Coding Your Advertising
by Pam Jones

Have you ever received an email message that said "Please send more information" and you have no idea at all what information the sender is requesting? Have you wondered where a prospect found out about you and your product or service, or how a certain ad is performing for you? Here are some suggestions to help eliminate the "what information are they requesting" questions and to be able to track  your ads so you can know what ones are working and what ones aren't.

When using an email address in your advertising you can code the address so you know where the prospect saw your ad. If you have your own domain, you may have unlimited aliases with your email account. If this is the case you can code your email address to reflect where you placed the ad or what information is being requested. If I place an ad in the iCop newsletter I would use the email address mailto:info@clearwaterwebsolution?subject=referreded by iCop . This tells me that the subscriber came from a referral from iCop newsletter. By putting the ? at the end of the address and subject= the subject line is automatically filled in with whatever comes after it. You need to be sure put the mailto: at the beginning of the address.

Another way of coding is by using various front-end addresses.   I can have an article archive and if someone wants to request an article, I can have the articles named Art1, Art2, etc. When I receive an email addressed to mailto:Art1@clearwaterwebsolutions.com  I know the sender of the message is requesting the article I have associated with that address.

If you wish to code offline advertising you can have the address for requests for information using Dept. #s with a different dept. for each place you advertise with. When you receive mail inquiries you will know immediately where the prospect saw your ad and you can track your responses. You can also do this with phone numbers. Have the prospect ask for a specific department when they call and you will know where they saw your ad by the department number. You will need to keep track of the coding you have used with each place you advertised.

These are only a few suggestions. By implementing these very easy steps into your marketing efforts you will have a better idea of how your ads are pulling for you, where your prospects are coming from, and what information they may be requesting without much effort at all.

Note: In order to use email aliases (whatever@yourdomain.com) you will need to have a catch-all account for your domain email. Check with your hosting provider to make sure this is set-up. You will only be able to receive mail to these addresses. In order to send mail using a particular email address you will need a pop account set up. 

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