The rule is: Remember that it isn’t about you.

Your marketing, if it’s to be effective, HAS to be about your prospective customers/clients and what they want or need.

Test each of your marketing messages (including web pages) by checking to see what the first sentence is about. If it says “we” or “I,” rewrite it.

Then count the number of times you say “we” or “I” or any variation thereof. Next, count how many times you use some version of the word “You.”

Unless you’ve used “you” at least 3 or 4 times as often as you’ve used “I,” – rewrite it.

Someone – I’m not sure who he is – let me know that this is the eleventh letter he’s sent me and I have not responded!! He went on to tell me that it should only take 5 to 8 touches to get my response, and I have failed!

Ummm… yes, I know. I’m not interested, so please go away!

Guess I should have written back and said so, but instead I deleted.I suppose tomorrow he’ll be back to tell me I’ve really sinned now.

Email marketing has been strange lately… have you noticed it too?

It started several weeks ago with someone named Mike – or anyway he calls himself  Mike.  It could be Nancy or Joe or Betty for all I know.

“Mike” started writing every day, sometimes twice. He always had some kind of hot deal – just click here. But he never really revealed what the hot deal was, or who he was, or how he got my name.

Now there are more and more of a similar nature. Lots of people writing without revealing their identity.

There’s even one with a link at the top telling me that if I don’t want to hear from them any more, just click there.

But for some reason, I don’t have the nerve.  I have a sneaking suspicion that clicking that link might lead to something yucky – like a virus.

I love the Internet and I love being able to connect with people all over the world. But I sure don’t love being scolded because I haven’t accepted some offer I don’t want.

• The ease of writing it down / remembering it
• The impression it gives

How many times has someone asked you for your email address?

You might be talking to someone at a meeting and you plan to get together and work on a project, or they might want to give you a referral, or send you some important information.  Or… you might be talking to a prospective customer and have suddenly found yourself without a business card.

Whatever the reason, it’s not uncommon any more for someone to ask for your email address.

When you give your address, is it easy for them to write down or remember? Or have you accidentally made it difficult to find you?

Last week I experienced a nightmare with my mailing list – and was forced to remove more than half of the names I’d gathered over the past few years. I was able to access the lists of people who had been opening my email and retrieve their address so I could write them and ask them to re-opt in.

But copying some of those names and typing them into my address book has not been easy!

So far, I have about a 6% error rating. A couple have been because of my typing – missing the “a” in “yahoo,” and the “e” in “verizon.” But others have been because my brain didn’t correctly intercept what I was reading when I tried to type it.

For instance, my fingers have a hard time writing what my brain sees as “silver bird” as “silvrbrd.”  Then there are the ones that look more like an automatically generated password – just letters and numbers that seem to have no relation to each other.

If we all printed carefully in large block letters, giving someone an email address like that might work. But since we don’t, the chance of someone getting it right when the letters don’t fit together in a logical manner is pretty iffy.

But that’s not the only reason to be careful with your address.

Making it difficult to remember correctly isn’t the only mistake people make with email addresses – the other is that they don’t think about the message the address conveys.

Some of the addresses I typed in today really seemed to say a lot about the people – and what they thought of themselves. When a person refers to themselves with a derogatory term, why should someone else think they’re credible people to do business with?

I’d have to be pretty angry to call someone the names that some people use to refer to themselves in their email addresses.

Even if they’re not personally insulting, some addresses convey a lack of confidence or a “poor me” attitude. They remind me of a road I pass by on my way to town: “Poverty lane.” No way would I live on that road!

The other message your address conveys is about your professional status.

If you’re a business and have a website, your address should be @yourbusiness.com. Using an address from yahoo, gmail, etc. gives the impression that you might not be there for the long haul. Those addresses look temporary – like you might be going to run away some time soon.

Think about what your address says about you – and if it doesn’t convey the feeling that you’re a wonderful, reliable, trustworthy person – or the owner of a fantastic business – change it!

Used in a permission-based e-mail campaign, or in a postal mail campaign, drip marketing does more than remind your prospects that you exist.

It offers you a way to show your expertise and knowledge without being overbearing. If you offer one new tip or bit of advice each day, your prospects will gradually come to view you as the expert they need.

And, by offering that advice without promise of reward, you make another important statement about yourself. You silently state that you possess the qualities of generosity, helpfulness and good will.

Day by day, you’re building a relationship based on trust. And in this day of skepticism, trust is a priceless commodity. It’s something that can’t be purchased – it can only be earned.

Day by day, you’re also showing your prospects all the reasons why they need to turn to you when they’re ready to buy.

