Dan Janal is an internationally known speaker, online marketing consultant and author of several best-selling books, Online Marketing Handbook and 101 Businesses You Can Start on the Internet. He delivers keynotes, breakout sessions, and training workshops at industry events. He also consults with companies seeking online marketing strategies.
He has been interviewed on CNBC, National Public Radio, USA Today, Success Magazine and dozens of local radio talk shows. He has consulted with IBM, Reader's Digest, and Panasonic as well as smaller companies. He has spoken to groups in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil.
Dan can be reached by phone at 510-648-1961 or by e-mail at dan@
janal.com. Or visit Janal Communication's Web Site
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Advertising Available on Idea Site Starting September 15, 1997
Online Marketing Handbook: How to Promote, Advertise, and
Sell Your Products and Services on the Internet
by Dan JanalEditor's Note: Highly recommended. Online Marketing is one of the best resources for those interested in marketing on the Internet. For details on how to order, visit smartbooks.com
Chapter 18: Building Relationships with E-mail and Private Mailing Lists
WHAT IS E-MAIL?E-mail is the most universal application on the Internet and commercial online systems. It is the first online tool people use and, for many, the only tool they will ever use. People are often introduced to e-mail through their companies, which may use it extensively. Reports show that about 30 million people use e-mail while only about 10 million people have access to the Web. If you direct people to your Web site, you might be missing a large segment of the market that doesn't have access to the World Wide Web.
How can someone have e-mail but not have access to the Web? Here are several reasons:
- Their company has e-mail accounts for all employees, but doesn't want them surfing the Web.
- They use school computers that are limited to e-mail use.
- Free e-mail services, like Juno, attract people to the world of online services but don't offer access to newsgroups or the World Wide Web.
Do not confuse e-mail with direct mail. The direct mail marketing techniques that work so well in the analogue world are the kiss of death on the Internet.
How to Use E-mail in the Marketing Mix
Electronic messages are a terrific way for online marketers to interact with consumers. A variety of tools exist for marketers, including e-mail, forums, bulletin boards,, newsgroups, and mailing lists. These can be used to dispense information about new products and services, company background, help files, and any other material you can create to foster a relationship.
The benefits of using e-mail to converse with consumers include:
- Prospecting for leads by introducing consumers to your product or service.
- Converting prospects to customers by providing them with requested information, such as company overviews, product backgrounders, press releases, reports, surveys, and media reviews.
- Building relationships and developing brand loyalty by informing consumers of new products or services, sales, discounts, seminars, events, and the like.
- Conducting market research by reading consumers' messages.
- Creating and maintaining one-to-one relationships with customers and prospects.
In an integrated marketing environment, e-mail can be used as a direct communications link with prospects. Let's look at the steps involved in an integrated marketing campaign.
How to Create One-to-One Relationships with Prospects and Customers
1. E-mail is the beginning point in this building process. At its simplest, people who have questions about your product send you an e-mail. They might have seen the address on your letterhead, advertisement, product package, billboard, or business card, or your signature file attached to a message you posted on a discussion area.
Responding to each message individually helps develop one-to-one relationships with consumers.
After a while, you might notice that many people ask the same questions most of the time. Instead of writing an individual letter, you can access a library of texts written to account for most situations. As you receive a message about the product warranty, for example, you cut and paste the prewritten answer that explains the warranty. What used to take you five minutes to write now takes you five seconds.
2. The next step up this ladder is automation of the process. You have a library of prewritten answers to the most common questions. Customers can receive those answers when they send e-mail to a specific e-mailbox.
For example, if they send a message to "warranty@mycompany.com" they will receive the answer in seconds. This is possible due to a software program called a mailbot or infobot. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can provide you with this service, as can many third-party companies that you can find through Yahoo (search on "mailbot"). You might think of this service as an online cousin to the fax response systems in which you dial a company's fax machine, type in your fax number, and the numerical code that requests a prewritten communication to be taxed back to you in seconds.
This process can save you time and money. If people read the prewritten response and still have questions, they can send a new request to a company representative who can answer the difficult questions. Thus your staff spends its time dealing with the more difficult questions while the routine questions are handled by the infobot.
Any kind of file can be sent via e-mail, whether it be text, photo, or sound. E-mail can thus provide more information than a customer support representative talking on a telephone. You can also provide answers to customers just at the moment they are most interested in developing a relationship with your company-even if that happens to be 2 A.M. Sunday when your customer support staff is at home and asleep.
3. All this time, your computer is recording the e-mail addresses of all persons who sends a request. You are building a database of valuable information on where people can be contacted and what their key interests are. (You know this because they have sent e-mail to a specific e-mailbox. You would therefore know that a certain person was interested in the seminars you offer, but not the books. Or they are interested in the seminar in Chicago, not the one in New York.) The tactic of using a separate mailbox for information replies can also be used to track the number of responses from a particular source. For example, if you have two ads written about your company and you list a different mailbox address in each ad, you'll be able to see which ad drew more responses. You can do this with articles, fliers, brochures, and any other marketing material.
4. As your database grows, you might want to establish closer lines of communication with each person by contacting them directly via e-mail. You might send them coupons for your products that entice them to order directly from you, or lead them into one of your distributor's stores. You might build a relationship with them by sending a newsletter every month or quarter that gives them interesting new ways to use your products and services. You could even let them know that you've updated your Web site with information that will enhance their personal or professional lives. You could encourage them to participate in surveys so you can determine where the market is heading and what new features and benefits are sought. You could also use this material to track who actually buys you, products to see if a Marketing effort is successful or if your pitches need to change.
Striking while the iron is hot is a key point in sales. The Internet and Commercial online services have great tools to make this happen by giving people information when they need it.
Copyright © 1997 Daniel S. Janal
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