1. Response time

This is perhaps the most important point to focus on as it is highly likely that your potential customer has sent out a few email enquires to your competitors as well, so a prompt response time will not only demonstrate that “you value their business” but will also allow you to be the first to establish contact. Call whenever possible – the benefit of being able to know exactly what your customer requires enables you to offer a solution that is specifically solves their problems.

2. Personalise

Make sure the customer has the option to tell you what products or services they are interested in from your enquiry form, and discard any parts of the form that are not essential to making the sale. Respond to the customer using your business name and the product or service they specified as the subject. This will ensure it catches their attention amongst the sea of emails that may be in their inbox. Try to avoid automated or template responses at all costs, as you will get a much better response when the customer knows you have taken the time to read and respond to their enquiry.

3. Call to action

This is a key factor in any sales process and one that also applies when responding to email enquires. You must create a sense of urgency – using simple yet persuasive wording can mean picking up that extra 20% on your monthly sales targets for no extra cost. Use the customer’s product or service specification to dictate your special offer – give them a reason to contact you. This could be free delivery, limited stock, a Christmas sale or whatever applies to the product or service they are interested in.

4. The conversion

Overall, make sure your response is clear, concise and convincing. The customer is looking for a reason to choose your company, so give them what they want, no more, no less. Try not to use sophisticated wording in your response – simplicity is the key when relaying messages via email. Always finish up your response with an active suggestion, prompt the customer to take action buy instructing them how and when to contact you followed by your contact details.

Looking to increase your online email enquires?

The best way to boost your email enquiry rate is to incorporate either a Pay Per Click campaign or get some Search Engine Optimisation done on your website. Both will drive relevant traffic to your website resulting in an increased number of enquires and sales.

Pay Per Click - Pros
 

• You can achieve instant results.
• Your website is guaranteed to be on the first page of Google
• You can choose to display your ads at a specific time of the day/week/month
• PPC allows for accelerated testing of the performance of your website
• PPC can work with websites that have bad free search results
• PPC allows your ad to be displayed on a large amount of keywords
• PPC can target specific geographic locations
• PPC can take users to specific landing pages

Pay Per Click - Cons

• PPC keywords can become very expensive when you are in a competitive industry
• PPC will not work if you don't have specific landing pages on your website
• PPC needs to be constantly monitored
• PPC needs to be set up by someone who has had some kind of AdWords experience 
  
  

Search Engine Optimisation - Pros

• You can get free clicks through the search engines once your site has been optimised
• You won't need to manage your free search rankings as closely as your PPC
• SEO allows you to significantly increase the volume of traffic you're getting
• Your website will get exposure 24 hours a day 7 days a week
• There is a lot of SEO opportunity within industries that are not considered mainstream
• There is a lot of SEO opportunity on a local scale

 

Search Engine Optimisation - Cons

• SEO can be time consuming upfront
• SEO is will not guarantee you first page rankings
• SEO requires your website to be search engine compliant
• Most websites are not SEO compliant and require a rebuild
• Articles, back links and keyword-rich content need to be constantly created and updated.

What's on your site

Give them a brief view of all the services or products that your website offers.

How to find it

Make sure you have either a "read more" text link or an image link to that specific page.

 

How to contact you

On every page of your website your phone number and email details must be present.

A reason why they should contact you

Give your customers a reason to make an enquiry, for example "free phone consultation" or "20% off for website enquires".

Following these 4 points is the key to generating interest and giving you the highest possible chance of generating an enquiry.

Don't clutter your home page with too much text. Keep it clear, concise and convincing. Simplify your text - don't try to sound too sophisticated; it will only reduce the number of enquires. Conveying messages over a web page can be extremely difficult, so test drive your text by getting someone who is not associated with your company to read it and see if you're conveying the right message.

Decide what you want people to do - either you want people submitting an email enquiry or to call you. Make these two key actions easy to find on the page. The best way is to attract the customers attention is by using size, colour and offer. People don't read websites, they scan them, so make sure they see what you want them to see relatively quickly.

Pages on your website should also be written so that they appeal both to your readers and the search engines. Search Engine Optimisation can be extremely effective in generating traffic and enquires from your website. You need to include keywords and phrases that the search engines can both index and identify as being relevant and important enough to get you ranking under key words that relate to your industry.

So, keep in mind that when engaging in any form of Internet Advertising you need to have a website that provides your customers with the information they require to make the decision to contact you.

There are all sorts of reasons why people do not act the way you would like them to and the best place to start is by asking yourself:

1. Does my website clearly display what my business does in about 3 seconds?

2. Does my website clearly stress our strongest competitive edge against our competitors?

3. Does my website offer any 'calls to action'? e.g.

a. Telephone number clearly displayed at the top of all pages?
b. Offer a FREE product brochure, particularly useful if you do not use online payments?
c. FREE expert advice about the product or service?

