I hope you find my writing and business tips and observations useful. My business and blog are dedicated to helping businesses communicate clearly and reach their potential.
Read, subscribe to my newsletter, enjoy!Tash
Phone or email…
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?
Keep your emails out of junk folders…
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.
Reducing spam
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?
Sales emails
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
Payment via credit card
I was going through some emails and found the following at the end of an email from someone who considers herself knowledgeable in business.
PS. If you don’t want to go through the process of payment on the web simply send me an email with your credit card details and I will send you both books via email for the low cost of $15.00.
If anyone ever asks for your credit card details via email run away – well, at least say no and arrange payment some other way. Emails are not secure so you risk credit card theft if you provide details in an email.
Of course, the same advice applies if you are sending information about accessing a website or other password protected system. As soon as you put a URL, username and password together in an email, there is a risk someone else can get access.
If you receive a username & password via email, change your password ASAP to guard against this security issue.
If you have to send access information (e.g. giving a new web designer ftp access to your site) pick up the phone, use instant messaging or SMS, or if you use email, separate the elements into different emails to reduce the risk.
It is much safer to make credit card payments over a secure website or phone so don’t give details via email, and never ask your customers for their details over email.
Learning from SEO spam
Last week, I wrote about SEO offer spam emails. Having just received another one of these annoying emails, I thought I’d give some examples of why I don’t trust them…
We can put your site at the top of a search engines listings. If this is something you might be interested in, send me a reply with the web addresses you want to promote and the best way to contact you with some options.
Sincerely,
First Last
So what is wrong with this email?
- no greeting is rude. Even if he didn’t want to take the time to research my name, he could have said “Hello” at the minimum
- who is he? There was no other information to help me identify his business or contact him except by reply email
- if he doesn’t know what my website is (so how did you email me then?) how can he be sure he can help my rankings improve? Maybe I’m already at the top, maybe it’s a family site I don’t care about rankings for, maybe a thousand different things that mean his service is not relevant
- what does he mean by ‘top of a search engine listings’ anyway? Top of page 10 in Google is still top but not something I aspire to! Top for an irrelevant or obscure keyword won’t help me either. By not being clear, he missed an opportunity to show me he knows what he is talking about and starting some trust.
- where is he located? Yes, we could deal via email which means his location isn’t too important, but knowing he is overseas helps understand time differences. Further, I would be more likely to hire an Australian as they understand my market better and I don’t have to deal with the dollar value.
Whilst I hope you don’t send out spam to get business, the above tips will hopefully help you avoid answering spam like this and help you write better sales emails.
Use your words wisely!
rejecting SEO “offers”
I seem to be getting more emails about search engine optimisation (SEO) services lately – all of which I delete without any consideration I might add!
Why do I delete them?
- I don’t have time to read so many emails that are often copies of the same text
- I don’t trust services who need to spam me to get work – if their services are so great, they should be able to get work in less annoying ways
- no one can promise to get another site to to the top of Google – Google changes their system often enough that no one can hack it exactly for one thing, and it depends on what other sites are doing as well – if their site is improved, how do I stay as number 1?
- I am convinced that good content is a key to succeeding with search engines – the amount of site traffic I get from my articles is evidence of that – and I doubt an SEO company will help me with my content!
- I hate spam!
What worries me more is that some of them will convince other business people to take up their services. Not only would it be a waste of money most of the time, some SEO strategies can actually penalise your site (and if Google or Yahoo cuts you out, it is very hard to get your site recognised.)
So if you get made an offer to ‘put your site at the top of search engine listings’, please consider carefully if it is worth pursuing. In fact, if they convince you of the need to have SEO help, go online to find a company to use instead of trusting an uncalled for solicitation. Finding a company gives you the chance to decide how reputable they appear.
Alternatively, take some time to work on your content to make it useful and relevant for humans and read up on other ways to help your page rankings.
Boundaries between home & work
In a traditional job setting, the difference between work and home is fairly clear and easy to see – until you start bringing work home anyway! But when you run a business or have a remote job, it can be harder to spot the difference – and harder to manage things.
Of course, the big question is HOW to manage time! I think the simplistic answer is to set boundaries to maintain control.
From talking to various people, I see two main groups of at home workers – those who get distracted from work by the need to tidy the kitchen, hang out the washing, vacuum the floors and so on, and those who work a lot and find it hard to manage much of the house stuff at all. Which group do you fit into? I have no trouble (well, generally speaking!) getting on with work but end up working too hard and letting the housework slide…
Here are some of my ideas on creating boundaries between business and home, but I’d love to hear your suggestions, too…
- physically separate your working space from your living space as much as possible – if you are sitting in your work space, don’t do home things and vice versa. My article, separating your home office, may give you some new ideas
- separate phone lines if you can – then only answer the business phone during business hours, and the home phone during personal hours. Before you assume this is too expensive, consider a VOIP phone as this is much cheaper than renting a second landline
- tell clients your expectations/limitations – for example, “We work 10 to 4” or “we don’t answer phone calls in busy periods”. Kylie of Tilda Virtual went further and actually sacked a client to gain back control of her business and family boundaries!
- set clear business hours and stick to them most of the time – if clients see you work outside those hours, they will start expecting you to do so. If you do work out of your usual hours, make it clear it is unusual or mask the fact – sometimes I work late at night but program the email to go to my client the next morning so I am not advertising the fact of when I did the work.
- if possible, use a different email address for friends and family than for business. Set up filters for incoming emails and just concentrate on business emails during business hours.
- learn to say no to clients or extra work – or at least say it won’t be done straight away. Know how much work you can deal with in a day/week and refuse to overload yourself
- if you have people visiting you during the day, try putting a sign on the door that says “Business in operation – please call back later for a personal visit” so people can see you are serious about your business hours. If you want, you could leave a pencil and notepad by the door so they can leave you a message
Sometimes it seems impossible to make those boundaries, but the reduced stress and lost time is well worth the effort. Good luck with it!
Use your words and time wisely!
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