I got an email from a reader recently about Teleseminar Registration. I figured there must be other people who had this kind of a question about Teleseminars, so I wanted to share my answer with you, too. Here's what he asked me. . .
Subject: Re: [Landing Pages] Affiliate Marketing Teleseminar
I'm not overly impressed with the way I had to get the telphone number for the call. Why make something simple more difficult? Why not provide the number on the original email like everyone else. <snip>
–David
I don't provide the number in the initial email because we want to be able to plan our work, and understand the reactions to it. Our business is marketing and sales, and it's important that we measure everything — or at least as much as we can.
Teleseminar attendance, and response to an email is a relatively easy thing to measure, and so we measure it so we can improve what we do.
Getting registrations for the call also helps us plan capacity for our bridge line. Some phone systems require you tell them how many people will be on the call. If you go over, you need to make new arrangements, and maybe contact those who have registered.
If we didn't take registrations, we'd never know how many to expect, and we wouldn't be able to contact just those people who want to know about the teleseminar.
Which brings up another important point. . .
Getting people to register for the call allows us to follow up with just those people who were interested in the call to do such things as send out MP3 files of the recorded program.
I think it would be rude — and an intrusion — to clog inboxes with 10,000 deliveries of an MP3 when sending it out to 200 people is enough. It just wouldn't be right. (People get enough mail they don't read already.)
One of the most powerful things you can do is segment your lists. What that means is knowing enough about your readers so that you send only the messages that they are specifically interested in.
It's a way of showing respect to your readers.
And, it's no mistake that it will also increase your response rates to your marketing. Here's why. . . If I send 10,000 people an email every week, and I really only think that a small percentage of them — let's say 10% — would be interested, then I'm training that other 90% that the messages I send them are to be ignored.
And that means that when I send them a message that is specifically targeted to them, they'll ignore it because they'll delete it as soon as it shows up. Or worse, they may opt out of my list even before that message ever gets there.
It's the "Marketer Crying Wolf".
Eventually, no one believes what you have to say. And that's no way to grow a business.
I'll be writing more about Teleseminars in my upcoming Teleseminar Templates system. If you've got a question you'd like to make sure I answer there, click the "Ask Mark" button at the top of this page, and let me know what it is.
To Your Success,
–Mark