TashWord

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Tash is a professional writer who loves helping people communicate clearly and effectively.

Capitals change the meaning

Published 27 April, 2009 | By TashWord

It’s Monday but I’m going to do the Monday Meanings post a little differently today in honour of Anzac Day on Saturday.

Sometimes, a capital letter can change the meaning or significance of a word.

Digger: an Anzac soldier
The Diggers proudly walked off the ship in Melbourne.

digger: someone who is digging or regularly digs
Sitting in the sandpit, the digger created a moat around his castle.

The general rules for the use of capital letters obviously still apply, as does the annoyance of over using capitals. For the above example, I added a capital letter to a regular noun to make it a proper noun as I could also do for words such as Mother/mother, Father/father, Nurse/nurse and Captain/captain.

Posted in Monday Meanings | Tagged anzac, capital, DIgger, letter, meaning | Leave a comment

Phone or email…

Published 22 April, 2009 | By TashWord

When writing about including an email address on printed materials the other day, I mentioned that I prefer emails to phone calls.

Other than anyone’s personal preferences between writing and talking, here are some of the reasons I prefer communicating via email in my business:

it is much easier to ignore an incoming email than phone call. If I am concentrating on a document for a client, I don’t like interruptions and prefer to keep working so ignore incoming messages
I can manage my time better with emails – I choose a time to go through emails and respond as it suits me, but a phone call won’t just sit and wait for my convenience! Yes, I have an answering machine which can allow me to call back later but that doesn’t mean the other person is available when I do call back…
I don’t always work conventional hours – I can read your email at 3am but I doubt you want me to return a phone call at such hours!
an email forms a record of what is discussed. This makes it easier for me to check facts and deadlines when working on a project rather than relying on memory or finding where I scribbled notes during a phone call!
in an email, I have the time, when necessary, to plan what needs to be said and how to present it; on the phone, an immediate response may be regretted later
I can appear professional in an email no matter what is happening in the office – not always feasible over the phone in a home office with three children and renovations in the background!

That said, the phone can be quicker and easier for clarifying information or an involved discussion. And obviously my reasons don’t apply for different types of businesses.

Do you prefer email contacts over phone calls? How do you prefer to contact potential suppliers/service providers yourself?

Posted in bit off track, business info & tools | Tagged call, communicate, contact, email, phone | Leave a comment

Keep your emails out of junk folders…

Published 21 April, 2009 | By TashWord

Last week, I wrote about reducing the amount of spam you receive in your inbox. The other side of the issue is having your legitimate emails being caught by a spam filter and not reaching the recipient.

isp providers and email programs both use rules to sort out real emails from spam – that’s how some emails never reach you and others go into your junk folder instead of your inbox. That’s great for keeping your inbox clear, but not so good when your emails aren’t arriving…

I spoke this morning at a seminar for the Yarra Ranges council and mentioned how certain words can get your email classed as spam even if you use those words in an innocent way. Many mass email tools can review your emails and tell you which words may cause a problem, which is handy. Alternatively, you can find lists of such words online (some examples are here and here.)

For words that are in the spam rules, you have a few choices:

use the word where necessary as some words are just too hard to avoid – for example if you sell fishing rods it is very hard to avoid writing ‘fishing’ (yes, fishing is a word to avoid!) If you only use one or two words and otherwise pass the spam tests, your email has a fair chance of getting through
find an alternative word to use. For example, use ‘go to’ instead of ‘visit’ or ‘click here’
write the sentence differently – to stay with our fishing example, we could write ‘we went to catch some fish’ to replace ‘we went fishing’
break the word with symbol (this is why you see ‘V.isit us for a f.ree valu.ation’ and the like.) This divides trigger words into two part words which spam filters don’t worry about, although some are also being added to rules. I hate the look of doing this but am coming to accept the necessity of it unfortunately.

Avoiding the use of such trigger words can help you get past spam filters, but these are not the only rules to be aware of. Spam assassin provides some tips for keeping your emails out of spam folders, as does Bob Thomson.

Posted in business info & tools, newsletter content | Tagged avoid, email, spam, trigger, words | 7 Comments

Reducing spam

Published 18 April, 2009 | By TashWord

I just came across a blog post that very clearly outlines some anti-spam techniques for your business email. While it is hard (impossible even) to stop spam completely, we can reduce it for our own sanity.

I will add that contact forms are not a guarantee against getting spam. I have found that the contact form is immune from spam for months and then they hack it and I just reset the form with a new email address to solve the problem. Using captcha or recpatcha reduces the spam entries into the form itself, too.

