Help! I Need to Improve My Site

Hi Leigh,

Publishing a monthly newsletter is a great way to remind past visitors of your existence and get them to return to your web site. This has worked very well for our real estate web site. After we send out our newsletter we get an increase in web site visits and we get swamped with email enquiries.

The best way to get subscribers is to provide a box that allows them to sign up on every page of your web site.
See a working example: http://www.knowlesrealty.com

Another way is to automatically sign them up. Now you have to be careful here. You don't want people accusing you of spamming them. We have just implemented this technique on our web site. We have noticed that every one that has bought property from us in the past have been a newsletter subscriber. It makes sense that anyone interested in buying real estate in the Bahamas would not mind receiving this newsletter once a month. So when they submit a contact form to us they are automatically subscribed. Now you must let them know that by submitting the form they will be automatically subscribed. Also just don't say: Note that by submitting this form you will be automatically subscribed to our monthly newsletter. No. Make subscribing sound more of a benefit to them. This is what we say:

As a Special Bonus, by submitting this form you'll receive, absolutely FREE, our monthly Bahamas real estate newsletter “Knowles Realty News” which contains informative articles, real estate tips and new listing updates. Note: This is a private mailing list and will never be sold or given away for any reason. You can also unsubscribe at any time.

We have had great success so far using these techniques.

I wish you much success & wealth with your online venture.

Gavin

What we do on my site is on all our forms, we have a field for the users to specify if they want to be added to our newsletter. A simple yes/no works - if they specify yes, we have their permission and then subscribe them. I'd say this is effective as almost half the people specify yes. Would all those people know to subscribe any other way? Less likely, so this is a great way to gain subscribers.

Marc,

Yes we used to do it that way to. Unfortunately we were being so swamped with email enquiries that some "serious" enquiries were not being dealt with ASAP. We ware actually losing sales! To qualify enquiries we added this automatic subscription. It also allows us to follow up with every one that submits a contact form once a month. Our listings are so different and change so often that this is the only method of following up and could come up with. I’m not saying this technique will work on all web sites but it's working for us

Gavin

I'd go with the newsletter idea - providing you have something to put in it! Personally I hate recieveing e-mail newletters that contain a couple of lines of text and then... nothing but a link! Get some content.

How about adding a community section, free e-mail is brilliant for returning guests but it may not be suited exactly to your visitors based on what your site is about. A range of E-cards would help things, the launch of this being announced in your newsletter of course...

A lot of companies automatically add you to their newsletter mailing list for just asking one question. I can see their POV but as a consumer I don't like that practice. If I want the newsletter I'll opt in.

Jaiem,

When you get in 50+ email questions a day and 90% of them are "time wasters" (and time is money) You need a system that works. We have found that this system works well. If you are interested in buying real estate in the Bahamas do you think you would mind receiving a newsletter from the Bahamas on the Bahamas once a month?

Now we don't just put a in bunch of new listings in our newsletter. We add articles on the Bahamas at the beginning of the newsletter. Bahamas real estate tips and information etc. also. To get an idea of how we lay out our newsletter you will need to subscribe to it. Just go to: http://www.knowlesrealty.com/mlist.asp and last month’s newsletter will be sent ASAP.

Gavin

Gavin,

The point is if I send you an email question like "Do you have any marina slips for lease?" or "Are those prices in US dollars?" or whatever that IMO is not a blanket release to add me to your mailing list.

I agree time is money and every business routinely gets the same questions over and over and over. NTL, that's the cost of doing business. If I asked a simple question and I get a replay like "Read this: http://(whatever)", it may be more efficient for the business to say that but as a customer I'm going to be put off with such a gruff and terse reply.

Jaiem,

That's exactly what we want some people to do - Not to email us. If you were truly serious about buying property in the Bahamas you will not mind receiving our monthly newsletter. If you don't want our monthly newsletter then it is very clear don't email us.

We have had to streamline our sales process and this techniques works very well. We are now receiving very focused and serious enquiries. This will undoubtedly result in more sales.

I understand where you are coming from as a customer however the internet is a numbers game and in working the web you can expect to receive a much higher number of unqualified enquiries than offline. Email is free and contact forms are so easy to use - a child could use them.
Even people in prisons and mental institutions have access to the Internet.

Ever wondered why so many dot-coms are going bankrupt. They are wasting money! They need a streamlined and efficient sales process.

We would not still be in business today if we didn't have numerous systems set up for sales, follow-ups, further listing information delivery etc.

Gavin

Gavin,

And a lot of dot-coms died because they did not provide good online support and service. It's the services, not the product, that 99 times out of 100 closes the deal.

Sheesh, I wish I had a dollar for every time I emailed a company about a product of thiers I was interested in buying, but never received a reply! Maybe they felt the same way you do, that they have to streamline ops and can't "waste time" with a possibly "unqualified enquiry" like me. Of course, that usually cost them my business!

I'm not trying to tell you how to run your business nor turn this into a pissing contest. Glad to know your business is doing so well you can pick and choose who you speak to.

But how do you really know? I could be a millionare looking to buy a caribbean mansion. I'm certainly not going to say so in an email. So when you snub me I'll just take my inqury, and my money, else where.

That's doing business. If you can't take a few minutes each day to reply to email then why have a website in the first place?

One other example: About 10 years ago US car dealers (both foreign and domestic cars) tried a similar sales tactic. Instead of hawking to customers and try to sell them on a car, they took the POV that you as the customer had to convince them as the salesman that you were serious about buying thier car. Otherwise the salesman would snub you right there in the showroom. It was an unbelievable situation. They wouldn't answer any questions about the car, just gave very general replies like "Yea, that could be" or "It's available" or "We can talk about it when your ready to buy" all the while just standing thier with arms folded. Well deh! I was there, I was in the dealership, I was showing an interest, you're the salesman - sell me on the car! But no, it was like the customer was taking them away from a very important dounut meeting or something (the dealers where never jammed packed!). Unless you were ready to sign a blank purchase contract (they wouldn't even tell you a price until you signed!) on the spot they would do little more than acknowledge you're presence in the shop. I walked out of many showrooms when they took that high-horse position. When I finally did buy the car I wanted, it wasn't the car that sealed the deal (I knew it was a good car), it wasn't the location (many miles from where I live), not even the price but the fact that that dealership and the salesman spoke to me as a customer, not as a waste of time. They gave "service" and in returned earned my business.

Good luck.

Jaiem,

We always reply to every email. Most of the time within the same day. Go ahead email us. You will see that we provide exceptional online customer support.

Gavin