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Are You Losing Sales Because Of Your Email Link?
I don't know about
you, but I get dozens of emails daily with completely blank
subject lines. The vast majority contain viruses or spam
messages, and due to an overloaded inbox and the impracticality
of going through each message individually, I tend to delete
these suspects automatically en masse, in the same way that I
delete other messages containing subject lines that scream spam.
This practice has in
the past cost me sales as occasionally I missed important
messages from prospects. If a prospect was taking the time to
email me, they were likely to be very interested in purchasing
the software - the last thing I wanted to do was miss their
message when it arrived. Not only did I miss a possible initial
sale, it also left them with a bad impression and they would be
likely to steer clear of my products in the future.
Also, existing
customers would sometimes send me emails with a blank subject
line requesting support - the consequent lack of response at my
end because of the blank subject line could lead to requests for
refunds that could have been avoided had I seen their email and
responded in my usual way. This also led to the loss of
potential future sales of other products that they might have
otherwise been interested in.
All in all,
important missed emails like this can be very costly.
I have therefore
since implemented a very simple strategy on my web site to
reduce this risk, and help to ensure that these important
messages reach me and actually get opened and responded to in my
usual quick way.
It involves a simple
adjustment of HTML that takes just seconds.
After looking around
several other web sites marketing products and services, it's
likely that they could benefit from the same easy-to-implement
strategy.
Here is what I used
to have in place.
On my web site, I
include an email address where prospects and customers can reach
me. It's a clickable email address, i.e. when the email address
link is clicked, it opens an empty email ready to send to me -
to achieve this, the anchor tag previously contained the
following HTML:
href="mailto:support@popupmaster.com"
The only problem was
that prospects, and perhaps customers, would click this link,
enter their message, and send the email without ever filling in
the subject line.
I have since
implemented a very simple change that makes it a lot easier for
them, and helps to ensure that I respond to their message when
it arrives in my inbox. All I did was adjust the HTML code for
the email link so that an specific subject line is automatically
inserted into the email. I can now easily recognize the email
when it arrives, and ensure it is filtered correctly.
Here is an example
of the replacement code that I now use in my email anchor tags:
href="mailto:support@popupmaster.com?subject
=PopUpMaster_question"
This simple
adjustment pre-fills the subject line and ensures there will be
little chance I will miss their email when it arrives.
Consequently my prospects and customers are happier, and my
business gains in strength.
By including a
suitable subject in the mailto: links on your web site, you can
achieve the same positive effect for your own business.
Steve Shaw develops software and systems for
effective e-marketing. For example, his PopUpMaster Pro software
allows you to easily add pop-ups that not only beat the pop-up
blockers, but which are also compatible with Google Adwords.
More information:
http://popupmaster.com |