Delete or Investigate? Thursday morning...
This is the morning I bear down and write my newsletter "Tip of the Week" segment. But I rolled out of bed late this morning and my workload is a little heavier than normal. (Thanks in-part to my spring-induced golf habit which is becoming quite addicting!)
So, after my second cup of coffee I decide to get down to business. As usual though, I end up working on a few chapters of my new manuals first and then start picking through my email messages.
This morning I download 221 messages. (That should keep me busy 'til early this evening.) As usual, I decide to pick through the new messages a while before I start writing my tip. While picking through, I find that they consist of the usual...
40% unsolicited email (Don't delete! Amazing! Read This!)
15% new gazette subscribe requests :-)
15% order receipts from my secure server (new customers!)
15% inquiries from prospects (eventual customers)
10% software support questions
5% other - (newsletters, undeliverables, etc.)
As usual, I delete the unsolicited crap and move to the messages worth reading. But how do I make a determination between the "trash it" messages and something worth investigating, all in a split second?
("Wait a second!", I think to myself, "This is a tip of the week in itself!...")
The answer to that question is something all internet marketers should know! After all, many people receive a large number of email messages every day. Maybe not 221, but 30, 50 or 100 a day is quite common. 40% trash is also all too common. If you are marketing with email, your messages need to be "trash proof".
To make your messages "trash proof" and get them into the "open it" category, you need to know what makes the difference between "trash it" and "open it". It's really quite simple:
1. Trash it.
Here are some of the messages I trasferred directly into my trash bin this morning. Never even opened them...
WOW! THIS IS AMAZING!
RE: The Sure Way To Internet Profits
Attention all home business operators..
FREE! 4 POWERBAR HARVEST BARS!
FREE QUOTE! SAVE up to 60%
Do You Need More Money?
JUST RELEASED!!! 10 Million Email Addresses!
z993c3 (no Subject)
How did I determine that this stuff would not interest me? The same way most busy internet marketers do - I look for something familiar in the subject. All of the junk above contained stuff I was not interested in. Further, these messages did not address "ME". In my opinion, that's the main reason spam fails -- it blasts to a general audience.
That's not targeting. To experience REAL success online, you must connect with people. You do this by building relationships - not by alienating 100,000 in hopes of getting a handful of sales in the process.
2. Open it.
So what messages made it into my "open it and investigate" category this morning?
Basically, I only read the messages with either my name or something directly related to my business in the subject. This included replies to my outgoing messages, personal letters and newsletters I subscribe to.
Here's an example of a message that got opened. It contained the following subject:
"What do you think of this Jim?"
The message body was brief and to the point
>I've read all the Bizweb gazette's and find them all to
>be very informative. I am already in business with you
>as a VR web site promoter.
>
>I'm working from home in Orlando attempting to help
>people work from home part-time and have FUN !
>
>Just recently I answered an ad in the newspaper - and
>went to these web sites
>http//www.vacationbargains.com/alliance.htm and
>http//www.golfcard.com
>
>Thought maybe you would like to travel, cruise and golf
>for FREE ---Promote your Web Site and make very serious
>money too?
>
>Also, if in reviewing the sites on the www you know how
>it would work best for me to advertise please do give me
>a call or email.
>Thank You, Jim
Now, although I did not join this fellow's program he stands a much better chance of success than his spamming counterparts. His email messages are getting read and his web site is getting visitors. This is your first goal in any marketing campaign!
Why did I read his message and visit his web site?
Two main reasons:
1. He addressed me personally.
2. He identified himself as a long-time subscriber and customer.
This fellow is marketing effectively by utilizing the relationships he has built online. Personal contact from one businessperson to another -- this is how you target effectively. His chances of building a solid money-making cyber-business are much better than all the folks blasting their messages indiscriminately to people's trash bin.
The moral of this story?... Start building relationships online TODAY. You do this by personally connecting with other marketers. Whether it is through a free newsletter you offer or simply a personal message, relationships are the key to success in any marketing campaign. People buy from businesses they know and respect -- especially in this vast new marketing arena called cyberspace!
