Business-to-Business Internet Marketing, Fourth Edition - Lifecycle ...

Generating and Qualifying Leads with E-mail 101
ing lead generation, qualification, order generation, and customer relationship
programs. E-mail can be an effective way to receive responses
from prospects and to reach prospects and customers with promotional
messages—as long as they want to receive them via e-mail.
Inbound E-mail
Inbound e-mail is e-mail that comes in from prospects or customers.
You should consider offering an e-mail address as a response path in
direct marketing programs. (Better yet, offer a URL leading to a Web
response form. See Chapter 2 for more about Web response forms.) An
e-mail address can be reached by virtually anyone with Internet access,
because e-mail is still the most popular Internet application.
The mechanics are simple: You set up an e-mail address through your
online service or your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and use it as one of
the response paths in your direct marketing promotions. E-mail addresses
used for marketing purposes are often labeled info@[e-mail box location]
so that prospects and customers can respond electronically to a general
post office box instead of an individual’s e-mail address.
The downside, however, is that the e-mail response vehicle is relatively
passive. Most e-mail boxes are just that—electronic repositories
that have no greeting, no call to action, and no way to qualify the respondent.
When prospects respond to an e-mail box, they have to know
what information to leave and what to ask for. Although you will know
which e-mail address the response came from, you will not know much
else—including the source of the response (unless you set up an e-mail
response path for a specific mailing or campaign).
If you are interested in capturing qualifying information, asking
questions, conveying information, or making an offer—and measuring
the results—inbound e-mail is the least desirable response path. If this
were your only electronic option, it would probably be more effective
to use traditional response paths—a mail or fax-back reply card or form,
or a special telephone number, preferably a toll-free one. The better
electronic response option is a Web response form.
Nonetheless, inbound e-mail is an essential component of Internet
marketing. You should always include your e-mailbox on business cards,
letterheads, and corporate literature, and you should always have an
e-mail response path available on your corporate Web site.