You have your online business running sales are good, your marketing campaign is bringing in new customers your business is growing. You are receiving emails about your service or product now what?
A person who emails you has an interest in your business. To delay a response or ignore this person would be the start of your business decline. This may not happen immediately but eventually word of mouth would bet around that you do not care for your customers or potential customers enough to provide good customer service. This will then lead people to go somewhere else for their purchases. Some tips for effectively dealing with email.
Try and answer email within 24 hours minimum. The maximum time frame you would want is 48 hours. To accomplish this you will want to set aside time each day just to respond to emails. Some say three times a day, morning, mid afternoon, and evening is best as it ensures everyone gets a timely response.
Make sure you are courteous and professional. There are some times you just don’t feel like answering a question that has an answer plainly on your website or sales letter, or some question you feel is irrelevant or foolish. The urge to send a fiery response is there. If you do not feel you can politely and professionally answer, take a break. Come back after you took some time to cool down. To the customer who asked this is an important part of their decision on whether they will do business with you or not. Do not push away a customer or potential customer with a hasty emotional response.
If you really dislike answering email or it becomes too much for you to keep up with. Hire someone to do this task for you. You will want to choose this person carefully. Get someone who is friendly and knows your business. Find someone who has the time and English skill necessary to get a prompt and understandable reply back to the customer.
Some questions you will get over and over. For these have a standard response that set aside that you can cut and paste into your response and then tailor the rest of your response to that particular customers email.
Learn to use your email filters. This will automatically sort your email along with any junk mail you receive. The advantage now is if you set up folders for sales, customer inquiries, feedback and others. You can then prioritize your responses. Answer your email them in an order that you feel is important. You may want to respond to inquiries and feed back faster than sales. By using email filters you save time from having to separate into groups yourself.
We all understand that things do come up unexpectedly. This can cause a delay in responses. Make use of an auto responder, post it on your website, or send out a newsletter quick if something comes up. People are aware that things can happen and will understand just make sure you keep them informed on when they can expect a response.
If you pay attention to your customers and potential customers comments, questions, or concerns you will make them a happy and loyal group who will help your sales. If you ignore them, they will then go somewhere else. This will also have an effect on your sales only it will be a negative effect.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Online Business Tips
You have your online business up and running. But are you making as much as you could? Do you want to stay at current level or do better and make this a full time income? If you are thinking this way you may want to consider some making some changes.
The first thing to consider would be changing your website or sales letter. There are some sites that offer free content to help attract customers and establish your credibility. Then you have sites that are just one single sales letter. There are many people who believe that the creation of mini sites is better for creating sales. The reason is they don’t have any other content and will concentrate on you message. If you do not feel you write well it is a very worthwhile expenditure to hire someone. A well written sales letter will pay for itself many times over.
Be sure to keep copies of the older versions of letters since things can change quickly so you will be able to go back to a previous version if you find you are getting less results from the new copy.
Try sending postcards to potential customers. Many people prefer to be contacted by mail and with today’s email having a multitude of offerings a post card very well can set you apart. You do not have to rely strictly on contacting people thru an online medium. There is a world outside of the Internet that can be used very effectively to get customers to read your message.
Can your online business bring repeat customers? What kind of ideas do you have about complimenting products? If someone is happy with a product they purchased from you they will be less hesitant on purchasing again. Be sure to let your current customers know of any new product additions. If you are selling services contact your customers to let them know you are available for work and maybe offer some discount or other incentive to use you again. These repeat and satisfied customers can be great referrals to others about your online business.
You never stop learning. You never know what new information you have may significantly change your business for the better. There are so many manuals that offer advice it would be basically impossible to read them all. Select one or two and really study them, put the ideas to work after you have read them and track the progress.
Try widening your income opportunities. For example if you sell a home repair book, you may also then sell blueprints or a series of common project plans such as a deck, utility shed to name a couple. The trick is to sometimes find a natural connection. Sometimes is may also be profitable to think of a new market to become jointly involved with. Such as home repair book and then become a home loan or construction loan affiliate. It is a matter of finding another target group that can benefit from your service or product.
The final outcome is you want to attract new customers while continually taking care of your current customers. Sometimes it is just a matter of some slight changes that will bring the desired income increase from your online business.
The first thing to consider would be changing your website or sales letter. There are some sites that offer free content to help attract customers and establish your credibility. Then you have sites that are just one single sales letter. There are many people who believe that the creation of mini sites is better for creating sales. The reason is they don’t have any other content and will concentrate on you message. If you do not feel you write well it is a very worthwhile expenditure to hire someone. A well written sales letter will pay for itself many times over.
Be sure to keep copies of the older versions of letters since things can change quickly so you will be able to go back to a previous version if you find you are getting less results from the new copy.
Try sending postcards to potential customers. Many people prefer to be contacted by mail and with today’s email having a multitude of offerings a post card very well can set you apart. You do not have to rely strictly on contacting people thru an online medium. There is a world outside of the Internet that can be used very effectively to get customers to read your message.
