Your business needs a rapid response email system. Without such a service your company or organisation will lose reputation as well as custom. In other words if you do not have a rapid response email system in place, you will lose money and could damage the entire future of your business.

Research suggests that customers want you to respond within one hour of their email. They find that waiting any longer is annoying and is deemed rude. So if you do not reply within the hour you are damaging your reputation and storing up negative feelings about your company within your audience.

So how do you organise a one-hour response system? There are two difficulties that you will face however you do this. Firstly, you may work alone or in a small organisation where one-hour responses are difficult to organise as you have so much else to do. Secondly, your business may be so busy generally that you cannot cope with the volume of emails you receive and that need answering within an hour.

The first step to take is to analyze the kind of emails you receive from customers. Do they ask similar questions? Are they on recurring topics? Who are they addressed to? What are the most frequent things you are asked about?

Once you have done some analysis of your emails you can then work out what to do with them to reduce the volume that you need to handle, but also to ensure that people get a reply within the hour. The best way of doing this is to publish several different email addresses that will focus on the specific areas your customers want to contact you about. Then each email address should be set up as an autoresponder so that an immediate response is provided.

An example of a rapid response email system
Here is an example that will help you see what you can do to improve your email response.

An Internet marketer sells information in a subscription-only membership site. The members of the site contact the owner for several reasons including:

• Payment issues


• Navigation problems


• Information suggestions

The company has set up three email addresses, one for each of these areas:

• payments@companydomain.com


• website@companydomain.com


• suggestions@companydomain.com

Then for each of those email addresses they have used Marketer's Choice to establish an autoresponder. So, as soon as someone sends a question to 'payments' for instance an email is sent out which says that a detailed response will be provided soon, but in the meantime 'here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions we get about payments'. In this way, anyone asking about payment information is provided with a personal response, immediately upon sending an email. If they subsequently respond to that autoresponder email (because their question is not covered in the FAQs) the reply is diverted to another email address which alerts the Internet marketer with an SMS text message. In that way they know they have an urgent email which requires immediate response.

My own example
In my case as a single Internet marketer I have found that most of the emails I get from customers relate to issues at the final stages of the buying process. Things like not getting the download link, or the non delivery of a receipt are the kind of things that most people ask about. Often, the answer is simply that their spam filtering system has blocked the emails. So, I have set up a "support@" email which goes out to anyone requesting support.

Using the Marketer's Choice system means an immediate response goes out. I then get a message telling me who is looking for support. I also build up a mailing list of people who asked for support, which I can then use for further contacts or market research. If I used my ISPs autoresponder system I would not have any of these advantages.

By having this immediate response I have found that people trust me and like my business more than similar businesses. The people who have emailed my "support@" email address tell me they were impressed by the quick response and that they found the FAQs in the email very helpful. Indeed, only a handful of people have needed further help. What this has all meant is that I have provided rapid response to emails from my customers, keeping them happy and enhancing my business reputation. In addition, it has reduced my email workflow, freeing up time to work on the business.

Other options
Your volume of emails, of course, may be greater. Or you may have a kind of business that needs a more individual response. In this case you could delegate much of your email answering to a call centre. Many of the online 24/7 call centres will now also answer emails for you. The basis for each response can be provided by you in the form of templates. But these email centres mean you can respond to customers within an hour, even if they need an individual response and you are asleep.

Whatever you do to arrange rapid response emails, though, you need to ensure your system can respond to customers quickly. Otherwise you will lose their income and they will start telling other people how bad you are.

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Putting up a company would of course require a lot of things, to get straight to the point, you need a capital. To make money requires money as well. But of course, with the versatility the internet offers, there are many ways you could find that could help optimize the potential of your site or business in generating traffic.

While there are ways to jumpstart your traffic flows, many sites don’t have the resources that others have to generate more traffic for your site. Well, you don’t have to spend a cent; all you need is the proper mindset and a lot of eagerness. You also must have the drive and perseverance to do hard work and research to generate more traffic for your site.

