I want to pick up where we left off in December and talk about two tools that, when combined with telemarketing, can fill your calendar with more high-quality appointments than you ever thought possible. Our focus this month is on effective use of e-mail newsletters and link tracking programs.

As I closed December's article, I discussed the Web site and spoke a little about some of the issues with most agent/agency Web sites. To effectively use e-mail marketing strategies you absolutely must have at least one idea-specific Web site. An idea-specific Web site is focused on a specific outcome or service that you can provide, not on information about your agency.

If you provide services such as single-source billing and HRIS systems you may want a Web site with a domain name similar to one that my client has: hrmadeeasier.com. Your ego may tell you that you need to brand your agency name, but I will tell you that it is more important to capture the prospect's attention. Capture that and they will know your name. Your goal is to have a visitor to your Web site say, "Wow! There's an idea that can help me."

E-mail newsletters

E-mail is a wonderful tool that has been used and abused. At its best, it can keep your name in front of both prospects and clients and be a source of great ideas. At its worst, it becomes a crutch for real communication and relationship building. I will address the latter momentarily, but for the moment I want to highlight the various ways e-mail can build your business.

An e-mail newsletter can be a fabulous tool for business generation. But if you are going to use the e-mail newsletter as a marketing strategy, you must capture as many e-mail addresses as possible. Every time you talk with a client or a prospect, you must capture the e-mail address and secure permission to add them to your distribution list. It is imperative that you secure permission before adding anyone to your distribution list. Also, you must make it easy for anyone to unsubscribe.

Quite frankly, most of the newsletters that I see are worthless from a marketing perspective. They provide a lot of information about COBRA, HIPAA or some other requirement. They talk about a lot of information that your prospects are getting from multiple sources. Most of the agencies relying on these newsletters are hoping that the reader will be so impressed that he will call up the agency and say, "Wow, the information that you provide is so awesome that I just want to do business with you!"

The truth is that, just as seminars which focus on information and education usually fail to generate sales appointments, these newsletters fail to generate calls from prospects wanting to know more about how you can help them.

From a marketing perspective, there are two criteria for a good e-newsletter: It is short and it contains one useful idea per issue.

If you look at most e-newsletters, they have several different articles listed on the first page with a link to click on for more information. No one clicks through.

You want the reader to know that your newsletter is never more than two paragraphs and contains one idea that may help them achieve their goals. One newsletter might be titled, "Executive Carve-Out Disability and Key Employee Retention." Another one might be titled, "Reducing the Pressure for Wage Increases." (I guarantee that your employer readers will read that last one!)

At the end you want to include a call to action, such as "For more information, click here to download our white paper." Over the course of a year I make three or four sales to readers of my newsletter who call for more information - and so can you.

Link tracking software

Discovering link tracking software has made my personal telemarketing significantly more successful. With link tracking you know two very important things about your prospect: when they open your e-mail and when they click the links within it.

For this to be of value, you must have at least one idea-specific Web site to use as part of the marketing campaign. This idea will change your telemarketing forever if you implement it. Here's how:

Step 1: Create a great script for your telemarketing. The script should read: "Mr. Prospect, I have an idea that has helped many of my clients ... (insert your idea here)." You might use an idea such as "get control of their health insurance premiums and minimize future rate increases" or "simplify the reconciliation of multiple insurance bills."

Step 2: Give the prospect an easy choice. Follow your opening with these words: "I do not know if you are interested in (insert your idea), but if you are, may I send you an e-mail with a link to my Web site where you can learn more?"

Virtually everyone will respond by giving you permission to send the e-mail. You then follow up by asking for permission to add the prospect to your e-mail newsletter distribution list. Some of my clients prefer to ask for the appointment and use the e-mail link as a fallback position, which is perfectly fine.

Step 3: Follow up immediately on any clicked link notifications. Well, not quite immediately since you do not want the prospect to feel as if he is being stalked. I generally wait 30 minutes and then call. When the prospect is on the phone, say, "We talked earlier today, and I am following up to see if you received my e-mail and whether you have had a chance to visit my Web site."

Of course, I already know that the prospect has visited my Web site; it's how they respond that tells me a lot about the quality of each prospect.

Step 4: Follow up on prospects who opened the e-mail but did not click the link to the Web site after 48 hours. The fact that these prospects opened the e-mail indicates some level of interest. They may have meant to visit the Web site but became distracted and never thought about it again.

If during the first 48 hours you notice that the prospect opened the e-mail two or three times, that generally is indicative of interest. The follow-up phone call will often elicit a request that you resend the e-mail with the link. Each follow-up helps with relationship development, and this laid-back approach will help create a sense of safety for the prospect.

My experience has been that if I send an e-mail to 10 prospects, two will click the link and visit the Web site. For every three prospects that visit the Web site, one will give me an appointment, one will be willing to have me call again in the future and one will have no interest. For 10 appointments that I secure using this system, I generally make seven sales.

It is important to understand that I have used this system to sell my products and services as a sales coach and not as an insurance agent. However, for the group health agent who is willing to get away from asking for permission to quote and move toward seeking appointments based on ideas and outcomes, the results should be about the same.

Next month, I will discuss relationship building and introduce you to an amazing new technology that can assist you.

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