Let me start off by thanking you again for your interest in Golden State Tax Relief. With your help, we will be able to bring lower property taxes to California homeowners… one home at a time.
Now to the topic at hand, how to share this information with your friends/family/clients. This will be the first part in a 6-part series. Each of these emails will be geared towards a different method of distribution. Today’s lesson … email.
Depending upon your level of “technological prowess” this may seem a little remedial but let us not forget the power of email. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project (Feb 2009) more than 90% of adults online use email. That is 9 out of 10 people… I’m sure that as you go through your contact lists you will be able to verify this.
*SIDENOTE
Now I know that many of you, like myself, like to correspond with our customers over the phone. It is immediate and more personal (after all, aren’t we tying to strengthen our relationship with them). For most things I would stress, lead with the phone and follow up with details in an email. For sharing information about Golden State Tax Relief I am proposing the email first, the the fdollow up phone call for two main reasons:
1. The domain name is long. It is FAR easier to just send it to somebody in an email because all they have to do is click on it, not type it in.
2. We are working hard to update the site so that it will answer the questions for your clients. They may still have a question or two for you but sending them to the site first will alleviate many of the basic questions about how the program works, etc.
The steps to emailing your existing database are going to be similar but I will walk through an example using Outlook.
Step 1. Create a mail message
In Outlook: With Outlook open, click on “File => New => Mail Message”
* NOTE: arrows represent a submenu item
Step 2. Find recipients (this is probably the most trying part)
Here you can either email your entire list at once, send them in batches, or do them one at a time. If you send them all at once you run the risk of being caught up in spam filters. If you have a huge list, doing this one by one can be timely. I would suggest doing them in small batches. The problem with doing these in batches is that you have to keep track of where you left off for the next message. Luckily, Outlook (and other programs I’m sure) will sort the names of the recipients in your address book by first letter so you can easily grab all of ther “A’s” or select “A-C”, etc. I usually aim for no more that 10 people per message.
In Outlook: Click on the word “To…” in the email header. This will open up your address book. Click on the first name in your list one time (until it turns blue) and then down below click on the button that says “To=>”. Once you click this button you will see the name show up in the list. Now, if you are going to be sending these individually, click the “OK” button at the bottom of that window and move on to step 3. If you have a large list and want to send them out in batches, select up to 9 more names (click the second name on the list which will turn it blue and the hold down the “Ctrl” key while selecting up to 8 more names) – now you will have 9 total names highlighted in blue. Once you have your 9 names, go to the bottom of the screen and click the button that says “Bcc=>”. This will add them to the email as “Blind Carbon Copies” meaning that they will not be able to see that the email was sent to anybody else and they will not see the addresses of your other customers. Now, before you click the OK button at the bottom of the window write down the name of the last person that you highlighted. This is your ending point and you will start of the following name for the next email. Now you can go ahead and click the “OK” button at the bottom of the window and move on to step 3.
Step 3. Add a subject line
The subject line is very important because this is what people are going to use to judge whether they will open the email or not. The will see that it is from you (a trusted source) so as long as the email is meaningful, the chances it gets opened are high. Keep it short and try not to use words like FREE. The one I like to use is … “Online Property Tax estimator – are you paying too much?”
Step 4. Write the message
This should be the easiest part. As a friend/family member/agent you are letting folks know of the service. There really isn’t any sales involved because the service will sell itself. I thing something like the following would work just fine…
Hey folks,
I just came across this website that lets you run a free property tax savings estimate, no strings attached. Just hit the website, enter your name, address, zip code, etc and a report will be spit out letting you know if you are paying too much on your taxes.
Remember, you absolutely don’t have to use this company if you don’t want to but the estimates are free no matter what.
http://www.goldenstatetaxrelief.com
If you have any questions or need any help pease let me know.
Regards,
Short and to the point.
Step 5. Follow up with a phone call
Just to make sure they received the email and that the links were working OK. At this point, if they haven’t looked at it yet reassure them that there is no cost to check it out, there is a deadline and ask them if you can help out. Folks may be too busy and may not see much value in something that they don’t understand but if you can run their address and call them back and say “You may want to check it out .. it says you can save like $500″. Also, if you have them help you with the paperwork use this code and you can save an extra 10% off.
Just to recap:
Step 1: Create a mail message
Step 2: Find recipients
Step 3: Add a subject line
Step 4: Write the message
Step 5: Follow up with a phone call
By performing all of these steps you have now introduced a money-saving opportunity to your clients and you have put yourself in front of them 2 times without asking for something in return.
If you want to kick up the customer service even one-step higher – run the reports for them and tell them that you did this. Don’t be afraid to be proactive in this. The more that you can do on your own, the more of an asset you are to your customers.
Next time… Buttons and banners. When and how to add them.
Tags: Referral Program