How sweet it is to have more traffic for your site without spending a single cent. Now it’s a sure thing that many sites have articles that offer tips and guidelines in how to generate traffic using only free methods. Because it is possible, you don’t need to speed a single cent, it may take time, to say honestly, I’m not going to beat around the bush with you. You get better chances by paying for your advertisements, but at least you get a fighting chance with some of these free methods I’m about to tell you.

Take advantage of online forums and online communities. The great thing about forums and online communities is that you can target a certain group that fits the certain demographic that you are looking for. You can discuss about lots of things about the niche that you represent or offer. Another great advantage is that you know what you are getting into and you will be prepared.

With online communities and forums you can build a reputation for your company. Show them what you are made of and wow them with your range of expertise about the subject, with that you can build a reputation and build trust with the people in your expertise and knowledge.

You can also make use of newsletters. Provide people with a catalog of your products and interesting and entertaining articles. If you make it really interesting and entertaining, more people will sign up for your newsletter and recommend it to other people. The more people who signs up for your newsletter, the more people there will be that will go to your site increasing your traffic.

Another great idea is trading links with other sites. You don’t have to spend a cent. All you have to do is reach an agreement with another webmaster. With exchanging links, the efforts both sites do will benefit both sites. Every traffic that goes to the site could potentially click on the link of your site and visit your site as well. This works well especially when both sites feature the same niche.

Write articles that could pique the attention of people that have interest in your product. Try writing articles that will provide tips and guides to other aficionados. Writing articles that provide good service and knowledge to other people would provide the necessary mileage your traffic flow needs.

Many sites offer free submission and posting of your articles. When people find interest in your articles they have a good chance of following the track by finding out where the article originated. Include a link or a brief description of your company with the article and there’s a great probability that they will go to your site.

Write good content for your site. Many search engines track down the keywords and keyword phrases your site uses and how they are used. It is not a requirement that a content should be done by a professional content writer. You could do your on but you have to make content for your site that is entertaining as well as informational. It should provide certain requirements as well as great quality. Generally, internet users use search engines to find what they are looking for. Search engines in return use keyword searching in aiding their search results. With the right keywords, you could get high rankings in search engine results without the costs.

All of these methods and more will drive more traffic to your site for free. All it takes is a bit of effort and extended man hours. Learn all you can about the methods depicted here and you will soon have a site with a great traffic flow without the usual costs that come with it.

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Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers to your websites. But in order for visitors to reach their destination - your website - you need to provide them with specific and effective signs that will direct them right to your site. You do this by creating carefully chosen keywords.

Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of the Internet. Find the exactly right words or phrases, and presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if your keywords are too general or too over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it all the way to your site - or of seeing any real profits from the visitors that do arrive - decreases dramatically.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the right people may never get the chance to find out about it. So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and phrases.

You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. It's hard to be objective when you are right in the center of your business network, which is the reason that you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers as you can. You will most likely find out that your understanding of your business and your customers' understanding is significantly different.

The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you probably never would have considered from deep inside the trenches of your business.

Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from outside resources should you add your own keyword to the list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for the next step: evaluation.

The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a small number of words and phrases that will direct the highest number of quality visitors to your website. By "quality visitors" I mean those consumers who are most likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three elements: popularity, specificity, and motivation.

Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective quality. The more popular your keyword is, the more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a search engine which will then bring up your URL.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating based on real search engine activity. Software such as WordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and phrases. The higher the number this software assigns to a given keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect to be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the search engine position you will need to obtain. If you are down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will probably never scroll down to find you.

Popularity isn't enough to declare a keyword a good choice. You must move on to the next criteria, which is specificity. The more specific your keyword is, the greater the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase your goods or services will find you.

