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Are_You_Losing_Sales_Because_Of_Your_Email_Link
| Are You Losing Sales Because Of Your Email Link?
Copyright © 2004 Steve Shaw
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 prefills 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.
About the author:
Steve Shaw develops software and systems for effective
e-marketing. His PopUpMaster Pro software at
http://popupmaster.com creates popups that beat the popup
blockers and which are compatible with Google Adwords.
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