Tag Archives: email

Feb1

Up at the Crack of Dawn Today

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Up at the Crack of Dawn Today

I rose early this morning – 4:30-ish – to trek across the city of Dallas and meet with a fellow writer who wanted some advice on kick-starting her writing business. We’re also involved in a mystery-writing critique group, so the foggy mist that obscured the White Rock Lake area along Northwest Highway seemed the perfect setting for our get-together. It was literally so foggy that I held the wheel with both hands and peered over it into a pea-soup cloud. The good news – all the traffic was headed west, and I was going east, so I didn’t have to worry about cars right around me as I strained my eyes to see the lane markings.  Meeting at 6:30 a.m. is a rare event for me.  But J. is a rare friend, and I didn’t mind giving up a little sleep to meet with her.

Today my friend wanted to talk more about business-oriented writing services rather than our usual creative novel-writing pursuits. Like many experienced writers she is learning to transition from traditional marketing to the new age of social media, with all its complexities.  We had a great brain-storming session and she left with some good ideas about how to promote her work.  She wants a website, so my suggestion was to use WordPress as her starting point, because it is intuitive, easy to use, and free or low-cost, depending upon the options chosen.  I encouraged her to set up a LinkedIn profile, but I’m not sure she is ready to do so.  I also showed her a blog post by Carol Tice, whose blog and website I’ve found both practical and thought-provoking.  Carol is a successful free-lance writer and award-winning blogger who recently wrote about where her writing business came from in 2011.

There are other options, of course.  Using the telephone to contact her targeted customers is one possibility, with a follow-up letter and/or email.  She might consider doing a newsletters using an online tool like ConstantContact, iContact, or AWeber, but a traditional printed newsletter might be an option for her, also.  She can do it on her computer and have it printed at an office supply store like Office Depot.  We also discussed magazines that use free-lance writers and would be interested in her travel-writing skills.   Please note that the advice I gave her was geared to someone who is not yet comfortable with social media.  It’s about dangling one’s legs in the water and adjusting at a slower pace rather than diving in headfirst.

I’m eager to see where my friend goes from here.  J. has many years of experience in writing, ghost-writing, travel writing, resume writing and editing books and marketing materials for all kinds of businesses, so I know she’ll do well with her writing endeavors.  I’m also hoping to see her pursue her dream of self-publishing the mystery novels she has written, since she’s one of the best writers I’ve ever read – honestly – and her work should be out there for readers to find.  She’s a published writer already, but she doesn’t currently have an agent or publisher.  That shouldn’t hold her back.  Lots of writers are finding success by self-publishing.  It’s a brave new world, and everyone – writers, publishers, agents, and even readers – is learning to swim in unfamiliar waters without any floaties.

I’ll keep you posted once she gets her online presence in place.  And I guarantee you, her books will not begin with “It was a dark and stormy night….” and they will keep you perched on the edge of your easy chair, reading long past your bedtime.

Nov7

Zig When They Zag – And Stand Out by Scott Bywater

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Zig When They Zag – And Stand Out by Scott Bywater

Zig When They Zag – And Stand Out
Copyright (c) 2009 Scott Bywater
Copywriting That SELLS
http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

The internet has become all the rage these days.

Don’t send a letter, pop it on an email.

Don’t mail the customer anything, pop it in an email.

In fact, let’s forget about letters altogether and do everything
electronically.

I’m as guilty of this as the next person.

But recently I received a thank you card and it made me think a
little differently.

You see, I receive (and appreciate) a bundle of emails every week
thanking me for the emails I send out.

And nothing makes me feel better than knowing that as I write
these emails from my lonely office, someone is reading them and
hopefully applying them.

However a couple of weeks ago I received something in the mail
which really stood out.

It was a thank you card from a guy called Greg Kumanovski from
Global Pictures. All it said was…

“Thank you for your regular emails with all the helpful ideas.
Have a great day”

But I’ve had that card sitting on my filing cabinet ever since
he sent it to me.

And I think there’s a lesson here for all of us.

