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Some more email suggestionsI'm fascinated by the study of email usage. Every time I turn around, I find some new trick or idea that can make your online messaging experience more enjoyable or productive. Here are a few to consider. Make a Web email provider (e.g. Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) your primary email address right from the start. If you're just getting online, you might think that you should just use your AOL address or your Mindspring, Earthlink or local Internet service provider (ISP) address. But what happens when you outgrow them, or become unhappy with the service? Maybe you just won't like AOL's email client. Regardless, you'll have to let everyone you correspond with know that you've now got a new email address. Or you'll be reluctant to move because you don't want to change email addresses. In other words, you won't be enjoying the Internet experience that you want or need. The best solution is NOT to tie your email address to your Internet service provider. You will eventually change ISP's, trust me on this. I've been through three so far. And I'm about to move to another. With a Web-based email service, you can change your ISP whenever you want, and not have to worry about your email address. Kate and I have some friends who split their year between Florida and Wisconsin. While they live in the big city in Florida, they're in the weeds up north. There aren't any ISP's with reasonable options for Internet connections in the wilds of Wisconsin. The ISP they have in Florida, or even the national companies, won't be able to help them. But their local electric utility DOES offer ISP service. So our friends are going to have to subscribe for six months in Florida, cancel their service when they move, subscribe to the service in Wisconsin, cancel in six months, re-subscribe in Florida, etc. If they used the email address provided by their ISP whenever they subscribed, they'd wind up changing addresses every six months. When they bought their computer, I told them that they should immediately go to Yahoo (or Hotmail, Juno, or any of the other services) and set up an email account. That would then stay with them wherever they went. The other, better option, which is more expensive, is to get your own domain name. Let's say you're Mike and Terry Sturnspanker. Mike could have an email address of mike@sturnspanker.com. That email address could stay with him forever because he literally owns it. The problem is that, for newbies, getting their own domain name and email address is a little more intimidating than just clicking on the AOL icon when their computer boots up. So if you're a new user, now's the time to get a Web-based email account. It's likely to be the address you'll have for a long time. What about me? Long before I had jfrazier@gadwall.com, I used jimwfrazier@yahoo.com. I still have it, and check it a couple of times a week. ~~~ This message is for sales reps, entrepreneurs, and Internet newbies. You should know that it is very bad form to send commercial, unsolicited email to prospective customers who didn't ask to be on your list. I know the temptation is there; I've even done it myself. Email is so easy and CHEAP! But unless you're selling the latest hair growth formula or make-money-at-home opportunity, and you don't care what people think of you and your business, you should refrain. You're edging very close to spamming, which is actually illegal in some states. My own strict definition is that spamming is the act of sending an unsolicited broadcast email in an attempt to sell something. It generally involves using a deceptive subject (such as "this is the information you asked for"), and not providing a real postal address, URL, and phone number. Others are more liberal in their definition, and just say it's anything that is commercial and unsolicited. Either way, you're likely to offend someone. And the first thing they teach you in sales class is that it is kind of unproductive to offend your prospects. If you want to build a good reputation, refrain from any form of spamming. About the only people who do it nowadays are people who have just gotten email for the first time, are excited about this incredibly cheap way of doing targeted marketing, and who haven't learned the etiquette and customs of the Internet. Don't mark yourself as one of those people. Here's a suggestion. If you just got 50 business cards with email addresses at a trade show, and you just HAVE to send them emails as opposed to the more costly follow-up letter, do these things. 1. Address each message individually. Put a salutation on the first line, with their name on it, so that it's clear that you weren't just sending them a message as part of a larger list. 2. Make sure your subject clearly indicates what you're doing. For example, you might entitle the message, "Following up on your visit to our booth at the trade show." 3. Show your postal address, all of your phone numbers, and your Web page. Make it clear that you're not some anonymous spammer. 4. You still might want to follow up with a phone call or letter, whichever you normally do. Some people are getting a little jaded with email messages, or get hundreds a day, and they may miss yours, or may not be impressed. The old-fashioned ways of contacting people still are valuable. But as for spam, don't worry about sending stuff to me. I love Spam (Monty Python fans can sing the Spam song now). ~~~ If you are going to insist on sending to a list, whether it's a message to your prospects from a trade show or you're forwarding a particularly funny joke, make sure you use the "blind copy" or "BCC" field for the addresses. That way, you don't give everyone's email address to everyone else. After you've been on the Internet for a while, you'll appreciate why people like to keep their email addresses private. Unless, like me, you actually like Spam. ~~~ If you get a lot of email, set up folders in your mail client for various types of messages. Then set up rules to automatically funnel messages into those folders (or rules) based on the subject, sender, etc. This can be a great time saver. You still will probably want to read the messages, but you can at least prioritize them into those you want to read NOW and ones that can wait until later. For example, I subscribe to about 20 different email newsletters. They automatically go into my "newsletter" folder. I review them all, but I do it after I've gotten the urgent emails read and responded to. I even have a rule set up to automatically delete the messages of a few people who just annoy the heck out of me. I never want to read an email from them ever again, so when those messages come in, they get instantly nuked. I also have a filter set up for spam. Messages that have dollar signs in the subject, for example, get automatically routed to the "spam" folder. I still read them, since the occasional legitimate message DOES have dollar signs in the subject, but it's nice to hold off on scanning those messages until the pressure is off. ~~~ Email is a tremendous tool. But there are traps as well. I've tried to show you some tips and techniques that can make you look more professional, avoid making newbie mistakes, and make you more productive. Hopefully you've gotten some ideas from the ones I've mentioned. Stay tuned; there will probably be more.
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