Communicate and Automate!Automation techniques to help you communicate effectively with prospects and customers. (Shel Horowitz's Frugal Marketing Tip, July, 2000) How many times have you been ready to do business with someone—and then you can't seem to get their attention? E-mails and calls go unanswered—they won't follow up. What do you do? Unless they've got a monopoly, you go elsewhere. So how should you respond in your own business? PROMPTLY! Aim to return phone calls and e-mails within one working day. And make the responses individual. Some people use an autoresponder that acknowledges receipt of the message, then answer within a day or two—but better still, simply respond, even if it's just a couple of lines. Template responses can help a lot. I have form letters set up for many types of responses: inquiries about my marketing services, selling my books, contributing to my e-publications... When replying to an e-mail asking one of my standard questions, I type a line or a paragraph of individual response, paste in the standard text, and boom—off it goes. With this system, I can respond to a high volume of mail in an hour or two per day. And it's not unusual for me to get 100 messages or more in a business day, so having a system is vital. (NOTE: for more on managing large amounts of e-mail, read Adam Boettiger's article at http://www.frugalfun.com/dtb.html) Of course, not every e-mail needs a response—but if you get a personal inquiry, a note in your guest book, a phone call, take the 30 seconds to zip out a return. Thank people for ordering your product or subscribing to their e-zine, too—and use that opportunity to tell them when to expect delivery. If you're unavailable, let people know. Most ISPs will let you set up a "vacation autoresponder" that says your office is closed (though I have to say, several times I've set one up, or thought I did, and it never kicked in—when this happens, I send apologetic e-mails as soon as I get back). Phone messages can also indicate an extended absence. If you use autoresponders, make sure a human being looks over the incoming mail. Often, there will be a question or comment that needs a personal response. Thank you reading this back issue of Shel Horowitz's Monthly Frugal Marketing Tips, published every month since May, 1997; please click here to view the complete archives, grouped by subject. Shel is an internationally known copywriter and marketing consultant, author of Grassroots Marketing Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First and several other books, and creator of the Frugal Marketing web site. Please click here to contact Shel.
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