Re: Contact Info Best practices

From: Rob Frankel <rob_at_robfrankel.com>
Date: Tue 23 Aug 2005 09:46:45 -0500

Cliff Kurtzman wrote thusly:

>Do I want someone who visits my web site and can use the services I
>offer, but cannot afford them, to contact me looking for free
>advice? Absolutely NOT. I provide a free newsletter to support this
>audience... the idea is that someday they might be in a situation
>where they could use my services, or they might someday be able to
>refer someone to me as a client, so the newsletter serves as a
>vehicle for staying in their mindshare... but that is the extent of
>what I can offer them until such time. So I want my web site design
>to encourage these individuals to sign up for my newsletter, but
>that is all.

That's not about contact, though. Those issues
are about your brand message and its execution
via web design. If both are done properly,
mostly those who are qualified to contact you
actually do contact you.

By prohibiting contact, you're also declining an
opportunity to extend your brand in
unconventional ways.

NOBODY leaves my sites empty-handed, because the
site is designed to qualify leads before they
make contact. Part of that education is fee
structure. However, if a prospect doesn't
qualify, there is enough helpful data there to
still leave with some added value. I'd rather
have people leave the site with some notion of my
brand message, than to shut them out completely.

When I was single, I never refused to meet a girl
to whom I was introduced, mainly because (A) she
might have turned into a friend, if not a date
(B) you never knew who her friends might be or
(C) if her sister was cute.

My 2 cents.
--
Rob Frankel, "Yes, I really do turn users into evangelists for your brand."
Branding Expert http://www.RobFrankel.com Skype/AIM: ROBFRANKEL
Yes, there's an RSS feed blog, if you can handle
it: http://robfrankel.blogspot.com




Received on Tue Aug 23 2005 - 09:46:45 CDT