What does attending a job fair have to do with Web business? Usually, not too much — but this company was an exception. Read on (and the first post) to learn about their proactive follow-up techniques.

A few hours after I got the first text message from Widgetmakers, I checked my inbox and saw an email message from them. Okay, I thought, a form letter telling me to visit their site. I’ll bite. Then I opened the letter. There was the company graphic, a smiling associate, and a website address in big, bold print.

Nothing special, right? On a closer glance, though, I saw that the webpage address included my name! I had to click on it, just to see what they’d customized for me personally. It turned out to be a signup form, pre-populated with the info from my resume’, making it easy to join the list for getting more information. Once I did, I was sent to their website with articles and videos about the business program and my possible role in it.

Widgetmakers did a great job leading me through the steps to conversion (also see AIDA):

1. Attention: They had a booth in the public, at a place job-seekers — their target market — were likely to be. This started the conversation.
2. Interest: They sent me a text to show that I was at the top of their (virtual) mind, and to keep themselves in mine.
3. Desire: Their email message was customized to me, making me want to visit their website and see what they had made especially for me.
4. Action: They prompted me to join their newsletter by pre-filling my information, then led me to browse their site when I did.

Yes, all of this took some Web wizardry, but the concept isn’t too tough. You could do some of the same things with services such as Your Mailing List Provider. The point is to use technology to help draw people in, prompt them to form a conversation with you, and turn that into a purchase and ongoing customer/vendor relationship.