Making Email work for your business
| Category: E-mail Marketing | Date: 2002-06-20 |
This huge influx of email is now a standard business communication practice. The downside is that its becoming overwhelming to manage. Easing the burden by making sure your message meets the recipients needs will advance your business interests. Heres how.
HITTING THE SWEET SPOT
Imagine a diagram with two circles. This diagram represents a typical in-box, which is filled with email messages like the ones described above. One circle represents emails that serve the recipient: useful information, legitimate business inquiries, answers to questions, and other communication that moves business forward. The other circle represents email that serves the sender: commercial messages, questions about products or services, requests for research or competitive analysis.
The goal is to be in the place where those two circles cross, when a message serves both the senders and recipients needs. This "sweet spot" is hit when an opt-in email discount promotion reaches a recipient who has just requested information about the specific product category, when a customer service representative responds to a prospect who has asked for clarification on a certain product, or when a source sends a legitimate, helpful response to a press inquiry.
If the email you send effectively meets the recipients needs, youre on your way to building a relationship -- one that will hopefully benefit you in the future. But you must think before you send that next email: Does it serve the recipient well? Because this is the only way that it will, in the end, serve you, too. Remember these rules for effective email relationship building:
BE PROMPT
"Send your outbound email promptly," advises Shel Horowitz, author of "Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World".
"When I see a posting of interest on one of the many e-publications I read, I often dash off a quick little note, spell check it, and send it on its way," Horowitz says. "Sometimes these notes have led to amazing opportunities, such as new copywriting clients and book sales."
Horowitz says his quick responses to discussion lists let him reach recipients when the issue is top-of-mind. Many topics that come up in discussion lists are covered in articles on Horowitzs website, so a quick post referring to an article also helps build his website traffic.
Other Internet marketers can use this strategy to point prospects to their websites, where prospects can find detailed product or service information, or informative articles that showcase the marketers expertise.
USE TOOLS TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
Streamline communications by using time-saving tools such as email-based media wires, autoresponders and expert source services designed for the media. These tools reduce the time it takes to communicate effectively with the media, but only if you use them to serve others through education.
Profnet is a media wire service that connects journalists and sources. Too often, though, when a reporter sends out a query, she is immediately inundated with inappropriate responses. People and companies that are a real stretch to fit the reporters needs contact her, in the hope of getting some publicity.
American Universitys Todd Sedmak took a different tactic. He responded to a CNN reporters request for law students to talk to about the OJ Simpson trial.
"I had a class [discussing the trial] and so I contacted CNN," says Sedmak. "CNN liked what they heard about the students and so they provided us the technology to have students on the show via desktop videoconferencing equipment. We worked hard to be available for CNN." Sedmak emphasizes that he focused on CNNs needs for quality, intelligent information.
That was the start of a relationship between Sedmak and the reporter, which eventually led to an alliance with CNN. Sedmaks students now appear weekly on CNNs television show, TalkBack Live. The students also get calls from other CNN staffers based on their work for TalkBack Live.
ANTICIPATE RECIPIENTS NEEDS
Proactively anticipate recipients needs. Missy Acosta, a media operations manager with Ackermann Public Relations and Marketing builds relationships with writers by keeping a close eye on their regular beats, following their columns or topics they specialize in.
She suggests keeping tabs on writers and then volunteering information that specifically addresses their needs ahead of time.
One writer she follows regularly covers technology. Instead of inundating him with press releases and unsolicited queries, Acosta and her associates simply add postscripts to messages they send in response to his queries on other subjects.
"We simply reminded him about targeted, focused area news, careful to address the writers specific beat," she says.
The Internet marketing community should make a pact to not overload this wonderful tool -- email -- so that it is no longer effective. Senders, not recipients, are responsible for ensuring their email offers a benefit. While recipients can use filters and spam tools to deal with a constant barrage of email, remember that less is more: Less email. More results.
About the Author
Shannon Kinnard is president of email marketing agency Idea Station and author of "Marketing with Email".
