Conducted by Gary Woods
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18:06:42 gary woods So what was the announced topic, something about mail merge??
18:07:04 burke Marketing Yourself with Mail Merge, with Both E-mail and Direct Mail; Cold Calling and
Examining Things like a Sphere of Influence and Expanding Outward from your Current Successes; Following up with Past Clients with the Idea of Generating Future Business.
18:07:31 gary woods boy that's a lot, did I really write that?
18:07:48 burke what was on the chat
18:07:58 burke email and posted
18:08:09 gary woods Last time I did one of these I was talking about how I'm the trainer for the board of realtors and one of the classes I teach is called mail merge
18:08:36 gary woods Have any of you tried using mail merge to solicit business?
18:08:47 burke ?
18:09:06 gary woods yes burke?
18:09:21 burke I have a list but the list doesn't seem to be "interactive" with my offers.....
18:09:25 web_chameleon like a constant contact type program?
18:09:45 gary woods I haven't used those, I was looking at it more as a direct solicitation
18:09:53 burke is there a way to get them to be more receptive to what I have
18:09:56 gary woods But certainly a constant contact is good
18:10:23 gary woods An incredible response from direct mail is considered to be about 3%
18:10:33 web_chameleon I find it easier to use as it adapts text or html depending on whether the person has AOL or whatever
18:11:10 gary woods When I send out direct mail I figure I have about 3 seconds when the person the letter from the time they toss it
18:11:16 gary woods Probably with email it's even less
18:11:41 gary woods I generally toss anything that comes to me with html, just because I know it's going to
be a solicitation of some sort
18:11:48 gary woods How does anybody else feel about that?
18:11:54 web_chameleon me, too - then what is the design and timing formula
18:11:54 kkraft I agree.
18:12:25 gary woods That's why if I send anything to somebody it looks exactly like an email they would receive from a friend
18:12:35 gary woods Not something that's glossy
18:12:41 web_chameleon ah!
18:13:16 gary woods The whole idea is to at least get them through the first paragraph and by using mail merge you're speaking directly to them
18:13:39 gary woods How do you go about collecting Email addresses?
18:13:50 gary woods Have you ever bought lists?
18:13:53 web_chameleon gary, could you please review mail merge as you are stating it here?
18:14:13 web_chameleon you may have done so and I can go look it up if you say where
18:14:21 gary woods Mail Merge is a method of taking a list of names address etc, and putting it into a letter
18:14:51 web_chameleon I collect email addresses by offering a really nice quarterly giveaway on one of my client's real estate web sites
18:15:00 gary woods For example it could start out Dear (their name) I'd like to speak to you about your company (name of their company)
18:15:04 web_chameleon ;-) just as it sounds - sorry to be so dense
18:15:41 gary woods As with anything brevity is really important in the web. If it can't be digested in a
second or two it's wasted
18:16:17 gary woods People are inundated with email. They may actually be interested in what you have to say, but be put off by the length, the look or any of a number of factors
18:16:55 gary woods Kristal have you used Mail Merge with you email clients, or used it in mailer solicitations?
18:18:06 gary woods Also, when I first talked to Robin about this chat I told her about being constantly
solicited by SEO firms and how she should talk to SEOs about how talk to people
18:18:46 gary woods I had one call me the other day and she started telling me about how she found my site 20 pages back in some search engine, and I asked her if she was an SEO and she hung up
18:19:33 web_chameleon bad manners
18:19:45 gary woods First off she was wrong about my site being 20 pages back, unless she was using some bizarre search that's got nothing to do with my site, but the fact that she didn't seem to be proud of being an SEO bothered me
18:20:26 gary woods Cold calling is really tough, but before you call someone you should spend the time to really know what it is you're talking about
18:20:48 web_chameleon If I were soliciting my business to a general mail list, how would you suggest
going about it?
18:20:50 gary woods If you call someone who is actually looking at their site and reference something which you think you could help them improve.
18:21:08 gary woods Well the first part of mail solicitation is to get a list
18:21:24 gary woods That's why I was asking about whether you bought lists or how you came across the
people.
18:21:35 web_chameleon accu-leads?
18:21:37 gary woods One way is to use Zeus
18:22:05 gary woods You can set up parameters for Zeus to follow and it wanders around the net picking up sites and emails for you to solicit.
18:22:35 gary woods There is actually a very good mail merge program built into Zeus, or you could just extract the data and make it into a text file that you could use
18:22:57 gary woods How do you like using accu-leads? and what kind of fee structure do they have?
18:23:42 web_chameleon Actually haven't used it yet, but seemed rather inexpensive
18:23:51 gary woods Another way of building a business is through referrals. Does anyone ask for referrals to other clients.
18:23:52 web_chameleon more expensive the more targeted you get
18:24:28 web_chameleon I intend to use it for a national bike trek to raise funds for the M. J. Fox Foundation
18:24:33 gary woods People who find success with one client should look to that client to provide leads to
others
18:25:01 gary woods So how many names are on the list?
