|
Don't throw away your leads
|
By Scott Alexander
[Hits: 19095]
|
|
Many webmasters are losing a large number of potential clientswithout even knowing it. Mailto commands may not be the bestchoice for lead generation.
The mailto command produces a clickable email address. The ideais that clicking this address will open your email client so youcan contact the website owner. This is a wonderful concept, butis having mailto commands on your website costing you valuablebusiness. A real estate agent, for example, could loosethousands of dollars if one real estate lead is lost. There areseveral problems with the mailto command that could cause you tolose your leads.
One major problem with the mailto command is that is depends onyour default email client being configured. This is usually aprogram like Outlook, or Outlook Express. However, many peoplein the world do not use these programs and instead use web baseemail such as Yahoo Mail or Hotmail. For your clients using webbase email, the mailto command will generate an error messagestating something similar to "Email client is not configured".This means that for a very large part of your potential clients,the mailto link will not work, and even worse may generate anerror message.
Another potential pitfall is the unreliability of email.Everyone has lost an email or two. Now image that email was apotential client. This could have a huge impact on yourbusiness. Emails may not get to you for a variety of reasonssuch as spam filters. Some times emails are just lost to thedepths of the Internet. Really the reasons do not matter much,losing emails means losing business.
There are also some smaller problems with mailto commands. Forexample, email addresses displayed in this way are targets forspam bots that surf the internet collecting emails for massmailings.
The ideal way to generate all leads through your website is byuse of a form that logs the leads. When you use a form tocollect leads, your website can log the lead in a text file or adatabase. Your website should then send you email notificationthat you received a new lead. In the event this email is lost,your lead is still stored safely by your website. As an addedbenefit, your website would also be able to manage your leads aswell as send thank you messages to your clients.
Don't lose the business that you work so hard to get. Use a formand be cautious with mailto links.
|
|
|
|
|
|
