Get That E-mail Response Right

While you may be getting fewer e-mail leads from the Web these days, those leads are a lot more valuable in today's market, so you want to make sure you're making the most of them.

Since you may have a little more spare time when you're manning the model these days, an excellent way to put that time to use is reviewing and studying your email responses to see if you can make them more compelling and draw more of your new prospects into dialogs that will lead to a sale.

A good place to start (and end) that study is by taking a close look at the contact form on your Web site. Print it and keep the copy handy while you're studying the leads it has produced for you. Are you asking the right questions on the form? Are you asking for too much personal information?

Asking the right questions on your contact form requires careful thought. You want to get enough information to start a dialog with the new prospect, but not so much that you scare away those that are overly cautious with their privacy, or those that don't have the patience to answer a lot of questions - it's a fine line.

Having a clear statement on the form telling your site visitor that you won't share or abuse their contact information will help in putting them at ease.

I personally like using a standard reply when making my initial response to a new prospect. Of course, I tailor the reply for each new prospect and make sure any specific questions are answered, but the standard e-mail response helps make sure I've covered the basics.

I like to experiment with both my contact form and my responses. Over the past 12 years, I've changed our standard response letter at least a hundred times, thinking I've missed some magical words or phrases that will boost the conversion rate.

If nothing else, it keeps me from getting bored using the same old response and lets me rethink every step of our sales process.

Having a web-savvy sales consultant like Steve to help develop your standard replys will also go a long way in boosting your conversion rate and turn more of those Web leads into sales.

Here's a list of 16 tips for improving your e-mail communications. In your study, these tips may give you some ideas. If you can think of any more, we would like to hear them.