You could put those reasons why in one long letter, but I think they’re more effective when presented one at a time – over time.

Offering your information in small bites gives your readers time to digest and understand each reason. And, your drip marketing letters give you multiple opportunities to “touch” your prospects. Because you’re offering something new each time, you will interest rather than annoy those prospects.

If you simply sent the same message over and over, they’d probably toss or delete it as soon as they realized they’d already seen it before.

But because your message is different each time, and because you’ve let them know from the first that they’re going to receive some valuable advice each time they hear from you, they’ll read each message. In fact, they may look forward to it.

Just this week I got a note from a lady who was receiving some drip marketing messages from me. She said “Somehow I missed #4, could you re-send it?”

How many letters should go into a drip campaign?

Most experts agree that you need 7 “touches” to motivate the average consumer. Those can be email, postal mail, phone calls, or even in-person visits.

I think a better way to decide how many letters to send is to examine how much information you have to offer.

Decide what you want to tell them. Then break it down into small, logical bites. You could even write one long essay, then come back later and break it up.

Remember that you don’t want to offer TOO much information in each of your drip marketing letters. It’s more effective to keep them relatively short so your prospects can read and digest them quickly.

Of course you should include a call to action at the end of each message. Offer a free consultation or a free report. Or just say, “When you need me, call…” and list your phone number and email address.

Whatever you do, do ask them to take some action, even if it’s reminding them to be on the alert for your next message in X number of days.

You might think it’s only for business correspondence. Many real estate professionals have a signature with their name, the name of the company, a phone number, and the web address. Many small business people do the same.

But is that enough? And should you limit using a signature to only your business correspondence? I don’t think so.

First, if you serve a specific geographic area, add your city to that factual information. I can’t tell you how many real estate signatures I’ve read that give me no clue where the agent is located. (Aside from the phone number, but how many people know all the area codes in the U.S.?)

Then you need a tag line. That’s something short and sweet that conveys what you do. After that, if you have a special offer going on, include it.

If you’re in real estate you might use a line about your specialty – “Serving the Highland Hills area of Mytown,” or right now… “Call on me for Short Sale Success”

If you’re an electrical contractor, you’ll want to show whether you’re in commercial or residential construction, or if you do rehab work.

If you’re a hairdresser your tag line can let people know if you’re an expert at the latest mod hairstyles or if grandma will love you because you know how to make a pin curl.

Why do you need all this information at the end of an email?

For one thing, even our friends don’t always think about what we do for a living. Especially our on-lines friends who may never have met us in real life.  Your signature on your email is a constant, yet subtle reminder of what you do.

This could be very valuable if you sell products on line, especially if you change the signature now and then to reflect a sale or a special purchase item. But it could be valuable even if you provide a service in a specific geographic location.

That’s because emails are often forwarded on to other people. You may live in Montana and write to a friend in Florida. But your email and your signature could very well end up back in a home that’s a mile from where you’re sitting.

Think about your own actions. When a friend forwards you a funny joke or useful information, don’t you notice if it has a signature at the end? And don’t you forward it on to other friends who will probably enjoy it? Most of us do.

Even better, if you kept seeing the same name attached to messages that resonated with you, wouldn’t you start to feel a little like you knew that person?  You might not consciously think it, but in the back of your mind you will probably be feeling: “This person thinks a lot like I do – I’d like to meet her/him.”  And of course, when you start thinking someone is a lot like you, you automatically think they’re pretty darn good people.

The danger here, of course, is in sending messages that would turn people away. So if you have a good friend and sometimes share jokes that are a bit on the colorful side, or share opinions that are politically charged, it might be a good idea to remove your signature.

You know some email messages do “go viral” so be careful!

In a way, your signature is a way for you to expand your sphere of influence to include people you will never meet. And as long as they have a great impression of you, that’s a good thing!

I can’t count how many e-mail marketers have been telling me things like “Only 2 days left” – “Today’s the last day!” and similar shouting-type messages for at least the past 3 weeks.

If it’s the last day, fine. Wonderful even. But don’t tell me the same thing again tomorrow!! Let this be over!

So, this week I set out to unsubscribe from all of them. I wanted to be rid of every one of them who gave me no information – just hype.

But it isn’t working. I think of 8 or 10 I’ve unsubscribed from, only one has quit mailing to me. Some I’ve unsubscribed from now 2 or 3 times.

And one really took the cake – when I tried to escape I found out I had to enter my password! So… if I want to take the time I can send for my lost password and then get out. Maybe.

