ideas for improving Internet marketing
Question:
> Wayne, > Thanks for the reminder. We are all, I hope, professionals and realize that > some people are new to the Usenet and others are old-timers. > I’ve seen too many responses to other peoples requests for help that were > nothing more that insulting. Like Read The Fricking Manual type of response. > Or How Dumb Can You Be. > Just goes to show who is the stupid one. > If one doesn’t have anything nice to say, then one should hold one’s tounge.
Some people never learn that: There’s no such thing as a stupid question – There’s only stupid answers! The Ur [ModGreets: Welcome back, Peter! -John]
Response:
>Specific examples anyone?
A quick one. I was checking a domain name I was interested in and ended up at a site with the name that had nothing to do with the name. I clicked on using a domain they obviously did not correlate to. I almost immediately got an auto-response with basic sales crap. I went back to the site because I really wanted that domain and found another mailto link that went somewhere else, but did not seem to be what I wanted. There was indeed a person on the other end of that one who answered fairly quickly and fairly uselessly (basically said they had purchased the name for an ex-client who had backed out and had pointed it to their regular site so people looking for it could find who to buy it from, _however_ he did not say how much it was). I have since emailed him back and have been waiting several days for a reply. The real morale to the story is do NOT put an autoresponder on your site unless you make it very clear to a user that they is what they are getting. It is very annoying to go to the trouble to compose a nice email of interest only to get back an automatic response and realize all my time was for naught. If I knew it was an autorespondor I would have just put enough in to fill the email requirements. Sincerely, James Echols Business & Management Coach Uncommon Solutions http://uncommonsolutions.com
Response:
I’ve had this problem with customer service and I believe that companies using email have to train their employees to deal with these replies seriously. MCI always requests a call to a special 800# if the problem still persists. I always reply back asking for further help. This usually helps. I have had a few occasions where I said fix it or else and this so far has gotten results. > As a business consultant I am constantly searching for ideas and solutions > for my clients on the Internet. I will usually find something of interest > then post an email to that company asking for this or that. In 8 out of 10 > times the replies are obviously from the webmaster or some other clerk in > the office with a short note, usually talking down to me as though I were a > bug, and hardly ever responding to the actual message in my email.
[ModSnip]
Response:
You are doing what I believe to the right approach. If we think of the Internet as a means of one to one marketing across the world then we have found a whole new opportunity. You have proven it with your story.
Response:
[deleted] >As a result of this experience (and many others that were >near identical) I laid down a few guidelines for my own >company…All e-mails must be responded to within 24 hours >and must intelligently respond to the inquiry. >Anyone else getting "Thank You" notes just for responding >quickly and appropriately??
I know for certain that I have gained a number of customers by promptly and appropriately answering their inquiries. Usually I get "thank you" notes, along with "wow, I can’t believe you responded so quickly." With regard to people sending inquiries before visiting the Web site, I try to politely direct them to the appropriate section on the Web site, and will sometimes quote the relevant paragraph in the response, noting that it came from the Web site. Hopefully, if I do this once or twice, they will have learned to visit the Web site first. -Anatoly — Author of Personal Stock Monitor (latest release: v2.5) http://www.personaltools.com
Response:
Great post Wayne! I agree completely. It’s funny how so many firms think one guy can do it all: HTML, CGI, Java, copywriting, graphic design, promotion, etc. While there are firms that are better than others using this means, there is a lot of evolution yet to see in this area. Think about the really good advertising agencies. Would they let their graphic designers write copy? I think this is applicable even in seemingly "easy" jobs, such as online promotion. There are so many different levels that promotion can work (or not work). For example, the search engine submitting service I run requires about 80 hours per month for each site, just to "work" the top 7 search engines. This is obviously a level of sophistication far above the services that will "submit your site to 8,000,000 search engines for only $99 with any web site design." My point: We will definitly see areas of specialization in the industry as time goes on. Scott W. Spain
Response:
>As a business consultant I am constantly searching for ideas and solutions >for my clients on the Internet. I will usually find something of interest >then post an email to that company asking for this or that. In 8 out of 10 >times the replies are obviously from the webmaster or some other clerk in >the office with a short note, usually talking down to me as though I were a >bug, and hardly ever responding to the actual message in my email.
