You Can’t Master Internet Marketing Until You Become A Good Communicator
When you initially start to get into Internet marketing and explore the waters a little, it’s not difficult to feel overwhelmed. As you go through information in articles and online forums, you’ll find all sorts of lists featuring “how you too can be the next big thing!” The items on these lists probably all appear to be contradictory. One will tell you that you have to be patient if you desire to be the next big thing. Another will tell you that you have to be super smart about business if you desire to be the next big thing. Nevertheless, others will tell you that creativity is the ingredient to wild and astounding success. And don’t forget about all of the pages telling you that the software package they are offering is what will help you become an Internet marketing success.
Here’s the facts: All of these things count (well, perhaps not the software package, but the other things). Business smarts, creativity and patience are all extremely important to your success in IM. None of these things will matter much, though, if you are not able to communicate well with your customers. Reputation Management is as important to your business as anything else you do. Loose your reputation and it takes forever to gain customer confidence again.
There is more to effective communication than putting up an impressive sales page. You can find a highly skilled copywriter to take care of that for you. A beautiful website and extensive FAQ are not what you need for effective communication. A skilled designer and writer can give you those. Effective communication involves being good with interpersonal communication and in straightforward copy too. So what are you supposed to do to be a good communicator?
1. Answer each email you receive within 24 hours of it hitting your inbox. This is not a joke. You don’t have to write a long answer for every mail. You can simply inform the person who emailed you that you’ve read his email and will be getting back to him soon. It is a good idea to include a a portion of the email the sender has written when you do this. This tells the person that you genuinely go through every email you got and are not an autoresponder.
2. Don’t let the telephone ring and ring. Don’t screen your calls. If your telephone starts to ring, pick it up by the third ring. Do so even if you truly don’t wish to talk to the person on the other end. There’s great news about this rule. There’s no need for you to be attached to the telephone all day and all night. Instead, simply specify clear “business” hours during which you can answer phone calls. Let your business hours known on your site and state them in your voice mail message. And, most importantly, make sure you return calls.
3. Follow up with people to be certain that your messages and emails have actually been received. This demonstrates to them that you value your correspondence with them. You’ll endear yourself more with the people you work with and who purchase from you if you ask them if they have any questions and double check to be sure that they understood the points you were trying to make.
And last but not least, get your website optimized so that people can find you on the web. Your website is a great way to communicate with your customers, but requires search engine optimization to let people find you when they have questions about your company.