4. Is my website trustworthy?

5. Would potential customers feel safe or confident buying from me?
Websites are sales and marketing tools and therefore must convey the five main reasons why people buy; these are (in order):

1. Confidence
2. Quality
3. Service
4. Selection

So the first port of call for a GREAT website, before any search engine marketing takes place is:

1. Make sure your website clearly illustrates what your business or activity does.

A picture speaks a thousand words and although your website may not have that picture, it is vital that within 3 seconds a visitor knows if you're an HR company, Original Equipment Manufacturer, a shop selling trainers, ID Cards, Kitchen surfaces or whatever - either way this is essential to improve the average length of time visitors spend on your website.

2. Decide what action you want your visitors to take when they visit your website.

This might be to pick up the phone, fill out a survey, send an email, request a brochure, click to play a video, download an article and so on.

If you broke this down so every page had a specific purpose to request an action by the visitor, you would know that if you did a Direct Mail campaign or some Pay-Per-Click you've maximised the potential for your visitors to do something once on your site.

3. Does the website emphasise your main Competitive Advantage?

It's fair to assume most of your competitors do a good job, however what is the single most important reason customers buy from you as opposed to them?

It might be, you offer the longest product guarantee, free delivery, easy to talk to, best value for money, give a bonus for referrals, etc...

By doing this, your website is starting to convey the strongest aspects of your business and why people should pay attention to what you do.

4. Who is your target audience? Ensure the website talks to the people you want attention from.

Quite often we've seen websites containing technical jargon that would only ever be understood by competitors and not customers. You may only appeal to a specific audience, in which case the benefits and features you describe must appeal to your type of customer.

If you are consumer-oriented, then as well studying your demographic, have your most popular products and services clear to see from the home page. Perhaps a special offer or maybe make a song and dance about a new widget that you know certain customers who bought from you in the past will also buy.

Your website page is going to have a lot of competition - 60 million pages worth - which is why it is so important to be sure it is of good quality. With all that is out there, if yours is not up there with the others of high quality, you'll just get passed by.

This is a technological world we live in now and if you want your business to be a success, you need to have a website of high quality to be able to compete in this worldwide market of the internet. It needs to exude integrity, a catchy style and professionalism. The little guy can even compete from home against the giants in the business world.

With a higher quality website, customers are more satisfied and that in return brings them back. However, also take note that the higher a website ranks in search engine results, it will lead to better and more exposure for your business.

There has been research done and amazingly it shows that on a daily basis more than 390,000 people, in search of a company providing what they are seeking, use internet search engines to find them. That is quite a number of people for your business to draw from.

Another fact is it has been shown that of the results given from search engines to 80% of people, basically it's the first three pages that will be used. To make a point of the need for a quality website, with Fortune 100 companies it has been noted that due to shabby websites, perhaps 97% fail to show well on search engines.

Among two of the best and well known web search engines are Google and Yahoo and they are examples of quality work. There are different tools used by search engines in their ratings with as many as 150 factors taken into consideration. So if you want your business to be one of the first to show up on search engine results be sure your site has energy, is dynamic and well organized.

It is also complicated in the way search engines have their own criteria, resulting in one page appearing fine on one computer, may not load properly on another person's computer or may even be excluded because of minute problems. These things can make it very difficult for someone who is not too familiar with or does not have a computer background.

It will be well worth your while to spend some time to be sure your website will be professional in its design and quality and you will surely be repaid for your effort.

While that may sound like a completely logical reason as to why you should not optimize your website anymore, here are a couple of reasons as to why you should optimize your website properly:

1. Reach Your Target Audience. One of the most important reasons for optimizing your website is to reach your audience of choice. What's the use of an awesome website if nobody visits it? SEO increases your chances of getting visitors to your website, and that in turn can spell profits for your business.

2. Makes Your Website Easily Accessible. Admit it, when you're looking for a specific service or product and you don't know where to get it, where do you head? You Google it, of course. Yes, you don't listen to the radio or watch channel 35 in the hopes of coming across a useful ad. You, like the majority of most consumers, rely on search engines to find services and businesses that you need. By properly optimizing your website, your site has better chances of getting found by prospective customers.

3. Build An Online Reputation - By having your website properly optimized, your customers will feel more confident about purchasing your products or services. Having a website that's properly organized makes it easier for visitors to go through your website and find out the information that they need.

4. Crush Your Competition - Remember that business is indeed competitive. With SEO, you can bring in more volume for your business as you have a higher edge over your competitors if you optimize your website, thus putting you on top of them any time of day.