{"id":454,"date":"2010-02-15T00:33:58","date_gmt":"2010-02-15T04:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awgentry.com\/blog\/?p=454"},"modified":"2010-02-15T00:33:58","modified_gmt":"2010-02-15T04:33:58","slug":"automate-your-lead-follow-ups-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awgentry.com\/weblog\/automate-your-lead-follow-ups-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Automate Your Lead Follow-Ups, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Nothing special, right? On a closer glance, though, I saw that the webpage address included my name<\/strong>! I had to click on it, just to see what they’d customized for me personally. It turned out to be a signup form<\/strong>, pre-populated<\/strong> 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<\/strong> about the business program and my possible role in it.<\/p>\n

Widgetmakers did a great job leading me through the steps to conversion (also see AIDA<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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

    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<\/a>. The point is to use technology to help draw people in<\/strong>, prompt them to form a conversation<\/strong> with you, and turn that into a purchase<\/strong> and ongoing customer\/vendor relationship<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    \"Reblog<\/a>