EOD.net (Email-On-Demand)
              Strategies
                  Email: service@eod.net

WHAT IS AN EOD (EMAIL-ON-DEMAND)?

An EOD is like an email version of fax-on-demand. When email is sent to an EOD address, it responds by automatically returning a specific file(s) back to the sender's email address, 24 hrs. a day, seven days a week.

The process is fully automatic!  

An EOD can be used for price lists, FAQs, sales letters, catalogs, or most any other file you want to send.

Just as the fax machine revolutionized business in the 1980's, so is email and EOD email redefining business transactions now!

And just as it took business several years to discover new uses for the fax machine like automatic fax-back and checks-by-fax, so companies are just now beginning to find new and innovative uses for electronic mail. Email-On-Demand (EOD) is one.

Here at EOD.net, we've obviously given this subject a good deal of thought as we've created our EOD Service. We've included a few innovative examples of EOD uses below.

We hope you find an idea here that will help you. If you would like more information on any of these ideas or simply have a question, please contact our sales department at: sales@eod.net.

Thanks for considering EOD.net!

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AUGMENT OR REPLACE FAX-BACK

Virtually everyone in business has used an automatic fax-back service to obtain information. But a fax-back system is expensive because you must pay for the fax transmissions.

Today, because millions of business people and consumers have email accounts, you could save money every month by offering the same information via EOD email.

EOD information will usually be delivered quicker than fax-back and does not require the tedious step-through-the-menu phone call. EODs also send a private reply to the prospect's personal email account.

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WEB PAGE AUTO FULFILLMENT BUTTON

Rather than place a huge volume of data into several web pages, add EOD hotlinks on your web page which point to an EOD message. Browsers of your web page can then simply click on your EOD link to request a detailed copy of your information via email. Furthermore, while browsers won't tell you who's visiting your Web pages, this technique will get you the email address of everyone who clicks the EOD link on your web page!

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IMMEDIATE RESPONSE TO EMAIL INQUIRIES

If you would like every inquiry you receive by email to get an immediate reply and acknowledgement, use an EOD address. EOD will respond to every message received at your address by first sending your EOD message, and then the original sender's text will be forwarded to you for further action.

If you wish, we can forward the requests to multiple email accounts for follow-up.

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ELECTRONIC BUSINESS REPLY CARDS

Business reply cards have been offered by magazine publishers for years as a way for potential customers to request more information about your product. But the drawbacks of business reply cards are many: the processing time at the magazine is a minimum of several days, delivery of information by normal mail adds several more days. Furthermore, the cost of fulfillment materials and postage makes each lead very costly. Finally, these cards are usually only available in magazines. You don't have the option of using such a response in other media like newspapers, flyers, or even TV and radio ads.

You can avoid these problems by simply inserting an EOD address in your ads, like this: "To quickly and automatically receive more information about our product, send email to EOD@eod.net right now."

In addition, if you use a different EOD address in each ad, you will easily be able to determine the response rates from different media placements.

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THE SIG + EOD 1-2 PUNCH

Add a "sig" or signature file to every message you send. Three lines is recommended, four is the max, before people start flaming you for having too large a sig! But in those three or four lines, you can include almost anything, including an eye-catching and engaging pointer to your EOD address. In addition to immediately sending your EOD message to anyone who writes, the message is forwarded to you immediately too, so you'll still get messages sent to your EOD sig address as well as to your actual email address.

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DISTRIBUTING APPLICATION FORMS

Do you need to distribute application forms as part of your business? If you send them by snail mail, it will be several days before they are delivered. If you fax them, they cost several dollars per fax. But if you put them on an EOD, your prospects can retrieve an application at any time and receive it within minutes. You save money, and your prospect doesn't go off to find another source!

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ANSWERING FREQUENTLY-ASKED-QUESTIONS

This message you are reading is a good example. We are often asked "Why do I need an EOD?" or "What can I do with an EOD?"

Rather than send every inquirer a lengthy reply, we can just reply with a short explanation and a pointer to this EOD for more details. It saves time for both us and the prospects, who don't have to download a lengthy email message unless they wish to.

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DISTRIBUTE PRODUCT CATALOGS

Many businesses find that their product offerings and prices change so frequently that a hardcopy catalog is simply not realistic. Just look at the ads in virtually any computer magazine which don't contain prices but instead say "CALL".

By using EOD email, you can always have an accurate product and pricelist available for your potential customers. With our EOD service, there is no charge for changing your message, so you can submit updates as often as necessary to keep things current.

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DISTRIBUTE FAQ'S

One of the best and least expensive ways to provide answers to FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) is to offer a FAQ document by email, using an EOD message.

Referring your customers to a FAQ not only give them answers they need quickly, it also frees your employees for more productive work.

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GENERATE QUALIFIED LEADS

A tried-and-true marketing technique is to move prospects through the "AIDA funnel" - Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Your broad marketing activities will generate 'Attention', but an EOD can help you identify those prospects who have 'Interest and Desire'. Simply use two or more EOD addresses, just like we do. Those who retrieve your first message have read your address somewhere, and they must have 'Interest' or they wouldn't send a message. If in that message you offer a second EOD address, only those prospects with 'Desire' are likely to respond, and you can then focus on motivating those highly-qualified prospects to take 'Action'.

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DISTRIBUTE ONE EMAIL TO MANY ACCOUNTS

Do you find yourself forwarding incoming messages to others in your organization? Do your customers, your sales staff, or your distributors wonder about the correct address to send product and market feedback?  You can set up a single EOD address which will not only acknowledge receipt of the report but which will also automatically and immediately deliver the report to dozens of other email addresses of your choosing.

Field-To-Marketing reports, Warranty Registration Cards, and Sales Feedback reports are all likely candidates. For example, you might instruct your field sales staff to send all System Performance Reports to XYZ-SPRS@EOD.NET.  Every report could then be delivered to the proper people in sales, in production, in management, *and* acknowledged to the sender.

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DETERMINE WHERE A READER SAW YOUR AD

Hopefully you will publish your MAILBACK address in many places. How do you know which is giving you the most leads?

Simply set up several aliases for your EOD. Mail to any of them will trigger the EOD, but you can tell the source of the inquiry by just looking at the address which was used.

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DISTRIBUTE "CUT-AND-PASTE" PURCHASE JUSTIFICATIONS

Is your product one which often requires the buyer to write a purchase justification? Write up a few unrefutable paragraphs for your customers to simply cut-and-paste from an EOD message into that memo to the boss!

CAN *YOU* USE AN EOD?

RETAIL STORES - Keep weekly specials online for retrieval 24 hrs a day.

VIDEO STORES - Put a list of your new releases online for customers to check from their home computers.

HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENTS - Provide expanded job descriptions for review by interested prospects.

REAL ESTATE - Out of town prospects will especially appreciate the ability to retrieve details of available properties instantly.

Use one EOD account, updated weekly, to index all properties by area, then provide details in additional EOD replies.

INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES - Provide newsletters, product updates,
and other information with time value via an EOD. International prospects will appreciate the 24-hour availability, and many whose English is not perfect will appreciate the written information rather than a verbal response.

RADIO and TV STATIONS - Save on postage by providing all those
"freebies" (coupons, vacation ideas, special reports) by EOD rather than by regular mail. And ease the burden on your phone operators and let your listeners know you've entered the Information Age by publicizing your EOD email address instead of a phone number! The listener's request will be satisfied instantly, and any comments in the message will be forwarded to you as well.

Thank you for considering EOD Services!

And Remember...Please Use Email - Save A Tree!