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Support lines, kill or cure

by KevinChapman
7 replies
One of the things I do is offer a free weekly newsletter aimed at helping strugglers and newbies finding some direction and focus on how to discipline themselves and structure their business.

I keep everything plain and simple and as easy to understand as I can.

Now when I started I would have killed to have something similar to help cut thru some of the rubbish out there.

So putting myself into their position I asked myself 'what else would I need to push my understanding of this business forward'.

My answer was a support line so that any questions I have being alone and as a newbie someone was there with the answers, no matter how naïve that question seemed.

And so every newsletter issue carries my support line link.

I thought that I would be inundated with questions about IM and how people could improve their business but not so.

Most of the questions are totally unrelated to IM :confused:.

Is this just me or does anyone else have the same experience?

Thanks in advance Kevin
#cure #kill #lines #support #support line #supprt
  • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
    I've never had this problem.

    If I may ask, what are the questions you're receiving like?

    And what verbiage do you use for the call to action?
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    • Profile picture of the author KevinChapman
      I,d rather not say here cos you never no whose looking in but they are of a more personal nature like if I tell a story lets say involving my cat in which I am trying to emphasis the benefits of what we do someone will say 'oh I've got a cat called tiggywinkle too'.
      That's not an actual one but you get what I mean?

      All I thought was when I started I had a ton of questions about IM but with nobody to ask or knowing who to trust I felt quite alone.

      I am trying to give people the support and help I never had which I believe is so important to keep you motivated in the very difficult early days.

      In my all my emails and newsletters I just say "if you are unsure of anything or need any help just ask" and add the support link.
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      • Profile picture of the author Saul
        Originally Posted by KevinChapman View Post

        In my all my emails and newsletters I just say "if you are unsure of anything or need any help just ask" and add the support link.
        in my more recent online experience, making videos for youtube, I got to meet lots of other youtubers... and I found that even most of the people who post videos online (which you'd think would be more sure about themselves and more socially adept) tend to be introverted and insecure.

        That might extend even further among people who are using the internet (instead of going out having fun with "real world" friends) and who don't make videos putting themselves "out there" to be judged by the ruthless youtube community (and believe me, it's ripe with trolls of all kinds in the wild wild youtube lands).

        Long story short: in my opinion a good big portion of people who gravitate towards doing business online tend to be less secure and socially capable than the people who are in the real world dealing with real people face to face and who are ignoring the internet.

        Hence, if given the chance to ask something, or anything, to someone ("if you are unsure of anything or need any help just ask") they will take it literally and... ask you *anything* they are unsure about... which might be a lot more than just what IM tactic would work better for them.

        Maybe it would be better to rephrase your "call to action" by limiting it to IM business ;-)
        Something like: "if you are unsure of anything IM related or need any help for your online venture just ask"

        my $0.02 :°)

        ciao!

        Ps. I've made a few very broad generalizations in this post, which can be easily contradicted with many specific examples, but I hope you get the gist of what I mean ;°)
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        • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
          Saul nailed it. Your call to action is too generic and it's inviting general questions.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mitch Barber
        Hey Kevin, firstly, greeting from Cornwall - just down the road from you!

        I'm curious, what exactly is your support link? Is it an email address, web-form, does it have a telephone contact?

        For what it's worth, I actually give all my subscribers my direct telephone number - one UK and one USA which goes to my Skype (shock, horror!). Firstly, it's not as bad as you might think - only only get around 10 or so phone calls per 1000 subscribers. But the ones that do phone are asking me specific questions related to I.M. And they tend to be respectful of my time. Maybe it's because it's a phone call and they know it's rare to get such personal access, I don't know.

        Another thought: I imagine you're probably building relationships and talking about some personal stuff too. If that's the case, I would agree with Saul and be specific in your call to action to be I.M. Related.

        Hope it helps :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author PaulGA123
    Kevin, Being new at all this, I really appreciate a source like yours. I'm signing up and I promise not to ask you anything about, I don't know, how to change the oil in my car?
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  • Profile picture of the author dynamyt100
    Hi Kevin,

    I have built many eCommerce sites where I found having online chat support invaluable. I actually managed to sell during many of the chats as customers were so satisfied with the interaction they did not want to go elsewhere. So, from that perspective I wouldn't hesitate to offer support.
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