Stephen made the suggestion of not adding an email address to business cards and printed stationery so there is no need to reprint things if you change your email address. I understand his point – reprinting is expensive!However, I do a lot of my business via email and actually prefer it to the phone so I want my email address on my cards.

My compromises to Stephen’s suggestion are:

have a soft copy letterhead you print as required so it is easy to adjust the email address
use a different email address on printed items and never use it online so it is less likely to be found by spammers
don’t put an email address on expensive printed items
only give out your business card personally – use a different card or a flyer/postcard for use in mass handouts (eg in a showbag, at an expo, in a mail out) and don’t add your email address to that

Again, as someone who likes emails, I would find it annoying to get a business card which didn’t include an email address – then I would have to search their website for one. So I think you need to decide if your clients & prospective clients would expect an email address or not before deciding whether or not to print it.

Do you include an email address on your business card? What about on your letterhead and invoices?

Posted in business info & tools | Tagged anti-spam, email, spam | 8 Comments

Cavalry and Calvary

Published 13 April, 2009 | By TashWord

Cavalry: a group or fighters (soldiers, warriors, etc) mounted on horses
The foot soldiers will follow the cavalry into the valley.

Calvary: the Crucifixion place for Jesus; also used to refer to crucifixion crosses and sites in general or to describe intense pain
The pilgrims went to Calvary in Jerusalem.

Unless you write or read a lot of Christian materials, you probably won’t come across Calvary so learning to spell cavalry alone may be enough!

Posted in Monday Meanings | Tagged Calvary, Cavalry, define, difference, meaning | Leave a comment

Where blogging can lead you…

Published 8 April, 2009 | By TashWord

When writing a blog, you know that anyone could be reading it – in fact, you hope someone important (important to you and your business) will come across it and bring you some tangible results. But it is easy to forget how public our blogs are and how what you write can count.

Kylie of Tilda Virtual got some great feedback from her blogin February – she gave a genuine review of QuickBooks and they surprised her by reading the post and calling her to thank her.

That’s not to say anyone should write posts to attract attention instead of giving good information and/or opinions (as that can backfire as it is less interesting to read.) It does mean that each post should be relevant, accurate and written honestly – this builds your credibility and is more appealing to read, plus it may just bring in some unexpected results like Kylie’s.

Posted in blogging | Tagged blog, feedback, posts, read | Leave a comment

Sales emails

Published 4 April, 2009 | By TashWord

An impersonal email got the thumb down from me

There was no reason for me to read some spam I received recently, but it was top of my spam folder and I glanced at it. The subject was “USB Inquiry” and the content was five paragraphs telling me how they could sell me USB keys for my customers (with my logo and presentation on the USB key).

From that email, I spotted a number of tips for writing a good sales letter/email:

make your subject match the content. I wouldn’t have read the above email by the subject as it appeared to be asking me about USB keys which I don’t sell. A better subject would have appealed to my need for a USB key rather than asking me about them (inquiry meaning question)
check the relevance of your offer to the person receiving the email. Why would I buy USB keys from the USA? There are perfectly good USB keys in Australia and they would cost me less in time and freight. If I’m wrong, they could have explained that in the email. The .com.au part of my web address is a clue that I am not in the USA…
relate the offer to the person. A USB key could be useful for me, but a more targeted response would have suggested I put client documents on a branded USB key instead of a plain disc or compile some templates or articles to hand out to prospective clients. They just assumed I did presentations that have notes suitable to a USB key. A serious sales proposition would be based on my needs, not a generalisation
I’ve said it before, but use the person’s name – it is the most important word in their language. “Hello,” isn’t good enough and finding a name off a good website isn’t that hard.
The paragraphs start ‘Could you…’, ‘My company…’, “We can…’, “please visit…’ and “Thank you…’ Every starting point is asking me to do something or talks about them. Where’s the appeal to me, the message that I am going to benefit from this purchase?
The email opens with a request to direct her to the marketing person but then continues as if I am the marketing person. If you request a name, wait for that answer or at least link into the remaining information (e.g. ‘We want to contact your marketing person to explain…’)
Check your sentences say what you want them to. This email included this gem “We are not offering rush production services, and custom shape USB flash drives, you tell us the shape you want your flash drive to be, we will make if for you!” So we don’t offer custom shaped drives but we will make any shape you tell us – doesn’t inspire a lot of trust…
The email finished with “We offer non – profit organizations, schools and charities a discounted rate, so please be sure to mention that for even better pricing.” That’s nice, but as I’m not a school, charity or non-profit group it doesn’t help me much; then again, the email says mention their discounted rate for better pricing and I could mention it easily enough! The lesson again is make the message relevant and clear.
Ensure your contact details are easy to use. This woman gave me a phone number without any area (or country) code and no address so how can I ring her? I’d bet that if I dialed it exactly as is I wouldn’t get her!
Build trust. This email came from an email address that doesn’t match the email given in her signature or the URL she includes which makes me wonder why she didn’t use the company email address and makes me very suspicious.

