This one comes from 1996 or so and features a take on how to use the internet without being too commercial.

What if there was a guaranteed method of developing qualified prospects to your business? OK. What if there was a guaranteed method of developing qualified prospects to your business without costing your marketing budget its annual slice of revenue?

If you even have a passing interest in marketing your business, you have heard about the so called Information Superhighway (Internet) by now. If you are truly adventurous you may have even stumbled onto by calling a local Internet provider or bulletin board system (BBS). Everyone talks about the electronic roads paved with very real gold, but how does a business like yours take advantage of this?

NO QUICK CASH

The first thing you must realize is you will make money on the Internet. The next thing you must realize is it isn't a get rich method of making money. What the Internet delivers to you are pre-qualified prospects interested in your goods and services. These people have consciously made a decision to find out more about your good or service and have contacted you. How's that for prospect hunting?

So how do you start the golden conveyer of prospects rolling? You need to have access to Internet email and newsgroups. Internet email is electronic mail delivered via the Internet. You may have seen addresses for the Internet with the @ sign in them.This means that anyone anywhere on the Internet can send me a text message and I will receive it. Newsgroups are a collection of messages relating to a certain topic. They are structured in a hierarchical fashion like the following:  comp.business would discuss general topics related to business, while comp.business.marketing would discuss marketing your business. In these newsgroups people post questions, receive answers and sometimes advertise services.

PULLING ONTO THE HIGHWAY

Where can you gain this access? One of two places: your local BBS or an Internet service provider. Either of these places offers access to the email and newsgroups you need. Once you have secured access, move onto marketing your business by sowing the seeds of information.

Your seeds are your goods or expertise in a service. There are three distinct methods of gaining more qualified prospects on the Internet inexpensively. They are INFORMATIONAL POSTINGS, MAIL LISTS and FAQs.

MAKING YOURSELF AVAILABLE

INFORMATIONAL POSTINGS are probably the easiest and most direct way to attract customers. The Internet has over 10000 different newsgroups. In each of these newsgroups are hundreds or possibly thousands of people interested in the newsgroup topic. The BBS or Internet service provider you use for access will have a list of current newsgroups. Take an evening and work your way through the list flagging the newsgroups that are in your area of expertise. For example, if you provide accounting services to businesses you may want to join the following conferences:

misc.taxes us.taxes biz.comp.accounting alt.business

These conferences are but a few that may hold potential customers.

Once you have access to the conference, spend a few days reading the messages in the conference. You want to get a feel for what topics are hot and what type of people are participating in the newsgroup. The messages that comprise a newsgroup are called traffic. After you have a sense of what is topical, go ahead and post an introductory message about yourself and your company. The key here is to make yourself and your company available and to establish yourself and your company as experts in the area. I cannot emphasize enough that you shouldn't advertise directly! Not only is this a waste of resources, but you may actually make more enemies than customers. A good introductory message would flow like this:

Just wanted to take a few minutes and introduce myself to the newsgroup. My name is XXXXXX and I am full service technology consultant specializing in small business. My company, XXXXXXXX, is now two years old and in that time we have been able to solve many small business' technology needs. I noticed the traffic has been about networking in a manufacturing environment. We have installed several networks in the manufacturing sector and wouldn't mind discussing our experience with the matter. Thanks!

Notice how we didn't mention anything about rates or billing. Business on the Internet is usually initiated by the client instead of the other way around. The goal of this message is to make yourself and your company known.

What can you expect from this message? Quite honestly, your mailbox will be filled with people asking your opinions on situations. From this base of responses you can pitch your service or goods to the qualified lead.

PEOPLE ACTUALLY ASK FOR YOUR ADVERTISEMENT

Mail lists have to be the neatest invention of the Internet. Mail lists are people who have asked to be included on distribution lists focusing on different topics. For example, there is a mailing list for people interested in direct mail. Members of this group range from mail order operators to postal employees. Everyone who receives the messages from this list actively subscribed to the list as you will. Your BBS or Internet service provider can supply you with a list of current mailing lists. When you receive the list you'll notice that there are two types of mail lists, moderated and unmoderated. Experience shows you will receive better response from an unmoderated mailing list, so select those mailing lists without moderators.

When you initially subscribe to a mailing list, pay attention on how to send messages to the mailing lists. Many times you have to address a group name rather than an individual. Again, read the mail list for a few days to get an idea on what the current topics are and how they relate to those on the mailing list.

After you have a good feel for the mailing list, go ahead and introduce yourself. Let's look at how a graphics artist might introduce herself in a mailing list:

Hello! I have been a member of this mailing list for a week now and must say I enjoy what I have read so far. My name is Avery Tocall of Tocall Graphics. I am a graphics designer with over six years experience in the personal computer desktop publishing environment. The topics being discussed lately include tips on direct marketing. My company is accomplished at providing top notch direct mail pieces. If there is interest I will post our electronic brochure.

You will receive a mail message from someone asking you to post your electronic brochure. The brochure should be about two pages long and detail you and you companies accomplishments and areas of expertise. Based on the list you should expect at least 5-10 new contacts to approach you concerning future work.

Some people may not like the look of an electronic brochure in ASCII. That's OK. If you ask for the contacts postal or snail mail address as it is called on the Internet, you can mail them your normal sales material.

Remember, mail lists are comprised of individuals and companies who want to hear from other people about the subject matter. Make sure you position you and your company in the best possible way by offering advice and tips.

Frequently Asked Questions Can Make Money!

Since the Internet is such a vast expanse, people often ask the same questions over and over again about certain topics. To answer new user's questions, people have often developed Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) guides which walk a new user through the particular subject matter. A FAQ can exist for a newsgroup - alt.fan.david.letterman has a FAQ which details all the basic information on David Letterman and his show, a mail list can have a FAQ - the Word of the Day mailing list's FAQ details information subscriber demographics and related news, and even topics can have a FAQ - network cabling's FAQ answers common questions about LAN/WAN connections and wiring.

FAQs are typically considered the definitive answer to the subjects they cover. For this reason they make excellent marketing tools for your business. As an example, let's look at Juan of Juan's Printing. After reading several newsgroups, Juan decides the issue of how certain items such as color brochures and business cards are printed isn't being explained properly. Juan decides to create a FAQ on various printing processes. He spends a few hours typing an ASCII document answering common questions about the printing process with the end of the FAQ being an advertisement for his services.

With Juan's FAQ complete, he can post it to the various newsgroups he visits. When people read the FAQ they'll associate printing expertise with Juan and seek his help and advice when their next printing job is scheduled.

Reaping your contacts from the Internet doesn't have to be an expensive nor complex process. With the three methods we discussed you can have qualified contacts asking about your goods or services within days of pulling onto the Information Superhighway.

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