Followup is killing me!

You've probably already written your follow up messages and don't realize it.

Yes, that's right, you already wrote the messages you need to start following up with your website visitors. Before you call me crazy see if the following applies to you:

* Website has been up 1-2 months or more
* Your email address is on the website
* You answer questions from visitors via email

If so, you're already nearly done writing your (initial) follow up messages...

1) Open your email program
2) Click on your sent email folder

The emails that you've already written communicating with prospects and customers is the exact same type of content you should put in your follow up sequence.

Daily, I see many people getting hung up trying to over think their follow up sequence. It has to be perfect or they don't want to do it at all.

You might want to start with the recommended 7 messages right from the gun, I guarantee that if you're not following up now a simple 1, 2, or 3 message follow up will make a world of difference to your bottom line.

You don't need 7 messages to make a noticeable impact if you're not doing anything now.

Re purpose the questions and answers you've already written and get them online.

When I get a bit of writers block a simple copy and paste from the sent email folder gets me going again.

Send some ocasional articles. Tell them what You are up to, tell them about Your blog posts, to go and check them out. Make surveys. Send them free stuff. Send them affiliate stuff. Try to make a combination between personal and business stuff. If You send them just offer after offer probably they will stop responding. Don't take too long between messages. i don't know what niche You are into but usually people receive a ton of emails everyday and if You take too long to send them messages they will probably forget about you. Hope this helps You!!

This applies to me too, i have a serious problem following up on prospects... Thanks for the post and the replies, it helps...

SolaDollar

My bigger issue is that I get caught up in the details of marketing and not the human skills needed to keep the conversations going. My version of A.D.D.

What other tips do you guys have?

This is actually a very good question because, while we here so much about getting traffic, making sales, etc, if you can't keep up with the human side of the business you're going to be in trouble.

This is customer service and you won't grow or last in business if you don't get it right, no matter how great your initial success.

If you're into design or product creation or something else, the odds are you make customer service the last thing on your list... and so a lot of times it doesn't get done. You need to put the most disagreeable jobs first on your list.

Keep an email folder with your most common messages. If you want to be more personal just add the person's real name after you've copied and pasted.

That's how I do it.

Create a series of pre-programmed auto-responder e-mails. Then the follow up will happen for you, automatically. Not a writer? No problem:

1) Outsource some e-mail writing, or

2) Check with Amy Bass who, if I am not mistaken, sells a complete pre-programmed auto-responder series;

3) Grab a handful of articles from an article directory on your subject and use those to populate your e-mails.

Follow up can be a tough one for some, but necessary to keep yourself in front of your list. I hope that helps!

Steve

Nice one there Faxinator,

Are there Other ways

Time management is the key to success. Allot a specific time of the day/week and compose content rich emails and then send them. Once you master time management skills and prepare your to do list before and stick to it, you'll see that the follow up process is less hectic and pretty much smooth.

It's tricky. Most marketers botch follow-up - but not for
the reason you might think.

You don't have to be perfect but you do need to be consistent.

It takes dedication to send out 50-100 relevant emails to a list
every year.

You either get down to business and build a system to do it or
you drop the ball. Many marketers send out 5-7 emails and
that's it. I send out a LOT more. That's the secret.

Market with more passion, consistency, and endurance than
the competition and you will see growth from long-term
followup.

Nice one there Faxinator,

Are there Other ways

In a word: AutoResponders.

All of my marketing is geared toward getting people to opt in to my free report. When they do this, they are subscribed to my TrafficWave.net AutoResponder.

In my AutoResponder, I have a series of pre-written messages that I have scheduled to go out to this list over time.

From time to time, I'll put together a special offer and broadcast it out to my list.

Works like a charm.

An autoresponder would be your best bet. You can create them ahead of time and schedule them to send out.

Remember that in these follow up emails the most important thing is to build relationships. You want to build trust and credibility.

Some ideas from me...

- Send them case studies;
- Alert them potential scams running in your industry;
- Send them short notes and tips;
- send them educational video;

The sky's the limit.

I find that the Google Notebook is a useful tool, as you can keep copies of your most common emails, responses, quotations, and other useful information.

One advantage is that you can access the information from any computer, and can maintain scores of niche-specific, time-sensitive, generic, or customer-targeted introductions, responses, follow-ups, acknowledgements, thank-you's, and anything else relevant to your business.

What helps best is a combo:

1) Have a FAQs pages set up with specific replies. Yes, autoresponders are fine, too, but no matter what you have, some people will simply still have questions - -even if the replies are right there and you point them out 10 times. Just happens - -call it speed-reading, lack of understanding at the time, etc. Just is

2) Make sure you do manage your time responding, and keep things short and sweet, not unlimited scrolled screens in replies. Let people know they get limited bids / quote / info for free + that you offer paid consulting, as many people try to get all they can for free. Check out the lower portion of mine for help on this, as my form has evolved from others I've found online and like: Moving Ahead Communications - Q / A

3) Some people ask more they need to about your business. Seriously.
Take charge of these inquiries by telling them you have a limited amount of time and resources for replying, and re-direct the focus to their projects at hand only, sending them online for your basic info in your About Us page. (If the info isn't there, maybe isn't something they don't need to know, like your own confidential company ROI or other personal info). Let those people know as this type info becomes available, they can bookmark your site & check back to find it.