Let's look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have obtained popularity rankings for the keyword "automobile companies." However, you company specializes in bodywork only. The keyword "automobile body shops" would rank lower on the popularity scale than "automobile companies," but it would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of getting a slew of people interested in everything from buying a car to changing their oil filters, you will get only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled fenders being directed to your site. In other words, consumers ready to buy your services are the ones who will immediately find you. Not only that, but the greater the specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer rather than the seller to figure out what motivation prompts a person looking for a service or product to type in a particular word or phrase. Let's look at another example, such as a consumer who is searching for a job as an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose between "Seattle job listings" and "Seattle IT recruiters" which do you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were looking for this type of specific job, which keyword would you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second keyword targets people who have decided on their career, have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or her life in between beer parties. You want to find people who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires subtle tinkering of your keywords until your find the most specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most motivated traffic to you site.

Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done. You must continually evaluate performance across a variety of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how many of your visitors actually made a purchase.

Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you judge the effectiveness of your keywords in individual search engines. There is now software available that analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic. This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you the most valuable customers.

This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your product. This is the most important factor in evaluating the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better profits.

Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for search engine success. This may sound like a lot of work - and it is! But the amount of informed effort you put into your keyword campaign is what will ultimately generate your business' rewards.

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It's not true that everything that has been said has already been written. Since that unfortunate axiom came into use, the whole universe has changed. Technology has changed, ideas have changed, and the mindsets of entire nations have changed.

The fact is that this is the perfect time to write an ebook. What the publishing industry needs are people who can tap into the world as it is today - innovative thinkers who can make the leap into the new millennium and figure out how to solve old problems in a new way. Ebooks are a new and powerful tool for original thinkers with fresh ideas to disseminate information to the millions of people who are struggling to figure out how to do a plethora of different things.

Let's say you already have a brilliant idea, and the knowledge to back it up that will enable you to write an exceptional ebook. You may be sitting at your computer staring at a blank screen wondering, "Why? Why should I go through all the trouble of writing my ebook when it's so impossible to get anything published these days?

Well, let me assure you that publishing an ebook is entirely different than publishing a book in print. Let's look at the specifics of how the print and cyber publishing industry differ, and the many reasons why you should take the plunge and get your fingers tapping across those keyboards!

Submitting a print book to conventional publishing houses or to agents is similar to wearing a hair shirt 24/7. No matter how good your book actually is, or how many critique services and mentor writers have told you that "you've got what it takes," your submitted manuscript keeps coming back to you as if it is a boomerang instead of a valuable mine of information.

Perhaps, in desperation, you've checked out self-publishing and found out just how expensive a venture it can be. Most "vanity presses" require minimal print runs of at least 500 copies, and even that amount will cost you thousands of dollars. Some presses' minimal run starts at 1,000 to 2,000 copies. And that's just for the printing and binding. Add in distribution, shipping, and promotional costs and - well, you do the maths. Even if you wanted to go this route, you may not have that kind of money to risk.

Let's say you already have an Internet business with a quality website and a quality product. An ebook is one of the most powerful ways to promote your business while educating people with the knowledge you already possess as a business owner of a specific product or service.

For example, let's say that you've spent the last twenty-five years growing and training bonsai trees, and now you're ready to share your knowledge and experience. An ebook is the perfect way to reach the largest audience of bonsai enthusiasts.

Ebooks will not only promote your business - they will help you make a name for yourself and your company, and establish you as an expert in your field. You may even find that you have enough to say to warrant a series of ebooks. Specific businesses are complicated and often require the different aspects to be divided in order for the reader to get the full story.

Perhaps your goals are more finely tuned in terms of the ebook scene. You may want to build a whole business around writing and publishing ebooks. Essentially, you want to start an e-business. You are thinking of setting up a website to promote and market your ebooks. Maybe you're even thinking of producing an ezine.