Whether it’s thank you cards or anything else, consider sending
the hard copy version over the soft copy version.

In other words: when everyone else is zigging, why not zag and
stand out from the crowd.

After all, mail order should be far more effective these days
because nobody else is doing it.

For instance, yesterday I was chatting with a guy who sent out
his proposals via email.

He was getting a lot of proposals requests coming in every week
and would pretty much churn back a standard response with a
quotation.

I suggested he set up a system where he could send them out via
mail instead.

We worked out that all he would need to pay for the cost of the
mail is a 1% increase in response.

My bet is that he would get it.

Especially when all of his competitors are probably doing
everything via email as well.

So take a moment now to think of how you can do things
differently… and use alternative strategies to stand out from
your competition.

———————————————————-
Scott Bywater is a direct response copywriter with extensive
experience in B2B and B2C writing. Mr Bywater is the author of
Cash-Flow Advertising and More Customers Made Easy. You can gain
access to his copywriting and marketing tips via his entertaining
and eye opening “Copywriting Selling Secrets” newsletter
available at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

Oct2

Reaching out – A Best Practice of Networkers

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Reaching out – A Best Practice of Networkers

One of the things I try to maintain is “reaching out” to my friends, and colleagues.  It is something that is not just a great tool for business, it is a requirement to maintain relationships in this high tech – high diversity – far spread society!

Some of the folks  who “reach out” to me, do so in the form of forwarding massively long emails (long because everyone else has forwarded them, and not bothered to cut out the long addressee list)… but still, I recognize that it is the fact that the person thought of me that is the important portion of that.  Side note: This is a source for spammers to scrape addresses – so one should strip out the addresses and footers/signatures when forwarding if you can, and you think of it. And when forwarding, it can also be construed as spam, so be careful.

Others use the various services that allow you to forward an article from a site, to share… or let’s you clip an article which can be shared with followers like socialmedian.

Still others actually do it in “snail mail” – sending me articles of interest.  I admit that I still enjoy receiving actual hard copy paper mail…. LOL.

I tend to do all three and love the ability to share online articles – both to my Facebook Page and to individuals I think might be interested.  The key is to let people know you are thinking of them,  know them well enough to know that the item is of interest or entertaining to them, and opens the door to further communication.   (There is also an article on the WhoDoYouKnowAt blog about this today…not bad.)

I even love the connectivity of Twitter! It is a great way to reach out into the vast beyond and see what you get back! Follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

Whatever way you “reach out” do it with relevance and value, and you will find that the connections become of increasing value to you! You never know what opportunities, information, or entertainment will come your way simply because you thought of someone and let them know.

Sep30

A spam by any other name

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A spam by any other name

First let me say that I do acknowledge, that Spam, like Beauty – is in the eye of the beholder.

I am “linked” to many self-proclaimed “Open Networkers” with hundreds and thousands of contacts – from whom I receive emails frequently – advertising their areas of expertise, their classes, their events.  I view these as celebratory announcements, because I view receiving these as part of opting in to an Open Network.

I do not report them as spam if they are from someone I am connected to  – if it is something I don’t want to read I simply delete it.  I receive upwards to 500 emails daily in my various accounts, and while I would love to have less, I have found some gems hidden among the unsolicited emails that I would not have had exposure to otherwise.

An Open Networker that  I am connected to recently reported my email to them announcing the launch of the application I have been working on, as spam.   Again, I understand that it is in the eye of the beholder, I would have liked the benefit of the doubt, though.

Many other folks who were not sure if the email was really from me, emailed me and asked – which is probably because I used an html template for my email – and I was happy to hear from them, and know they were being cautious.

But this does illustrate one of the challenges with “Open Networking” – there is an implied consent when you join an open networking tool or community, that you can contact each other.  If this is not the case, why be open?  The answer is that the Open Networker wants a wide reach… but then, if you don’t want a zillion emails you have another challenge – which is how to deal with them all.

