What's your "most-wanted" response?

Ask 10 of your coworkers, "What do you want first-time site visitors to do when they find us on the Web?" I predict at least eight will reply: "Give us an order." Direct marketers want to see an immediate return on investment. WeÕre used to Ð and willing to Ð say good-bye to the 98% who donÕt respond to our offer, just to benefit from the 2% who buy.

Ken Evoy, a well-known e-commerce guru, emphasizes that success comes when we know our "most-wanted response." Are we missing a huge opportunity by expecting an order to be that response?

The Internet is a direct marketerÕs dream. Having the flexibility to run a flight of e-mail offer tests on Tuesday morning, look at our results and roll out with the winning offer by Friday is mind-boggling. Achieving one-to-one marketing through a promotion based on an individualÕs experiences with our site is miraculous. But what I find the most impressive -- and perhaps most overlooked -- aspect of e-commerce is the ability to develop a relationship with an individual before that person becomes a customer.

By now, everyone has heard of Seth GodinÕs groundbreaking book Permission Marketing. His thesis: by providing something of value to a prospective customer, the prospect will give the marketer permission to further communicate by giving an e-mail address.

With this permission, the marketer can develop a relationship with the prospective customer Ð nurturing that person from prospect to customer to friend to advocate. It all starts by giving something of value to the prospect in return for permission to continue the attempt to build a relationship.

What a concept! With this simple notion, we can change the economics of our offer. Rather than being concerned about creating a relationship only with those who buy, we can capture a larger share of our prospective audience. Because e-mail is so inexpensive, we can then put our efforts into establishing that initial relationship with our prospects and not worry as much about how weÕre going to get them to come back to our site.

And once weÕve established the relationship, we can begin to slowly build the prospective customerÕs trust Ð and acquire information about that prospect to use in crafting marketing messages directed right at that individual.

But most importantly, permission e-mail marketing gives us the opportunity to control the communication in partnership with our prospect. This changes our marketing model into active acquisition rather than passively waiting for our prospective customer to return to our site. When a prospect gives us permission to communicate further, we have begun the relationship journey: prospect, customer, friend, advocate.

Follow these nine steps to develop your "most-wanted response:"

1) Identify something of value that will motivate your prospect to give you their e-mail address. It may be a sweepstakes entry, a discount toward a future purchase, award points, content of interest specific to your business, or an e-zine subscription Ð as long as itÕs valuable to the prospect.

2) Create a clear call to action. DonÕt hide this offer. After all, this is the most-wanted response. Make it obvious to prospects that by giving them the object of value youÕre offering, you want to begin a dialog.

3) Be sure your value proposition and your call to action are on every page where new prospects may find themselves in your site. Make sure this call to action finds itself in every possible landing page you create in your marketing efforts.

4) Once the prospect has given you permission to communicate with him or her, respond immediately with a thank-you message that lets the prospect know what to expect of you in return.

5) Be sure you are prepared to deliver on your promise. Make it as easy as possible for the prospect to download your free information, take advantage of the discount you offered, subscribe to your e-zine or enter your sweepstakes.

6) Develop a plan to gather more information from the prospect to help improve your communications. But do this slowly. Asking too much too soon will scare the prospect away.

7) Test constantly how to convert the prospect into a customer. Start to develop and introduce the offers of your product or service that will entice the prospect to make the next level of commitment in the relationship.

8) Identify your second-most-wanted response, and make sure you have an equally pervasive call to action for that response on each page in your site.

9) Test, test, test Ð everything from the item you have identified to be of value to your prospect, to the offer, to the initial thank-you, to the conversion. The beauty of this medium is that we can test anything, get results almost instantly, and constantly improve communication with our prospective customer.

Changing your thinking to recognize that your most-wanted response is not necessarily an order may not be easy. But when you begin to see what this permission-based response will give you, and carefully analyze the lifetime value of the customer, youÕll quickly realize that beginning a relationship with a prospect in this manner will forever change the way you do business.

Jack R. Rued (jrued@strategicinteractivemarketing.com) is CEO of the Alan Drey Company, a Chicago-based list brokerage firm in business since 1951. He is also president and CEO of two Alan Drey Company subsidiaries: Strategic Directions, Inc., a DM analytical and consulting firm; and Strategic Interactive Marketing, Inc., an end-to-end e-commerce marketing solution provider.