One of the most prevalent reasons people read ebooks is to find information about how to turn their Internet businesses into a profit-making machine. And these people are looking to the writers of ebooks to provide them with new ideas and strategies because writers of ebooks are usually people who understand the new cyberspace world we now live in. Ebook writers are experts in Internet marketing campaigns and the strategies of promoting and distributing ebooks. The cyberspace community needs its ebooks to be successful so that more and more ebooks will be written.

You may want to create affiliate programs that will also market your ebook. Affiliates can be people or businesses worldwide that will all be working to sell your ebooks. Think about this? Do you see a formula for success here?

Figure out what your subject matter is, and then narrow it down. Your goal is to aim for specificity. Research what's out there already, and try to find a void that your ebook might fill.

What about an ebook about a wedding cake business? Or an ebook about caring for elderly pets? How about the fine points of collecting ancient pottery?

You don't have to have three masters degrees to write about your subject. People need advice that is easy to read and easily understood. Parents need advice for dealing with their teenagers. College students need to learn good study skills - quickly. The possibilities are endless.

After you've writtten your ebook
Getting your ebook out is going to be your focus once you've finished writing it, just as it is with print books. People will hesitate to buy any book from an author they've never heard of. Wouldn't you?

The answer is simple: give it away! You will see profits in the form of promoting your own business and getting your name out. You will find affiliates who will ask you to place their links within your ebook, and these affiliates will in turn go out and make your name known. Almost every single famous ebook author has started out this way.

Another powerful tool to attract people to your ebook is to make it interactive. Invent something for them to do within the book rather than just producing pages that contain static text. Let your readers fill out questionnaires, forms, even crossword puzzles geared to testing their knowledge on a particular subject. Have your readers hit a link that will allow them to recommend your book to their friends and associates. Or include an actual order form so at the end of their reading journey, they can eagerly buy your product.

When people interact with books, they become a part of the world of that book. The fact is just as true for books in print as it is for ebooks.

That's why ebooks are so essential. Not only do they provide a forum for people to learn and make sense of their own thoughts, but they can also serve to promote your business at the same time.

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The first known ‘blog’ appeared on the web in December 1997. A year later, at the end of 1998, there were only 23 web sites that were of the same kind – constantly updated snippets of information written by one person. It was not until the middle of 1999 that software services were provided to enable non-technical people to write their own web logs (blogs). Since that time, the phenomenon of blogging has risen exponentially. Nowadays, around 400 blogs are added to the World Wide Web every minute.

Blogs are web pages that can be updated quickly and easily by anyone. You don’t need special skills, nor do you need any special software programs. If you can type, you can blog. Typically, a blog consists of several entries, called ‘posts’. Each post can be anything from a few words, to several thousand words. The posts can be about things you have seen, ideas you have had, places you have visited – anything really. Some people use blogs to record a daily journal of their life. Others use them to promote their business. Some people use blogs to exchange ideas or to get people interested in a particular topic. There are blogs on hobbies, sports, management, families, technology – you name it, there will probably be a blog about it.

Blogs are here to stay
Blogging is not some ‘flash in the pan’, here today, gone tomorrow idea. It is permanent; true the technology may change, but the concept of blogging is likely to endure. That’s because it provides an online alternative to the diary, the notebook or the filing cabinet full of clippings and notes. Blogs can bring all of those things easily into one central location for you. Indeed, the business world is taking to blogging in huge numbers. Some businesses believe that blogging is now an essential tool in their marketing and image. And don’t just take my word for it. Business Week magazine recently ran a cover story on blogging and said that blogging was a ‘prerequisite’ for business.

Many large international businesses are turning their attention to 'blogs'. McDonalds, for instance uses blogs within its advertising campaigns; Disney uses blogging for its Intranet. However, blogging has a 'bad name'. That's because there are many dreadful blogs. Many people just type in their daily routines; who wants to read that they've just let the cat out? Or, who wants to read some rant from a weirdo? Well, you can if you want.

