Finally, the email tools I promised!
by Philip Scott
Thank you to Kevin Cruickshank (Gold Coast Vet Surgery) and Cheryl Davies (Davinway Agile Marketing) for pointing out that I have FAILED you all!
It seems I have been promising for the last about 6 weeks to tell you about some simple yet very effective email tools ... only I never got around to telling you! So please accept my most sincere apologies ... I hope to make up for it somehow :)
Have you ever considered just how many emails you send in a day, or week, or ... year? Its a lot! I send easily 30 to 50 emails a day .... and Im sure you may send even more, but just for me that equates to around 8,000 emails a year give or take.
We all spend a lot of money promoting our businesses, attend networking functions. We know that all marketing experts will tell us that it is 5 times more effective to market to our existing contact base (existing customers) than it is to try and gain new customers.
Sure you could send a regular newsletter (!!!) to your contact database and tell them about your wonderful product or service ... but to me that is a bit like showing up at a SAbona business breakfast, handing your business cards out to everyone, telling them about your business and walking away without listening to word they have to say. It doesnt work and it is just bad taste.
When I attend a business breakfast I purposely talk to everyone about THEIR businesses, or just about anything ... the fact that I now support the Wallabies, or that I want to open a coffee shop with the name Zebras .. basically anything BUT about what I do. Why? Because I manage to build a relationship with people, make friends, establish trust. I know eventually they will ask me about what I do ... but theyll actually be interested!
Which brings me to my first very valuable email tool. I think of it as an email relationship building tool.
Email tool #1: Brandedemails.com.au
Now you may think why not just create an email signature and be done with it? ... but youd be wrong! Oh I know how many of you hate being told youre wrong ... but trust me ... you are!
You see, an email signature is just like a business card. You can walk up to someone and give them a business card. Chances are, they will just discard it, or misplace it ... waste of money and time.
The tools from Brandedemails.com.au are different. Every email you send to ANYONE ... whether it is a client, a supplier, a friend, a long lost contact, your accountant (Hi Kevin!) or whether it is a thank you or a query about your Pay TV service .... you get the drift ... EVERY email ... becomes a relationship builder for you.
Yes you probably could do something similar with signatures, if you know what youre doing ... no actually even then you cant, because these tools will allow you to integrate your emails with your website, or your linked in profile and provides you with statistics to tell you who clicked on what and when. Why would you want to know that? Because it empowers you. It is like when you talk to someone and they happen to be interested in a specific service you provide ... it gives you invaluable feedback!
The best part though (for me) is the fact that all your staff email branding can be managed from a central point. Even if they are not in the office. You need to ensure no one has an old logo, or outdated information in their emails that are sent out. You are able to update all their branding content at any time, giving you full control of your electronic mail branding!
Email tool #2: nudgemail.com
As a software developer myself, I appreciate software that doesnt require you to install and update ... software that just works, and makes your life easy!
I may send 30 to 50 emails a day, but probably receive like 100 to 200 a day! (Not including unwanted emails). Most of the time I cant act on the email straight away, but I dont want to forget about it! So instead I forward it to nudgemail, with a note of when I want to be reminded ... and then I forget about it.
Well until Nudgemail nudges me! And even then I can decide to snooze it for ... 15 minutes, an hour, a day, or a week ... its brilliant. You have complete control over all the settings ... simply send an email to change anything ... love it! Ive even added a number of simple scripts (advanced topic!) that will at the click of a button, reply to the email I received saying something like thanks for the email, Ill get back to you soon. It automatically adds (in the bcc field) the appropriate nudgemail command and I get reminded when Im supposed to get back to the person.
Clearly you dont want to do this with ALL your mail ... you should ACTION most of your mail, delete or file others ... and defer others using nudgemail. Try tit ... its free, and fun, and it woks brilliantly.
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