18:25:20 gary woods and do you plan on using plain text or html?
18:25:52 gary woods For something like the M.J. Fox Foundation I might be tempted to go with something glossy looking. It's a classy event
18:26:04 web_chameleon I had planned to use html via constant contact
18:26:22 web_chameleon sort of build up the excitement in tracking these guys biking across the us
18:26:30 gary woods How many people on the list?
18:26:49 web_chameleon hope that sooner or later my please for donations would wear them down and loosen their wallets.
18:27:09 web_chameleon Not sure yet ...looking at medium sized businesses perhaps 1,000
18:27:16 gary woods So you plan to solicit the same people several times. Over what time period?
18:27:27 web_chameleon targeted to the pr person of that company
18:27:46 web_chameleon Starts in June so I intended to begin around May...
18:27:48 gary woods Do you follow up with phone calls?
18:28:04 web_chameleon mainly, the email was going to be an update for execs bored out of their mind at work
18:28:15 gary woods I always look at my activities as three fold.
18:28:29 web_chameleon they would wish they could follow their dreams ... the asking would be for understated
18:28:40 gary woods I use the Internet as a marketing tool, but I also look at a geographical farm and then a sphere of influence farm
18:29:11 gary woods Are you working in conjunction with other people on this project that are handling print solicitations?
18:29:59 web_chameleon nope, haven't the funding so we were going to focus on internet
18:29:59 kkraft web_chameleon I could link to you from my www.biketracks.net site. It's pretty well connected and gets lots of traffic.
18:30:49 gary woods Kristal, forgive me, but I missed what you said, could you repeat?
18:31:33 kkraft oh, Chameleon is promoting a bike trek across the us. I offered to link to him from my bike site I built while riding around the world.
\18:32:02 gary woods That's great, a friend of mine was in a group called the Iron Gents that traveled around the country.
18:32:38 gary woods So what kind of program do you use to send out your email web?
18:33:06 kkraft I'm using a real estate software called agent 2000. I found that form mail gets little
response.
18:33:11 web_chameleon so gary, if I do a bi-monthly trek update, would that reinforce my message about
support for MJFF?
18:33:26 web_chameleon Constant Contact
18:33:27 gary woods How do you like it Kristal?
18:33:51 kkraft I use it to follow up on leads until they "talk" to me. Then I do it all manually. I do need
to do more automated, it's getting out of hand.
18:34:05 kkraft I like it ok, been using it since the beginning of time.
18:34:05 web_chameleon I've seen agent 2000, so you aren't getting response from it?
18:34:11 gary woods What kind of numbers are you talking about?
18:34:31 kkraft Yes, I get response but the messages must be personalized a little.
18:34:53 kkraft I get 4-8 leads a day from my site. hubby gets about the same. it's overwhelming.
18:34:54 gary woods So do you use Mail Merge with Agent 2000 to speak directly to the prospect?
18:35:38 web_chameleon I should get my two realtor clients using it!
18:35:39 kkraft prospect is put into a2k and attached to a "drip" plan.
18:35:56 gary woods That's a great response.
18:36:00 web_chameleon they ineffectually use top producer, or is that not quite the same thing?
18:36:33 kkraft I "drip" on them until they respond to me. Then I talk to them personally from there. The
ones who never respond are just in my "webhits" folder. Someday I plan to email them Denver updates or something.
18:36:41 web_chameleon 2K? Drip plan?
18:36:49 gary woods Top Producer is really a database/contact management program with some email features
18:37:00 web_chameleon got it
18:37:03 kkraft 2k = agent 2000
18:37:25 kkraft drip plan is a series of letters seeking a response from lead
18:37:37 web_chameleon so would you suggest I take a closer look to agent 2000 or is this something I could do just as well at coming up with my own stuff?
18:37:59 gary woods You're definitely right about most Agents using Top Producer ineffectually. It's a very
deep program but most people use it like Outlook so really don't get the benefit of it
18:38:00 kkraft wc I don't know what you do?
18:38:45 kkraft A2K is a good program, we are networked so my assistant does the inputting and I do the follow-up
18:39:33 web_chameleon I am a web designer and an SEO. I handle a lot of print and web marketing for my clients, but need to do better ...
18:39:42 kkraft I put people into categories. Webhits being the lowest level. When they talk to me they
become prospects.
18:39:54 web_chameleon I am in a very competitive market - Hilton head Island, SC
18:40:14 web_chameleon it generally takes 5 years to turn a prospect into a sale for these investment properties
18:40:24 kkraft A successful website is good, but you must be positioned, and have the ability to convert leads into sales. It's a 3-legged stool.
18:40:59 web_chameleon sites not positioned as well as they should, which is why I took Robin's course
18:41:40 gary woods How has the course been working out for you?
18:42:09 web_chameleon I have yet to completely apply it ...
18:42:16 gary woods and are you primarily working with Realtors in the Hilton Head area?
18:42:30 web_chameleon however, instructor did not show up the other night and I gave a lecture on minisites...lol
18:42:37 web_chameleon I have two realtors
18:42:56 web_chameleon the miscellaneous other clients
18:43:00 gary woods Minisites meaning sites with not a lot of pages?