And don't be afraid to set limits. I've had people schedule an appointment with me to interview me for stuff - but not tell me that up front, disguising the appointment as a project brief for a bid proposal , and that's not right. If they want an interview, they need to ask.

And they don't need to know how long you are online, what you do all day, etc. Seriously. Don't be afraid to not reply to these types of questions. They are not appropriate, not professional. That will cut out some of the crackpot emails and calls you'll get, not all though, bummer, but some.

Know, too, that as your name / content gets out, sometimes you attract some so-called "reporters" that feel they have a right to get into your personal life, etc., but they don't. Again turn the tables around here, and schedule when you will get back with them, if you want, or you will follow up and send them something, etc. No need to drop everything and reply with them at the helm.

Hope some of that helps!

Steps for a successful followup program:

1. Get an old-fashioned pen and a pad of paper in front of you.
2. Try to do this in uninterrupted 30 minute to 1 hour blocks.
3. Think of what you want to say, and just write down the bullets and links, one to a line.
4. Go back through your sent emails--a lot of it is already there.
5. Brain storm till you have at least 1 dozen bullets.
6. Use the 1 dozen to make followup emails--one each
7. Load them into your autoresponder.
8. Lather rinse repeat. Remember to get 1 dozen more from the next brain storming session...

If I'm reading your original question correctly, it sounds like you're looking for human follow up - not the automatic autoresponder type. So the whole autoresponser/email/article/newsletter/etc thing aint hitting the mark...

Am I reading that correctly?

If so, you have two choices: one's free and the other's gonna cost you...

One's a better idea.

Since you admittedly suffer from the A.D.D type thing, sounds like details aren't your strong point. All the autoresponders in the world aren't going to overcome that. If you're making decent money, then it's time to either hire someone part time/full time or invest in a virtual assistant.

That's the better, gonna cost you way. Let someone else who enjoys and is good at that kinda thing run wild with it.

As the business owner your responsibility is to grow your business. If you aint' doing it, it ain't getting done.

If you don't have the dough for that option right now, look for someone to barter resources. For example, I trade pretty nice office space with a business partner who owns a building in exchange for servicing his computer network. It's something I can do w/ my eyes closed, and I save about $500/month in rent. Be creative and I'd almost guarentee you can find someone who'd give you two or three hours a day to do follow up calls for you.

Another free option, find a business school in your area where students need internships. Some students will gladly trade a few hours in exchange for some real life resume experience and a good job reference - it's priceless for them. Find two or three and you're in business.

Now, the free but bad idea is to try to discipline yourself that every day from X:00 - X:00 ALL you will do is follow up calls. But - use a phone name. If you call as yourself you'll find folks want to talk to you for hours or try to suck some free advice from you and get offended when you don't want to talk for hours. I know this from first hand experience. Give yourself another name and go from there. Make it quick, "We were just calling to make sure you got your product and answer any questions you may have." "Are you on our email list?" If so, great, if not send them to the squeeze page. If you have another product to offer, make the sale enticing and send them to a sales letter page if they have too many questions.

Just my humble opinion based on my experiences.

HIH

The Crazy Internet Dude

2nd post in this thread by "mm365", while great advice, is
partially rewritten theft from our follow up sequence
that I personally wrote several years ago. Content of that
originally created text is below.

I have no problem with folks spreading around our advice
regarding email marketing (I'd encourage it), but if you're
going to pass something off as your own content at least
write it in **entirely** your own words.

Copyright theft isn't cool.

-Tom


Writing follow up messages is easy if you know the secret...

If you're anything like me, you've undoubtedly had a bit of writers
block a time or two in the past.

Fortunately, creating the messages for your follow up sequence doesn't
have to be an excruciating experience that keeps you from following
up. I have good news for you...


** You Already Wrote Your Follow Up Messages

Yes, that's right, you already wrote the messages you need to start
following up with your website visitors. Before you call me crazy
see if the following applies to you:

- Website has been up 1-2 months
- Your email address is on the website
- You answer questions from visitors via email

If so, congratulations! You're already done writing your follow up
messages.


** The Secret

- Open your email program.
- Click on your sent email folder.

The emails that you've already written communicating with prospects
and customers is the exact same type of content you should put in
your follow up sequence. The biggest mistake I see on a daily
basis is people try to over think their follow up sequence. It
has to be perfect or they don't want to do it at all.

While studies indicate 7 follow ups show the best conversion, I
guarantee you that if you're not following up now a simple 1,
2, or 3 message follow up will make a world of difference to
your bottom line.

Re purpose the questions and answers you've already written and
get them online.

How do you think I came up with the content you're reading now?
I certainly won't win awards with my writing, but I do know how
to help small businesses thru effective follow up. In the past
8+ years I've seen the same excuses derail the best intentions
for starting and building an effective follow up list.

When I get a bit of writers block a simple copy and paste from
the sent email folder gets me going again.