It is what everyone engaged in email marketing wants: lots of enquiries from those on their email lists. It is, after all, a way of measuring the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign. The only problem is, of course, that each one has to be dealt with.
Automation is a necessity of course, and here your email marketing software comes into play, taking the majority of the work from you. However, no matter how good it is, there will still be work for your staff.
Thee are two main way to lower the cost of this:
- Reduce the number of follow up emails,
- Reduce the time taken to deal with each one.
- In order to reduce the number of emails you need to work out why those on your email lists felt obliged to contact you. It could be something quite easy to resolve, perhaps a factor not covered fully in the email marketing copy. If so then the solution is obvious.
It could be that you went into as much depth as you think is reasonable. The purpose of a marketing email is to sell not inform. Too much information might lower the chances of a sale. Further details on the landing page or perhaps a hotlink might be the more effective option.
One popular way of heading off the routine type of query is a Frequently Asked Question facility. It is unfortunate for those involved in email marketing that it would appear less popular with customers. Despite reminders and routes to email addresses littered with hotlinks to the page, many people seem resistant to its effectiveness.
Some companies have accepted what they feel is the inevitable and instead have a semi-automatic response to repeat queries. Another way of cutting the staff time is to encourage the use of email as your preferred contact method. Not only is this cheaper than phone, it gives more opportunity for time management.
When planning your email marketing campaign you must include a flexible system for managing responses. Delay here could result in lost sales and lost entries on your email lists.