[ModSpeak: Welcome Jesse! - John] First off, let me say hello to the group & moderator, as this is my first posting. My name is Jesse and I run a Promotional Products Marketing company. Now For my "bad" example: I recently sent an e-mail to a secure Internet catalog developer after thoroughly exploring their site and learning about the system they offered. I explained in reasonable detail how I might want to use their system and that I didn’t think their "out-of-the-box" package would fit the bill. They responded with a brief and seemingly annoyed "Yes our system CAN do what you hope…go back to the site" To make a long story short, I went back to the site and confirmed that it could not do what I needed. I tried 3 more times to get an intelligent response to my inquiries with no luck. Needless to say they lost my business. As a result of this experience (and many others that were near identical) I laid down a few guidelines for my own company…All e-mails must be responded to within 24 hours and must intelligently respond to the inquiry. Anyone else getting "Thank You" notes just for responding quickly and appropriately?? On the flip side of the issue: Some people send an e-mail inquiry before they even take the time to surf around the site. In some cases (present company excluded 
) the "talk down to" attitude you mention Wayne could be caused by repeated questions that are clearly addressed within the site. I know that we get many of these inquiries each day (although we hold our tongues and answer the question). I also think Wayne is right on-target with reminding us that the Internet in its ideal form is one-on-one marketing. One technique that I have found effective is simple custom presentations. It seems nothing is more powerful a marketing tool than our own names! When a client requests products that I do not have online I quickly post the information to a custom web page that loads up with something like "Welcome John from John’s Telemarketing Company". I keep the entire presentation a personal message, tailored to my client’s needs/requests (Not meant as an Advert, but as an idea) Anyway, I’m out of time for now, but hope this post is found to be useful. Jesse — Avalon Imagery: 401-828-9995 Fax: 401-821-2664 THE name in Promotional Products Marketing http://www.avalon-inc.com
Response:
Along the lines of Wayne’s head up. I want to share an experience. that offered a software program 1Disk (in beta) http:// www.the1vision.com to try. The program catalogs all removable storage and hooks into Win95 Explorer (file mgr) so it shows each media as if a drive (with folders and files) Sounds neat! I went to the page and first off, had to fill in some "user" details (without give an explanation as to why? For what purpose and use) I click and nothing happened. I emailed their support, and they said try again as there were problems But he would send via email if I wanted. So again I try…no luck. I sent another email and asked if they had it on FTP or could they make avail FTP and that it would probably be to big for email. Their reply, they sent the 2mb file in an email. Well, for those that don’t know, a single large file can hang up the pop box. It will download all the way, but will not clear, so it remains and all messages after that are not accessible. The only way to clear (delete) the big email, is if you know Unix commands and telnet in or contact your ISP, or have an email previewer, like a spam checker. I have the last so after three tries, used it to delete the "big guy". I emailed back, and all they said was sorry and that once out of beta, the software would be available everywhere. So, what’s the lesson here? 1) Well, I’ve never had a problem before with a page, so don’t think it’s on my side. Thus, make sure all download and form returns work with all browsers. 2) If you want "visitors" to fill in info, tell them why you want it. What are you going to do with it. 3) If you have a "visitor’s" form, and your market is international, make sure to include fields for those not in the USA. Make sure the fields are of greater length than USA; zip and telephone. 4) Make whatever it is you have for download, available through other alternatives. 5) Don’t ever send something large via email as not everyone has a T1 connection <g> Don’t do it unless asked or permission is given. 6) If a prospect, continues to contact you and nothing has worked so far to receive your product or trial, take the hint that this person is serious, and make the extra effort to accommodate. In this case, the company could have uploaded to their ISPs open FTP site, which I suggested or post to a test newsgroup, or even setup a different download link. Thus, really think who your target market is and if not just domestic, make sure any forms are for international. Make sure also, that besides your toll-free number, you also provide a toll number. Make it as easy as possible for your prospect to contact you as well as obtaining your wares; purchase options as well as access. Note: I mentioned the company as I think the program has potential and if anyone has an interest, is able to download it, I wouldn’t mind taking it for a test spin, if you made it available on an open FTP, test newsgroup or other, except to my email box <g> — John Gerits misc.business.marketing.moderated – "It’s more than marketing talk" You can’t catch spam from lurking Practice safe Usenet posting! Use a spamblock
Response:
Wayne, Thanks for the reminder. We are all, I hope, professionals and realize that some people are new to the Usenet and others are old-timers. I’ve seen too many responses to other peoples requests for help that were nothing more that insulting. Like Read The Fricking Manual type of response. Or How Dumb Can You Be. Just goes to show who is the stupid one. If one doesn’t have anything nice to say, then one should hold one’s tounge.
Response:
>Many Internet marketing professionals are computer graphics at heart and >not sales nor marketing advocates. An offhand reply to an email which may >seem to them amateurish may cost them customers. >[ModSpeak: Good sermon, Wayne. Specific examples anyone? I have one I'll >post tomorrow. -John]
Well, I don’t have any "bad" examples, but from my own experience, I’ve found that being friendly and answering people’s questions via e-mail can make a sale. I’ve been pre-marketing my book for several months now, and the technique being described in the book has also been published in a magazine. After the magazine came out, I started getting e-mails from people who had trouble with the directions in the magazine. I tried to answer all the e-mails, and when it became clear that just words weren’t enough, set up a web page on my site with some of the illustrations from my book. Within a day, I had several e-mails from people who found the site instructions very helpful, and every one of them asked me about buying the book. So even though I was nervous that I was "giving away" the technique, and would lose sales as a consequence, I ended up generating *more* interest in the book. Is this the sort of thing you were talking about, Wayne? It might be a bit different for me, as I’m a one-woman operation, but I think the idea is the same. If I had ignored all the e-mail, or sent a sales notice in response, I doubt I would have generated the same interest! (On another side note, because of correspondence with a wholesale customer, again totally via e-mail, I received a phone call from a distributor who is interested in carrying my book. They had heard about the book from the customer with whom I had been conversing. So because of e-mail correspondence, my sales went up about 1000% !!!) Mary J. Winters-Meyer The Beading Banshee Handcrafted Bead Art and Designs http://www.freeyellow.com/members/beading-banshee/
Response:
As a business consultant I am constantly searching for ideas and solutions for my clients on the Internet. I will usually find something of interest then post an email to that company asking for this or that. In 8 out of 10 times the replies are obviously from the webmaster or some other clerk in the office with a short note, usually talking down to me as though I were a bug, and hardly ever responding to the actual message in my email. I am posting this in this newsgroup kind of as a heads up for all of us to remember that the Internet is really a means of one to one marketing. Any query from anywhere is an opportunity to make a new friend for the company. Instead, for the most part, the responses I get tell me they are too busy to care. If they are too busy to handle an inquiry then they must be too busy to handle my business and give me the support I may need. So I will shop elsewhere. Many Internet marketing professionals are computer graphics at heart and not sales nor marketing advocates. An offhand reply to an email which may seem to them amateurish may cost them customers. End of sermon. [ModSpeak: Good sermon, Wayne. Specific examples anyone? I have one I'll post tomorrow. -John]