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How Can Automated Software Help YOUR Small Business?

Casey Stillman | August 27, 2009 | 3 Comments
Email Marketing 101
How Can Automated Software Help YOUR Small Business?
Please help me welcome my guest blogger this week, Casey Stillman.
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Casey StillmanIn the fast paced and ever changing world of Internet Marketing, one thing is a constant… CHANGE! What worked last year may not be as effective this year… what worked three years ago most likely is a dead technique. But the goal of Internet Marketing is still the same… to get the consumer to BUY!

Whether you sell B2C or B2B, the overall objective for any web presence is to ultimately turn that visitor into a Customer or Client. You deploy a combination of Internet Marketing Strategies to get the prospect to your site. You have a good technique for keeping that visitor on your site long enough to build trust and confidence. Within minutes of visiting your site, you convince the visitor to commit to your Call to Action and actually inquire about your product or service. At a minimum, they opt-in to receive your marketing. So your Internet Marketing approach did its job… now it’s your turn!

So, the lead is sitting in your inbox… now what?

If you’re like many entrepreneurs, you made a New Year’s Resolution back in January to personally contact each and every prospect within hours of visiting your website or blog. Maybe you even invested in an auto responder that kicks in once the visitor fills out your web form. If you’re like most people, you get a ton of email and you try to be diligent about staying on top of new business that comes to your email. Is that good enough?

Too many small business owners and entrepreneurs struggle with how to handle a little talked about process that, when asked, we all say we do well…

FOLLOW-UP!

I know, I know… you’re ready to stop reading this article because you are a pro at following up with your leads… right? But ask yourself honestly, do you contact each and every lead or prospect 5-12 times in a timely and systematic process until they buy your product or service?

Really? You do? Then you can stop reading now! But for the rest of us, read on. So, why “touch” every lead or prospect 5-12 times? The National Sales Executive Association, an organization of professional salespeople, has compiled statistics on when a sale is actually made:

2% of Sales are made on the 1st Contact

3% of Sales are made on the 2nd Contact

5% of Sales are made on the 3rd Contact

10% of Sales are made on the 4th Contact

80% of Sales are made on the 5th-12th Contact

Unfortunately, too many small business owners and entrepreneurs live by the “Buy or Die” principle! This common practice is the result of years of frustration when a lead or prospect fails to purchase your product or service on the first or second attempt to “sell” them. Either they “Buy” from you, or the lead “Dies” in your vast list of to-dos that never get done!

You know who you are… you have that list of things that really need to get done to grow your business that you HOPE will “magically” get done some rainy day! You mean well, but what if you had an automated solution to do the follow-up for you; in a “timely and systematic process until they buy your product or service”, how much more effective could your marketing be?

I have spent the last 10 years working with various software solutions like ACT!, Goldmine, Salesforce, and countless others I tried to forget. It wasn’t until about a year or so ago that I discovered a TOTAL Small Business Marketing & Management solution called Infusionsoft. I was looking for software that could grow with my small business and fix my personal “Follow-up Failure”!

Before you spend another penny trying to market your products or services to more and more people, FOLLOW-UP with the ones that have already contacted you!! You’ll be shocked at the money it puts in your pocket.

Casey Stillman has been a Small Business Owner and Serial Entrepreneur for over 20 years. When it comes to YOUR Small Business, give him 6 Hours and he can change YOUR life… To learn more, visit www.the6HourConsultant.com.
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