I’m pretty sure that the autoresponders I use will automatically remove anyone who doesn’t want to hear from me any more. I actually thought it was a law that they had to be set up that way, but whether it is or not, letting people leave your list is the right thing to do.

The only reason I can think of for wanting to keep people on your list who don’t want you there is to be able to say you have a huge list when you want JV partners.

Surely they don’t think they can annoy us into purchasing!

I don’t have anything against anyone who is trying to make a living. As long as they’re only annoying me and not cheating me, then fine. But these guys are getting to a point where maybe they should be reported as spammers.

What do you think? Should I report them? Should I just keep deleting? Should I go to the trouble to unsubscribe a few more times?

What are YOU doing about the flood of junk?

I hope someone you saw today took the time to thank you for your service – and for preserving our freedom to send our random thoughts out over the airwaves like this. I know, this day is about our fallen heroes, but I think we need to honor everyone who serves.

I’m always glad for the end of a long holiday week-end, because it means people will be back in touch. I’ll be able to reach clients with a question about their copy, and I’ll dare to send them finished work. I always hesitate to send things on a holiday because I know that after a few days away, their in-boxes will be so full, it  might get lost.

By tomorrow afternoon, hopefully, it will be safe.

Meanwhile, I have several people to call tomorrow, because I got a notice on Twitter that my mail was bouncing. What is THAT about? I sure get plenty of junk mail, even on the week-end, but a notice like that makes me worry that “real” mail from clients and friends isn’t coming through.

Anybody else get a Twitter notice like that?

Some of them probably have good advice and information I could use, but who has the time?

You probably also have a system for getting rid of anything that looks like an ad – unless it happens to be something you’re looking for that day. My first task in the morning is scrolling through all the messages that came in over night and deleting the majority of them.

And even then, I know I’m probably missing some good stuff.

At some point during the day I might try to go back and see what I’m missing… and then I delete some more. For instance, any message that gives me a few sentences and says “click here” to read the rest. Nope. I’m on satellite, so I’m not going to take time to click and wait.

Then I delete the ones that offer 6 or 8 inches of promotion before getting down to the message.

How about you? Do you have a method for paring down the messages?

So do your prospective customers! Every one of us, and every one of them, has to pick and choose what we’re going to read. Otherwise, we’d spend 8 or 10 hours a day at our computers, just reading!

That means your message, be it a promotion for your goods and services, or a fund raising appeal, has to grab attention, and then it has to immediately show that it will deliver whatever you promised in your subject line.

If you fake it – promise something and then deliver only an offer to purchase that information – you’ll lose your readership faster than you can blink.

So think hard and long about your subject line – and then make sure you fulfill the promises that it makes.

In spite of the impersonal nature of the internet, it really is all about creating relationships and building trust. When people see your name they’ll react – either by thinking (or feeling) “Good information, I need to read this” or “Oh, another ad.”

Generally I just delete each of them without looking, but tonight I scrolled down and scanned one of those messages. Those identity thieves are really bold! They were asking for everything, including the 3 digits on the back of my credit card. That particular message told me that because of suspicious activity, they had locked my account until they heard from me.

I don’t know what the penalty for identity theft is, but I would guess it is considered a serious crime – so the potential rewards of this nasty scam must be very high. And, here’s the sad part, they must get enough response from those bogus emails to make it worth the risk.

If you have people in your address book who might not be aware of phishing – and who might possibly respond to one of these messages – I hope you’ll take a few minutes to warn them.

The way some of the messages are written, a person could panic and respond if they didn’t know better.

One of them I received today was a dire warning that I needed to contact them immediately because my account had been compromised.

By the way, if you want to help stop the phishing, forward those emails to the FTC at spam@uce.gov

Here’s to honest prosperity!

Marte

There are some I love, and read clear through. John Forde’s for example. And then others I scan through, trying to see if there’s something good, and delete.

The difference for me: Some have a good story or some good advice, presented in a clear, linear fashion, right there in the email. Others have a half dozen or more little blurbs telling you to go somewhere else to read the rest. Most of them are ads for something or other. I just deleted one a minute ago that probably had some good things to learn — somewhere. But I didn’t have the patience to wade through it to find which link might lead me there.

I did read somewhere that short emails get delivered more readily than long ones. Don’t know if that’s the truth, but I read it. That would be a good reason to link to your longer message on a web page if it’s true.

So what do you think? What kind of ezine do you prefer? (I know that my tastes are often far removed what what other people think.)

And what about the rest of the format? Would you rather get an ezine with a header, and color, and a few graphics? Or do you appreciate a straightforward, black and white e-mail?

Share your opinion — and rant a bit if you like!

Marte