Are You Mining Your Email Properly?
Copyright 2002 By Willie Crawford

Are your mining your email for all that it has
to offer? If not you are missing out on one of
your biggest opportunities to improve the
profitability of your business. That's because
your email often holds the key to:

- Determining what your customers really want.
- Improving your website.
- Improving your selling process.
- Finding really responsive customers.
- Building long-term customer relations.
- Learning from your competition.

Let's look at how mining your email can help in
each of the areas mentioned above.

Every day your customers and potential customers
email you asking questions or for clarification.
These emails provide very solid information on
what your customers are really looking for in
needed products and services. If you notice that
you are frequently asked for a product or service
that you don't offer, ask yourself if you should
begin offering it. If your customers often ask
about a product or service that they can't find
should you create this product or service?
Is there a big need for this missing product or
service?

Do your customers frequently ask questions that
are answered right on your website? Perhaps you
should rewrite your website so that these
answers to frequently asked questions are more
prominent. Perhaps you should create a frequently
asked questions (FAQ) page. An example of this is
that I frequently get asked by visitors to one of
my website for my mailing address. These customers
feel uncomfortable giving their credit card
information over the internet. This indicates both
that I may need to make the mailing address more
prominent and that I may need to add verbiage on
how safe credit card transactions are over the
internet. I say "may" because both of these
features are already incorporated into this
website.

If you get many prospects or customers asking
about using alternative forms of payment, maybe
you should consider offering these too. Examples
of these alternatives include:
- Cash on delivery (COD)
- PayPals
- More different types of credit cards
- Electronic checks
Balance cost against benefits when considering
adding payment options. If only a few customers
ask for a particular payment method, it may
cost more than it's worth.

Your email is a ready source of responsive
customers. They email you asking for solutions
to their problems/needs. Believe it or not, many
of the internet marketers that they email NEVER
respond to their requests. For example, many
ezine publishers don't respond to requests for
advertising rates. They treat form letters
requesting such information as a nuisance since
this information is already on their websites.
However, if a person has taken the time to
request this information he IS a real prospect.
Be one of the ones to respond and you actually
stand out in the crowd. People are often
SUPRISED to get a fast response to their email
questions. Stand out in the crowd by responding
FAST and you have a big advantage. Maybe you don't
need to go looking for new customers. You may
have hundreds of anxious customers knocking at your
door.

You will get many "tire kickers" asking questions
via email. It is a balancing act since you can't
afford to exchange hundreds of emails back and forth
with someone who isn't even sure he wants to start
an online business. At the same time, if you are
one of the ones who helps the newbie get started,
you are the one they will purchase from later on
when they need business products and services.
Your online success hinges on building long-term
relationships.

Finally, mine your email to learn what your
competitors are doing. Read their emails to see
what products and services they are selling and
for how much. Can you offer the same quality
of products and services cheaper? Is the field
for this product or service over crowded? What
techniques are the "BIG" guys using. If the big,
successful guys are using a given promotional
method for a long time, you had better believe
this is working. They don't normally throw away
money on promotional efforts that aren't proving
successful. Notice how they structure their
email offers. Notice the frequency of their
follow-up, etc. They are showing you what is
working for them.

Sifting through you email inbox is a part of
doing business online. Learn to do it properly
and the sifting turns into mining. Learn to mine
properly and you'll reap big returns!
----------------

Willie Crawford is an internet marketing consultant who
has aided hundreds in building very successful online
businesses. Feel free to drop by his marketing discussion
board at http://williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi
today to discuss marketing and website traffic issues ;-)
Visit: http://software.secrets-exposed.com/e/?wcrawford
to discover how he'll pay for a NEW Florida home this year

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note:
This article first appeared in our ezine, Limitless
Marketing Ezine. I publish original material
similar to this in each weekly issue. If you are not
a subscriber please sign up today using the form at:
http://williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

Feel free to publish this article in your ezine,
in your ebook or on your website. A note telling me
that you published the article would be appreciated.
My email address is willie@williecrawford.com

Thank you,
Willie Crawford

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