Blogging can have positive aspects.
For instance, look at http://www.elliotjones.co.uk. Elliot is my son; he was born on 24th November 1999 and has been blogging since before he could read and write! OK, he's had some help from me. Each month, Elliot's blog gets around 800 visitors. Not that many, but most of them are 'regulars'; nice that they care. But the real reason for the blog is that it helps us keep in touch with family and friends spread throughout the world. For instance, Elliot has aunties and uncles in the USA and in Canada, as well as friends in New Zealand and Australia. They all take a regular peek at the blog so they can keep up to date with what's going on; it's so much easier than letters and cheaper than phone calls. But there's another reason for running this site as a blog – it's easy. If suddenly we decide to add some text, we can do it in a few minutes. However, if it were a traditional web site it would take ages to set up a new page. With blogging, the whole process is automated. Plus, it doesn’t cost any money. With traditional web publishing, you may need to get a web designer to change the pages for you – and that would cost and take time.

Blogs show the world who you are
If you look at a blog, you get an instant idea of the person behind the page. You can peek into their personality, from the very words they write. You get an idea about their preferences thanks to the items they choose to write about. In short, a blog allows you to understand the writer and form a relationship with them, if you become a regular reader.

For people who simply write a blog for entertainment or for personal reasons this may not be a problem. But for the rest of us, the fact that other people can view our blogs and find out more about us could be a problem. What if a potential employer checked out your blog as part of a job application? What if a customer of your business looked at your blog and disliked you? What if a colleague found it difficult to work with you after reading your blog? As you can see, a blog reveals more about you than you might want.

Conversely, a blog can have other effects. Potential employers may look at your blog and discover you are just the person for the job. Customers may find out about the real you and be more willing to do business with you. And your work colleagues may discover that you could be more of a friend than they thought.
A blog allows you to show the world who you are.
Blogs are part of your brand

Clearly, showing the world who you are can have positive impacts on your business and career. But having a blog means that you have an additional piece of ammunition in letting people who matter know more about you. For instance, you may wear particular colours, have a specific hairstyle and use particular accessories to help identify you. The mobile phone you choose, whether or not you use taxis or a bus are all part of the individual you reveal to the outside world. Everything you do helps establish your identity.

Having a blog is part of that identity formation, so you need to ensure your blog is consistent with your brand. This means your blog needs to be written ‘from the heart’. Use your emotions, your instincts and the real you to drive what you write in your blog. Trying to be clever or business-like will mean your blog will be too removed from your own identity and so it will not help support your brand.

Take a look at http://www.tompeters.com. Tom Peters is the world’s leading guru on management. You’ll see that his entire web site is a blog. His brand as a management guru is well established; he has been at the peak of his profession for decades. Yet nowadays, he is using his blog as a central component in his brand management. Clearly if one of the world’s leading management thinkers is so keen on blogging, it must be important.

But because blogs are an essential component of your personal brand it means you should avoid using all the ‘default’ values and designs provided by the blogging services. Otherwise, your blog will look just like another blog and it will not reflect your individualism. For this reason, you should at least adapt the templates provided by the blogging services, or design your own pages or buy in a bespoke layout and style to match your brand. The Tom Peters web site does not look like a typical blog, but it is a blog nevertheless.

How to get a blog
By far the easiest way to get yourself going with a blog is to go to http://www.blogger.com. Just sign up for a new account, which is free, and then you can start your blog in a few simple steps. It is perfectly possible to get your blog up and running within an hour.

There are alternative systems to blogging, such as TypePad, WordPress and others. However, Blogger is by far the simplest and is extremely flexible. It is owned by Google and so comes with the backing of a solid, international business that knows a thing or two about the Internet.

Whatever you do, though, you need to get blogging fast. Businesses, employers and colleagues are increasingly reading blogs to find out more about the real person. If you don’t have a blog, you could lose out to those people who do, because your brand is not complete without a blog.

Labels: blogging

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