Can your online business bring repeat customers? What kind of ideas do you have about complimenting products? If someone is happy with a product they purchased from you they will be less hesitant on purchasing again. Be sure to let your current customers know of any new product additions. If you are selling services contact your customers to let them know you are available for work and maybe offer some discount or other incentive to use you again. These repeat and satisfied customers can be great referrals to others about your online business.
You never stop learning. You never know what new information you have may significantly change your business for the better. There are so many manuals that offer advice it would be basically impossible to read them all. Select one or two and really study them, put the ideas to work after you have read them and track the progress.
Try widening your income opportunities. For example if you sell a home repair book, you may also then sell blueprints or a series of common project plans such as a deck, utility shed to name a couple. The trick is to sometimes find a natural connection. Sometimes is may also be profitable to think of a new market to become jointly involved with. Such as home repair book and then become a home loan or construction loan affiliate. It is a matter of finding another target group that can benefit from your service or product.
The final outcome is you want to attract new customers while continually taking care of your current customers. Sometimes it is just a matter of some slight changes that will bring the desired income increase from your online business.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Online Business Checklist
Here is another helpful tips that you can apply to jump start your online business. Read it through and make these tips work on your advantage.
So the desire for starting a business online business is calling you. You have some great ideas; have a lot of enthusiasm your ready to start. You’re going to make a large amount of money and be your own boss. Well wait a minute regardless of the claims of how easy it is to get rich off the Internet. You will find starting an online business is no different than starting a business in the non virtual world. Maybe you need to consider some things first to make this profitable and mistake free.
When contemplating starting an online business you need to take an honest look at yourself. What are your skills? What kind of interests do you have? Many people stared their online business in the fields that they worked. A graphic artist could start a web design company or produce custom graphics. You will also want to think of the type of jobs you truly enjoy.
Do your homework to start your online business. Do not make the mistake of putting all your efforts, money and time into a service you want and try and find a market for it. You can not make people like your service or product. Instead find out what the consumer would like and then design a service or product to fit that need. Also just like a real world business there is a certain amount of risk. By doing your homework you can lessen that risk by finding something people will buy and for how much. This allows you adjust your costs to make sure of a profit.
You also need to study your competition. Find out what they are doing and what works or what doesn’t work. The more information that you have in regards to the market and your competition the better chance of success you will have.
Starting your online business you need to have a plan and follow it. What will it cost to start? Where will you get that money? If you are going to ask for a loan you will need to have a business plan to present to the loaning institution. It is a good idea to have a business plan even if you are funding your online business yourself. It will give you some set goals to look at.
To get your online business going you will need to make a time commitment and keep it. It will be difficult to keep a full time job and work on your new online business. You probably will not be able to accomplish that unless you set a specific time to work on it. Starting an online business and making it profitable enough for you to work full time on it does take some time.
You have done the required research, taken the time and made the commitment for your online business. You feel that now have a great product that the world wants and priced that they can afford and you make a profit. You have one more thing to consider marketing. Your customers need to be able to find your product so they can purchase it. This can be done online, offline, or a combination of them both. You will need to continually study what works and what doesn’t until you find what works for you the best. However, remember what works today, may today may not tomorrow and be able and willing to change your approach to marketing as the consumers dictate.
So the desire for starting a business online business is calling you. You have some great ideas; have a lot of enthusiasm your ready to start. You’re going to make a large amount of money and be your own boss. Well wait a minute regardless of the claims of how easy it is to get rich off the Internet. You will find starting an online business is no different than starting a business in the non virtual world. Maybe you need to consider some things first to make this profitable and mistake free.
When contemplating starting an online business you need to take an honest look at yourself. What are your skills? What kind of interests do you have? Many people stared their online business in the fields that they worked. A graphic artist could start a web design company or produce custom graphics. You will also want to think of the type of jobs you truly enjoy.
Do your homework to start your online business. Do not make the mistake of putting all your efforts, money and time into a service you want and try and find a market for it. You can not make people like your service or product. Instead find out what the consumer would like and then design a service or product to fit that need. Also just like a real world business there is a certain amount of risk. By doing your homework you can lessen that risk by finding something people will buy and for how much. This allows you adjust your costs to make sure of a profit.
You also need to study your competition. Find out what they are doing and what works or what doesn’t work. The more information that you have in regards to the market and your competition the better chance of success you will have.
Starting your online business you need to have a plan and follow it. What will it cost to start? Where will you get that money? If you are going to ask for a loan you will need to have a business plan to present to the loaning institution. It is a good idea to have a business plan even if you are funding your online business yourself. It will give you some set goals to look at.
To get your online business going you will need to make a time commitment and keep it. It will be difficult to keep a full time job and work on your new online business. You probably will not be able to accomplish that unless you set a specific time to work on it. Starting an online business and making it profitable enough for you to work full time on it does take some time.
You have done the required research, taken the time and made the commitment for your online business. You feel that now have a great product that the world wants and priced that they can afford and you make a profit. You have one more thing to consider marketing. Your customers need to be able to find your product so they can purchase it. This can be done online, offline, or a combination of them both. You will need to continually study what works and what doesn’t until you find what works for you the best. However, remember what works today, may today may not tomorrow and be able and willing to change your approach to marketing as the consumers dictate.
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