Top Management Story

Writen by Kevin Bidwell

I don't like the title of this article. It sounds boring. It doesn't do the topic justice. Here's why:

You are about to discover the most powerful single concept in making your business profitable. This one key—if applied—will produce more and higher profits for you than any other single piece of information.

Let's dig in.

Having a profitable business online or off is really about getting prospects, showing them your products in enticing ways, filling their orders and providing customer service.

Before the internet this was all done via mail and telephone. Now it is done, often automatically, using simple, cheap online tools.

Most online businesses have some sort of list management service or program they use to manage the email addresses and names of prospects and customers. These are called a variety of names. Often these services are referred to as "autoresponders" since they typically can send out a series of pre-written messages when someone signs up. But they are much more than a simple autoresponder.

Today's services and programs can accomplish all sorts of tasks:

• Send a "broadcast" message at a pre-determined time and date

• Allow multiple lists to be managed through one account

• Send a message to all those who haven't purchased a particular product

• Send a message to all those who HAVE purchased a particular product

• Automatically generate personalized thank you and download messages

And the best thing about these services is they cost almost nothing.

Here is how to set up your own list management to maximize profits and make customer service a snap.

First, sign up for a complete list management service.

You may be tempted to buy a program and do this yourself because it's cheaper. Don't. The fast and ever changing world of bulk email means you will either have to spend way too much time trying to make sure your email gets through or a significant portion of your emails won't get through.

Keeping up with email deliverability is a full-time job. Let an expert handle it.

While there are several services you can sign up for, here is the one I recommend: All-In-One-Business.com/list

It's cheap, and it's the best in the business.

Now once you get signed up, decide what lists you want to have. You can have a list that people subscribe to when they first visit your site to tell them about your product(s), you can have a list that serves as your newsletter, you can have a list for people who purchase your products.

Here is what I would recommend:

1 List for Your Newsletter

1 List for Each Product's Pre-Sell Messages

1 List for Each Product's Customers

So if you have just one product, you would have three lists.

Go ahead and set up each of the lists. You want to include some automation as well (this can be done on the list server I recommend above.) You want to:

• Add the Subscriber to Your Newsletter when they Subscribe to the Pre-Sell Messages

• Remove the Subscribe from Your Pre-Sell Messages when they are Added to the Customer List

Now, let's add a little "flair" that will help you with customer service and follow-up.

Most people simply save a person's name and email address in their list manager. We want to do more than that. We want to save as much info as possible.

Think about it this way: When a person buys a product from you they are giving you a ton of information about themselves—name, physical address, phone number as well as a unique product code. The more of that information you save, the better you can market to that person in the future.

So, make a list of all the data you want to (eventually) collect from your prospects and customers. A sample list might be:

First Name
Last Name
Address
City
State or Province
Country
Postal Code
Phone
Fax
Order ID
Etc.

Once you have this list, go back to your lists and add these fields as "custom fields." When someone buys your products, you automatically add the data from their order form into your customer data fields. (If you don't know how to create a form to do this, ask your webmaster.)

Now let's look at this in action…

Let's say someone buys your product but doesn't get the download. They send you an email. You simply go to your list management panel and type in their email address. In a few moments you not only have a list of every one of the products they have purchased from you, you also have all of their contact information in case you need to call or send them something via postal mail.

Or let's look at it another way. Someone writes asking for a refund. In our case we need to find an order ID to process a refund. Using this same method we can just type in the email address or name and instantly have a list of all the unique order numbers associated with that customer.

Having all this information at your finger tips makes customer service a breeze.

But what about your marketing?

Setting up your lists as I recommend allows you to pin-point target your marketing.

Let's say you want to promote one of your products to only those who have not already purchased it—you simply send the promo to your newsletter list and exclude the customer list for that product.

Or let's say you want to offer a special discount only to people who have already purchased a particular product. You can send the offer to that customer list only, not your entire list.

Let's say you want to send a holiday card to each of your customers. Simply download their postal addresses and use Excel to create mailing labels. Ditto for a special offer via a post card or direct mail campaign.

Not only does organizing your data in this fashion save you time, it will make you money.