:To contact online see details brlow.
shannon@ideastation.com
http://www.ideastation.com/
HITTING THE SWEET SPOT
Imagine a diagram with two circles. This diagram represents a typical in-box, which is filled with email messages like the ones described above. One circle represents emails that serve the recipient: useful information, legitimate business inquiries, answers to questions, and other communication that moves business forward. The other circle represents email that serves the sender: commercial messages, questions about products or services, requests for research or competitive analysis.
The goal is to be in the place where those two circles cross, when a message serves both the senders and recipients needs. This "sweet spot" is hit when an opt-in email discount promotion reaches a recipient who has just requested information about the specific product category, when a customer service representative responds to a prospect who has asked for clarification on a certain product, or when a source sends a legitimate, helpful response to a press inquiry.
If the email you send effectively meets the recipients needs, youre on your way to building a relationship -- one that will hopefully benefit you in the future. But you must think before you send that next email: Does it serve the recipient well? Because this is the only way that it will, in the end, serve you, too. Remember these rules for effective email relationship building:
BE PROMPT
"Send your outbound email promptly," advises Shel Horowitz, author of "Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World".
"When I see a posting of interest on one of the many e-publications I read, I often dash off a quick little note, spell check it, and send it on its way," Horowitz says. "Sometimes these notes have led to amazing opportunities, such as new copywriting clients and book sales."
Horowitz says his quick responses to discussion lists let him reach recipients when the issue is top-of-mind. Many topics that come up in discussion lists are covered in articles on Horowitzs website, so a quick post referring to an article also helps build his website traffic.
Other Internet marketers can use this strategy to point prospects to their websites, where prospects can find detailed product or service information, or informative articles that showcase the marketers expertise.
USE TOOLS TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
Streamline communications by using time-saving tools such as email-based media wires, autoresponders and expert source services designed for the media. These tools reduce the time it takes to communicate effectively with the media, but only if you use them to serve others through education.
Profnet is a media wire service that connects journalists and sources. Too often, though, when a reporter sends out a query, she is immediately inundated with inappropriate responses. People and companies that are a real stretch to fit the reporters needs contact her, in the hope of getting some publicity.
American Universitys Todd Sedmak took a different tactic. He responded to a CNN reporters request for law students to talk to about the OJ Simpson trial.
"I had a class [discussing the trial] and so I contacted CNN," says Sedmak. "CNN liked what they heard about the students and so they provided us the technology to have students on the show via desktop videoconferencing equipment. We worked hard to be available for CNN." Sedmak emphasizes that he focused on CNNs needs for quality, intelligent information.
That was the start of a relationship between Sedmak and the reporter, which eventually led to an alliance with CNN. Sedmaks students now appear weekly on CNNs television show, TalkBack Live. The students also get calls from other CNN staffers based on their work for TalkBack Live.
ANTICIPATE RECIPIENTS NEEDS
Proactively anticipate recipients needs. Missy Acosta, a media operations manager with Ackermann Public Relations and Marketing builds relationships with writers by keeping a close eye on their regular beats, following their columns or topics they specialize in.
She suggests keeping tabs on writers and then volunteering information that specifically addresses their needs ahead of time.
One writer she follows regularly covers technology. Instead of inundating him with press releases and unsolicited queries, Acosta and her associates simply add postscripts to messages they send in response to his queries on other subjects.
"We simply reminded him about targeted, focused area news, careful to address the writers specific beat," she says.
The Internet marketing community should make a pact to not overload this wonderful tool -- email -- so that it is no longer effective. Senders, not recipients, are responsible for ensuring their email offers a benefit. While recipients can use filters and spam tools to deal with a constant barrage of email, remember that less is more: Less email. More results.
About the Author
Shannon Kinnard is president of email marketing agency Idea Station and author of "Marketing with Email".
:To contact online see details brlow.
shannon@ideastation.com
http://www.ideastation.com/
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