Thanks for dropping by this post – and if you have, it’s likely that you’re an existing user of my Web Prospectr software.
I have a great new feature idea that I’ve been mulling over and want your feedback on whether this would be valuable to you… whether it would be worth adding… and of course, any feedback, ideas you have for it.
So, what is the idea?
The ability to send personalized emails to potential prospects from directly within the software.
As you know, Web Prospectr will retrieve up to thousands of businesses per “run” based on your chosen industry and location.
The software will then crawl and anazlyse each of the businesses websites (IF they have one!).
It will identify if they need SEO, if they have video on their homepage, if their website is mobile-responsive, if their website loads slowly, and more.
It will also try to find their email address by identifying a “contact us” type page and scanning for an email address.
What if the software could then use the data it has found for EACH of the businesses that return an email address – And create a well written “personalized” email identifying their website issues, and pitching YOUR services.
Users who have the PLUS upgrade can also identify if they do have or do not have a GMB listing, Facebook Page, and other social profiles. So, the emails could also include those – Depending on what the software finds.
So, the subject would be personalized and include the company name. The email body would include different sentences / paragraphs depending on what they are LACKING (ie – No Google My Business listing, have a slow loading website, have a non-mobile responsive website etc).
I’ve been digging into email LAWS and as these emails are publicly available on their websites… and if they are generic emails (not personal .. ie: steve@ ) it seems like you’re allowed to email them.
And even MASS email them.
It’s no different than going to their website, locating their email on their contact page and reaching out to them, highlighting some issues you have found, and offering your services to help resolve these “damaging” issues.
B2B…. Business to Business.
I’m going to take a closer look at this, and in particular with Canada as I know they have more stringent laws recently.
So, here’s what I need from you….
I need you to drop me a comment below and give me your thoughts on…
- Whether you would find this useful, or not? To be able to send cold emails automatically.. or quickly (I might include TWO options).
- Any other ideas of HOW you’d like this to work, other than what I have outlined above.
- Any concerns you have, or questions.
Here’s the thing – If I don’t get feedback on this, and if there seems to be very little interest then there is no point in me spending time adding this feature in.. as it could be a lot of work.
So, your feedback is essential if I decide to go ahead and try and implement this.
AFTER LEAVING YOUR COMMENT…
Over the last couple of days I opened up a special backdoor deal for you (Web Prospectr users only) to get access to my web-based video ranking software vRankerPro.
It’s normally $67 but I created a coupon for you to get an account for just $27, which is a huge saving.
It ends tonight and the coupon will expire, so if you haven’t taken a look at this “Local SEO” software yet, then please go and take a look today before it ends.
You Can Access My Backdoor Offer HERE
I look forward to your feedback in the comments, and I’ll respond to any questions 🙂
To your success!
Andy Black
It is always best to personalize an email and also auto filling in the problem areas would personalize it even more. Therefore I like your possible improvement.
Good idea, but…
For the initial email, the better approach may be to focus on one solution for one problem. Just listing their needs is too much like spam. I’d rather assign each lead to a specific email sequence to start a conversation before I try to sell them on anything.
Hi Vegard, thanks for your comment. The idea would be for the user to be able to enable certain aspects of the email. So, for example, if you didn’t offer social media services, or video services, but you did optimize websites, you could disable those parts from being included in the email. So even if they lacked onpage optimization, if you didn’t offer that as a service, you can bypass it.
If I add this I will be looking to add a more manual approach, and also an approach that will send to many businesses at once, but every single email being personalized to them, and using your preferences and options.
Regards
Andy
Hi Andy
I have your software and I think its the boom it will be very good to have this feature included and be able to personalise it, this is a brilliant idea.
Hi there Andy,
I got WebProspectr a few days ago, and actually I have not use it that much, planning to use ir very soon…
However, the feature you are talking about really got my attention, and I’d love to have it inside the software soon…
Btw I am grabbing vRankerPro 😉
Best
Hi Andy,
I think this would be a good addition, as long as we can customize the email with our style and voice. Thanks,
Claudia
Hi Claudia, yes you would be able to do that. In fact, I could make it so you could fully customize EVERY section of the email, so it’s all in your own voice and style.