*Article by Jim Daniels of JDD Publishing. Jim's site has helped 1000's of regular folks profit online. Check out their FREE "how-to" cybermarketing assistance, free software, business opportunities, manuals, web services and more! Real money is being made on the net -- get in on it at: http://www.bizweb2000.com/new/d8117 - Subscribe to their FREE, weekly BizWeb E-Gazette: mailto:subscribe4free@JDD-Publishing.com
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
More Website Advertising Articles
More By Developer Shed  developerWorks - FREE Tools!
|
Hear how IBM Rational Project and Portfolio Management integrated solutions help teams put the right tools and processes in place to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of project teams and ensure that the business vision is being executed correctly. Learn how to automate and integrate requirements prioritization, top-down project planning, communications and controls, and methodology deployment to keep your scope, costs, and schedules under control. Tackle with an end-to-end approach the management of scope and scope changes, usage of methodology to control and empower project teams, and optimization of resources to align activity costs with the overall project plan.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Join this Rational Talks to You teleconference, featuring Paul Boustany and Mark Krasovich, to speak to the experts about becoming a Rational ClearCase power user. Get a chance to ask your questions and learn tips and tricks for using Rational ClearCase in Agile development
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Building a software-as-a-service solution requires addressing a few key technical challenges. In this webcast, we'll focus on the role of IBM Tivoli Directory Server and WebSphere Portlet Factory in creating a Software as a Service solution. We will demonstrate how to use Tivoli Directory Server to prevent the user population of one tenant from accessing the virtual portal and portlet components of another tenant. We will also use the dynamic profile capability of WebSphere Portlet Factory to create multiple highly customized applications from one code base.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Build secure Web services with transport-level security using IBM Rational Application Developer V7 and IBM WebSphere Application Server V6.1. Follow this three-part series for step-by-step instructions about how to develop Web services and clients, configure HTTP basic authentication, and configure HTTP over SSL (HTTPS). This first part of the series walks you through building a Web service for a simple calculator application. You generate and test two different types of Web services clients: a Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) client and a stand-alone Java client. You also handle user-defined exceptions in Web services.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Learn how you can extend modern application lifecycle management to IBM System z through the IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform (SDP). The Did you say mainframe? e-kit includes podcasts, webcasts, tutorials, white and red papers, demos, and articles designed to help ease the challenges of modernizing your enterprise. This complimentary kit for mainframe developers is a practical, how-to guide for making the most of an existing development environment, including the skills and infrastructure already in place at an established enterprise.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Join this webcast to see how IBM Data Studio Developer and pureQuery can take the pain out of Java data access. uApplications developed using both Java and SQL have become a common requirement. Database connectivity using Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) to create an application is a multi-step tedious process, and tooling that covers both SQL and Java has been unavailable, until now. IBM Data Studio introduces the pureQuery platform: a high-performance, Java data access platform focused on simplifying the tasks of developing, managing, and optimizing database applications and services.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
As systems increase in complexity, communication between systems and software teams becomes more and more difficult. Now, there’s a way to improve product quality and communication.<br />Read the “Model Driven Systems Development” white paper to see how. Also included in this kit are more educational white papers, customer examples, tutorials, informative Webcasts, and best practices for designing, building and managing systems.<br />
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Portfolio Management is about effectively managing portfolio value by aligning portfolio investments with business goals. This complimentary e-kit provides a collection of materials that can help you understand how IBM Rational enables and automates best practices for improved governance and clear visibility into portfolio and project performance across the entire IT project lifecycle.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Regression testing -- in which code is thoroughly tested to ensure that changes have not produced unexpected results -- is an important part of any development process. But many testing environments neglect the terminal-based applications that still form the backbone of many industries. In this tutorial, you'll learn how the Rational Functional Tester Extension for Terminal-Based Applications works with other Rational Functional Tester to help test terminal-based applications quickly and easily.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Viper 2 brings a great value to developer communities including SQL, XML, PHP, Ruby, .NET and Java. You probably already know that DB2 Express-C is free for developers to develop, deploy and distribute. Viper 2 provides a variety of means that help move your application from the development stage to deployment more rapidly. This webcast shows how to best utilize the latest tools available for developing DB2 applications.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools!
| |
