Some years ago, I had a conversation with a friend who had developed a very successful offline business. When I asked him what accounted for his success, the very first thing he said was, "I made it a practise to be in the right place at the right time. And it was never an accident."



He went on to explain that he purposely made an effort to "accidentally" bump into his prospects at lunch, or run into them at social functions. "I often learned were they were, he said, "and I learned when they were receptive. I was always amazed at how few of my competitors bothered with this".

The exact same thing holds true on the internet. Do you know where your prospects are? And do you know when they are most receptive to act on your offer?

The goal is to send your offer when it is most likely to be read and acted upon. You certainly don't want your latest newsletter sitting unopened in someone's inbox, collecting both dust AND more and more email competition.

You want to maximize the possibility that your prospects are at their computers (or soon will be) when you send out your offer or newsletter. But how in the world could you possibly know this?

LOOK AT YOUR TRAFFIC STATS

The truth is, you can't know for sure. But you can put the odds further in your favor by analyzing the traffic history in your site logs.

Do you see a pattern? You will likely find that there are certain days where you consistently get more traffic than others. In other words, your particular prospects may well be more active on certain days and at certain times.

If, for example, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays are weaker in traffic, these sure wouldn't be the best days to send out your newsletter or offers. They would likely end up competing more fiercely for attention because fewer of your prospects are online. This increases the possibility of a "quick scan" or even a "delete" when your prospects get to their fuller mailboxes later.

How about time of day? Are your leads visiting more heavily around lunch (11 am to 2 pm) and dinner (5 pm to 8 pm), for example? Is there a fairly consistent pattern? If so, you certainly don't want to send your offer outside of these key time ranges. Again, to do otherwise would be to unnecessarily increase your mailbox competition.

LOOK AT YOUR SALES STATS TOO

Now, take a look at the days and times of your actual sales. Do you see a pattern here as well? If you do, it can be quite a valuable lesson.

When are your prospects in the buying mood? What days? And what times during the day? Clearly, you want to make contact at their most receptive times.

So, be ready when your prospects are. Be in the right place at the right time, "accidentally on purpose", to increase your response rates. Study your site stats and coordinate those marketing efforts within your control (particularly when you send out your newsletter) to coincide with "peak prospect receptiveness" for your particular business.