Hi. Your idea is gold. However, I have some concern. As you already know the software sometimes miss, giving back N/A answers and likings.
Also, I am not sure the business owners will respond well on mass email. However, a semi-automatic mail which we can further personalize into our likings, I think will be pure fantastic.
Hi Oddvar, thanks for your comment. However, the N/A’s are purely for businesses that do not have a registered website. The emails would be for those that do have a website, and where the software has found an email address. The last update was improved in finding an email address. There would hopefully be TWO methods for sending emails, but both of them will allow you to change the intro and outro wording in your custom settings, and you would be able to change that anytime you wish.
Regards
Andy
I guess it would be a possible benefit but I know what I do with all the emails i get at the moment about web design or whatever. There is already an overwhelm for business owners. The ones I talk to are pretty much sick of those emails too so I think as a feature, it is attractive, as a benefit, I’m not sure.
The email might be enhanced by screen dumps if possibe, or maybe even mentioning the competitors that rank above them to make them take notce, like Why are (competitor) more likely to get work from google?
Anyway, thats just my thoughts.
Hey Andy, Yes that would be a great additional feature, as long as its customizable as you mentioned in a response above. I would target one issue at a time. It would be great to be able to automate followup, so I could cue up followup messages to those who do not open/take another action after 1 or 2 days of sending my initial email.
Hey Ross, although the follow up sequence idea would sound enticing, they won’t have opted in to receive a “sequence”, which could then border on “spamming”. I’m sure you’re in your rights to send an email as a one off. But sending a sequence may require an optin.
However, every Web Prospectr user would be able to fully customize every part of the email in their settings, so every users email / pitch would be unique and different, and suit their own marketing style / voice.
In my many business dealings with clients, *personalization and customization* has been a key difference in obtaining a positive response, specially on “first contact”.
Being able to show potential clients specific reasons why their business bottom line would improve from the contracting my services, has consistently brought me repeat business and referrals.
Personalization features in the, already great, Web Prospectr software, would be Excellent!
I like the idea and give two thumbs up for it!
Since you are allowing complete customization of each email (and not just mass emailing with no option to customize), its a great idea.
Thanks!
Hi Andy
I think it has possibilities and I agree with you and the previous comments – personalisation and customisation is the key aspect to this…
Doing so provides a chance of differentiating the email from the usual SEO/web services spammers..
Your idea sounds great, but, but, but …
As far as I can see, your software is giving me – and a lot of other of your customers – thousands of results, and if I – and a lot of other of your customers – send thousands of almost identical emails to EACH of the thousands of business owners, there are 2 consequences:
1. It might have a conflict with some legal stuff …
2. WE WILL ALL BE KNOWN AS SPAMMERS.
So IF YOU CONSIDER to make such a new feature, PLEASE consider to ONLY make it (hard coded) possible for maybe 1-2 % random selected (hard coded) of the search results.
Hey George, thanks for your comment. The manual approach will be super quick to do, but will be on a one-per-one basis. The MASS one will be limited to some degree.. ie – 100 sends as this will help with email deliverability too. There will be a way to batch these but I am still planning the feature and working out the best way to implement this.
Also, please bear in mind that even in the US, the directory has well over 20 million businesses. That’s a LOT of businesses. And of course, you would be able to customize your entire email within your settings, within the software. So no part of it will be a template that any other users will use. You can write your own in each section and that will be used. It will also be personalized with company name, their location etc using TAGS that you can include within these sections. More news coming soon!
I like the idea a lot especially if you can customize it and offer stuff depending on what the software says they don’t have
Thank you
Hi Joel. that’s exactly how it will work 🙂
Andy, yes I love the idea, especially since you would be including personalization and customization as I have seen in the comments. That would be critical. Also I like the idea of batching so we don’t run into emailing issues with our hosting provider. Can’t wait to see what you come up with and would definitely use.