18:43:27 gary woods Would it make since to solicit your current clients for referrals to other people?
18:44:23 web_chameleon minisites meaning individual sites hosted on carious servers designed to focus each on one particular key phrase and sending traffic back to the main site, thus also helping its link popularity
18:44:34 web_chameleon yes, it would, gary
18:44:57 gary woods So what we from the dark ages would call a doorway site?
18:45:01 web_chameleon I am in the process of developing a monthly email contact - info - through constant contact
18:45:13 gary woods It's always best to get other people saying you're good than you saying it
18:45:23 web_chameleon ;-) yep, not just doorway pages, but doorway sites
18:45:49 gary woods It sounds like you're offering a lot of service to you people, do you get assistance with the print and media side of the business?
18:46:03 web_chameleon keep clients up to date, send interesting info and ask them to let a friend know about this email ... is this a lame approach?
18:46:29 web_chameleon only two print/media clients - thank God! One's my mother ;-)
18:46:33 gary woods I think the approach is fine, the trick is to find a way to breakthrough the din that's out
there
18:46:56 web_chameleon but she and my brother are a team and they're quite successful and people note their ads and try to keep up with their website, but it's not enough
18:47:11 web_chameleon yep, so tell me what to do, gary ;-)
18:47:18 gary woods We're all inundated everyday with solicitations for one product or service or another. But we're so put off by the overall volume that we don't take advantage of something that might really work for us
18:48:23 gary woods Look carefully at what you're sending out and constantly pare it down. Again, brevity is really the key to anything these days
18:48:35 web_chameleon so by sending them updates of interest, local happenings and major cultural events, would that not sort of bind them to us?
18:48:50 gary woods I think that's very strong
18:49:08 gary woods Because at the heart of what you're doing is providing a service which is useful and
hopefully beneficial to their life
18:49:11 web_chameleon I intended to state only one or more short paragraphs and offer a link to the website if they wanted more info
18:49:35 web_chameleon a few pics for the html folks to let them see what they are missing ;-)
18:49:50 gary woods I think that's also very strong. By keeping it short and providing interesting event they
start looking forward to hearing from you
18:50:08 web_chameleon that's it, I want to convey the importance of the service we offer, get them to realize that and suggest to others
18:50:14 gary woods That's great, as with your websites, keep the file size small so it loads quickly
18:50:39 gary woods Remember most people in the world don't have cable and dsl they're on dialup
18:51:21 gary woods You should not be afraid of telling them about your services however.
18:52:00 gary woods You can intersperse throughout the message small links or short descriptions of what you do business wise
18:52:11 web_chameleon meaning... what the realtors offer?
18:52:16 web_chameleon got it
18:52:32 gary woods Look at Danny Sullivan's newsletter, and Brent Winters newsletter. Sprinkled
throughout they have product solicitations
18:53:08 web_chameleon that's what made me
think I was on track. Webmonkey does the same, but they all use text?
18:53:36 gary woods Exactly, you need to bring them home to what you do. Don't' be ashamed of it, you provide and important service. A friend of mine always said never diminish what you do, there are enough people in the world to do that for you
18:53:39 web_chameleon is it okay to go for html? This program will shift the message into text should the client use only text or have html
18:53:58 gary woods I might try interspersing it, or doing it every other time
18:54:18 gary woods You have to weigh a uniform branding look against what works.
18:54:59 gary woods My impression is that plain text gets peoples attention, but I could be way off about this. Try both ways a few times and track what kind of response you get after each solicitation
18:55:34 gary woods The idea is always to expand out from what has worked for you.
18:55:48 web_chameleon sounds good. I think the Parkinson's thing for MJFF has got to be classy as we are asking for money and trying to drive continued interest, return interest
18:55:50 gary woods That way you're building on a series of successes, instead of casting about with
different ideas
18:56:13 web_chameleon so when is it ideal to use just text based messages?
18:56:24 gary woods I would definitely say yes on that. MJFF is a very classy and important cause.
18:57:30 web_chameleon yeah, I'm on track!
18:57:36 gary woods As I mentioned, I don't have any hard and fast rule on this, for a while at least I would
try alternating with text and html and measure the response. Your response will probably come within twenty-four hours of sending it out so it should be pretty easy to track
18:58:07 web_chameleon honestly, I really don't know what the hell I am doing, it just feels right
18:58:31 gary woods Has anybody got any questions, or suggestions before I wander over to the recliner and pour myself a glass of wine?
18:59:03 gary woods Feel is important. We all get caught up in process and trying to do exactly the right thing.
19:00:16 web_chameleon bikeamerica2003.com
19:00:54 web_chameleon gary, may I ask? what do you primarily use mail merge for?
19:01:20 gary woods I use Outlook for Email and Word for Print
19:01:28 gary woods I do runs of only about 500
19:02:08 gary woods and with that, thanks for making my evening a wonderful experience!!!
 

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