Of course, even had she written a much better email, I still wouldn’t buy from her as I hate spammers and she didn’t meet legal requirements of including her address. Would you have ordered any USB keys from such an email? Had she followed my tips do you think you’d have been more likely to buy from her?

At least you know what to avoid when you next write a sales letter!

*Photo courtesy of 123rf

Posted in bad writing examples, writing | Tagged email, letter, relevant, sales, writing | 3 Comments

Do you have a website?

Published 1 April, 2009 | By TashWord

I posted earlier about the MYOB survey of small business owners’ response to the global financial situation, but am startled by another part of their survey.

Apparently, 60% of surveyed small business owners don’t have a website for their business. That is incredible. They surveyed 1,503 business owners with no more than 19 employees, so it is a reasonable number but perhaps not statistically significant compared to how many small businesses there are in Australia.

Not all businesses are internet based, obviously, but offline businesses can have a website and use it to good effect.

Why am I so surprised they don’t have a website?

personally, I often refer to the website for further information or to get a feel for a business before I contact them – no website and there’s a good chance I’ll move on. This is especially true now I have a baby as it is easier to research and compare from home than to drive around
a website is like a brochure that works 24 hours a day, every day of the year, so why limit yourself to paper?
a website can be a lot cheaper to run than many traditional advertising options (I pay $5 a month for hosting – you won’t get much advertising for $60 a year!)
people generally find it easier to remember words than numbers so if you or a happy customer are inviting someone to learn more about your business, a web address could be more successful
people expect websites now – not meeting that expectation may decrease your credibility in their eyes

A website can be simple and as short as one or two pages; it can be static and need little maintenance (although search engines prefer more active sites). Some online directories offer full page listings which can act as a website, which is better than nothing, but the URL may be long.

SO back to the original question? Do you have a website? Do other business owners you know have websites? If not, why not?

Posted in bit off track, business info & tools | Tagged business, survey, website | 5 Comments

Small business is apparently pessimistic…

Published 1 April, 2009 | By TashWord

MYOB has conducted a survey of small business owners and found that 43% of them had experienced a negative result from the global economic situation. Which of course implies that 57% have NOT experienced a loss in turnover.

63% think a recession is coming, and I agree that is likely. I disagree however that it means small businesses are all about to fail or feel pessimistic. Many people actually thrive and do better during a recession , and it means many will just cut the excesses and find more efficient ways of doing things which is all good to me.

Their survey also showed 43% of people (I guess they weren’t the same 43%!) believe their business will perform better over the next 12 months. This may be down from 56% in June last year, but I still think it is a positive response.

Mr Reed, CEO of MYOB, said “Now more than ever business owners need to step out of the daily chaos and look at the ‘big picture’. There are many things they can’t control – they should accept those and put energy into what they can control. Business owners shouldn’t be afraid to seek specialist help, such as talking to their accountant about ensuring their business is running as efficiently as possible”

I think he is right – let’s accept that we can’t control the world finances but we can control our own businesses and attitudes. If the financial crisis does reduce profits and makes it tough for some businesses, being creative and looking for opportunities could help many small businesses survive and even thrive.

What do you think – does the financial crisis mean small business should worry or get conservative? Or is this the time to work on strengthening and refining your business to weather the storm?

Posted in bit off track, business info & tools | Tagged business, global financial, MYOB survey | 1 Comment

Just breathe

Published 30 March, 2009 | By TashWord

Breath: the process of taking in air to get oxygen into the lungs; the air taken in or pushed out during breathing; small amount of air or wind
Taking a deep breath, she gave her manuscript to the printer

Breathe: the act of taking air into or out of the lungs. Also refers to letting air through a material (e.g. letting red wine breathe or choosing a fabric that can breathe)
It can be harder to breathe at high altitudes.

Posted in Monday Meanings | Tagged breath, breathe, define, definition, meaning | Leave a comment

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