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Step 5 - Prepare the landing zone
Follow-up material
The very character of the Internet as the "Information Superhighway" delivers its greatest advantage for marketing. On-line, we have unlimited opportunities for supplying follow-up material. There is no need to overload the initial contact. Referring people to our website offers them instant answers, if we wish, to every question they might ask.
But do we wish? We need to strike a balance between instant access to information and creating opportunities to begin a live human relationship.
The more follow-up information we make available, the briefer our initial approach can be. And the shorter a "cold e-mail-shot" is, the less intrusive and less unwelcome. Furthermore, the sooner the customer feels in control of the process the less threatened and resistant he feels.
It has to be said that the flexibility of website maintenance means we do not have to wait until every last detail is in place before inviting people to visit our pages. However, the website does have to look professional and stable (no "under construction graphics" making people ask angrily why you are wasting their time by inviting them before you are prepared). Deciding what is enough requires the sort of detailed discussion of web site content which is beyond the scope of this course. You can get this advice elsewhere on this web site.
And right there (I hope) you have an example of how to give people enough information on a web page to recognise what they need, convince them you can supply it and entice them to come to you and ask you for it, thereby establishing personal contact.
Thankfully the Internet does not give anyone automatic access to the e-mail addresses of everyone who visits a web site. So you need to think about how you are going to pick up on contacts. One useful way to gather those is to offer something on your website in exchange for some details. You can restrict access to something useful only to those to whom you send a password - and that means they have to give their e-mail address. You will want to consider carefully and publish clearly your policy on privacy.
Keep contact/response forms as simple and as short as possible. If you ask only for Name, Organisation, Phone number and e-mail address you have more than enough to make contact and establish a personal relationship. Every additional piece of information you demand is a potential stumbling block which may put someone off.
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