Which brings us back to spam.   If you think you have been spammed, and it is someone who tells you that you are connected in some group or another – check first, and if you are connected – grant them the benefit of the doubt, or remove them from your connections and ask them to do so as well.

Spam is serious business, none of us want to do it – and none of us want to be financially dinged by being blacklisted at the ISPs either, especially when we are reaching out to people we thought we could reach out to ….

I doubt if the gentleman who decided my email was spam will read this, although I have read all the emails he has sent to me… and I have now removed him from my connections on Linkedin, and asked him to remove me.   Hopefully now that it is formal, I will not receive any more from him either… but if I do, I will simply delete them.

Aug26

The Privacy Issue – Social Networking

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The Privacy Issue – Social Networking

Earlier I blogged that I was in “social networking overload” and I meant it and mean it.  There is a definite series of advantages to Social Networking, and a definite series of DIS-advantages.  First and foremost is the control factor for PRIVACY.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/steering-between-unsocial-networks-and-social-spam/ The NYTimes Blog “Bits” talks about this eloquently.  And I will add a few of my pennies worth of opinion as well.

I do a lot of things, vocationally and alternatively, I do not always want all of my various skills and/or projects lumped together for the viewing pleasure of “whomever”.  My true circle of friends know that I am active in a variety of diverse interests, but a prospective client/employer may not want or need to know if I am an active amateur screenwriter or not. 

In fact it might hinder one’s employment possibilities if one was an avid skydiver and the firm looking at the profile was averse to risk-takers. (This is a hypothetical ONLY).  And believe me, many companies DO google and search on Social Network sites to see what you have been up to.  It would be good to be able to set up conditions for what people are able to see in the public arena, and levels of what people can see in the private arena. 

Some Social Networking Sites are looking in to how to do that, but just as for allowing communication – the whole ability to control who sees what and who can talk to whom, is a big issue.  And a techno-challenge.  Security is in the eye of the beholder, and we also have to figure out how to protect those who are too young to understand the predatory nature of some of our fellow humans.

It is a conundrum, and I am excited to see how it will be addressed.  In the meantime, remember “be careful out there”.

Feb19

Communication versus COMMUNICATION

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Communication versus COMMUNICATION

Every once in awhile I get sideswiped by a communication stream gone awry.  Perhaps because I am sincerely trying to be forthcoming with facts and options, it can get lost in the interpersonal translation – I forget sometimes that the other person is not necessarily thinking the way I think or interpreting the way I interpret and without meaning to – I have given them an incomplete picture of intent and that leads to assumptions flying all over. 

I am hoping I am not the only person who feels suddenly neanderthal-like when someone with whom we think we are communicating well , suddenly melts down and tells us we are obviously not on the same page.  I really do analyze and rethink most of these experiences to see where I went wrong, because I don’t enjoy the emotional explosion of frustration when someone finally says they are lost or not happy or not getting what I have been saying.   Usually they are a result of emails going back and forth… and I admit that in an email conversation where I may be answering questions I may focus on the question and forget the pleasantries.

For those of you out there that may do this, trust me when I say – it always goes wrong.  I do not pretend to understand the mechanics of this in its entirety – I only know that if I answer questions without a cushion of the kind of conversation I might have in person, the reader/recipient will always interpret things with an emotional overtone that catches me by surprise.  I know this, and yet it still happens – though thankfully not as often as in my younger years.

The less comfortable someone is with technology in general, the more reliant they are on conversation-like markers in the communication.  “Hope things are going well for you” isn’t exactly what they need, but something more like – “This is just a suggestion or an option -” and “I am telling you this because: fill in the blank” .  Also, too much information is – well – too much information. 

Again, I know this, but I forget it.  If the information is too complex, it becomes a target for emotional interpretation rather than logical interpretation.  Bullet points are good, but talking is better.  Too complex for email should always turn into a phone call.  This is especially true because not everyone processes reading the same way they process talking.

While it is good to have a reminder, it isn’t always pleasant.  Take it from me.  We are all “works in progress” and I guess I need some remedial practice.