Here's the reply you've been waiting for . . .
publication date: Nov 30, 2007
Hi
I just wanted to drop you a quick email about
emails . . .
If you have tried to get hold of me via email and
haven't got a reply, I'm not ignoring you . . . I'm
not on holiday, in hiding or otherwise avoiding
contact . . .
The truth is the cyberspace gremlins have decided
it's time to give our server a good kicking! The
upshot is I've sent hundreds of emails in the past
week thinking they would get to their intended
recipients only to be lost in the ether.
So if you are expecting a reply, email me at this
address and I'll make sure I resend through more
reliable channels!
And while we're on the subject of emails I
noticed a couple of very interesting
developments. Now you know I'm big on using
eletters to keep in contact (you're reading one
now after all!). What you probably didn't know is
that I have set up a new company that advises
businesses big and small on how to use eletters to
grow their business.
Don't worry I'm not pitching for new clients! ;-)
The reason I've launched this new consultancy is
I realised that many big companies just haven't
cottoned on to the power of email as something
that can build a trusting relationship between
them and their customers or clients.
I actually had a short list of niche SMEs (small to
medium businesses) I thought were sitting on a
potential goldmine of email names they should be
making regular contact with.
Well, wouldn't you just know it, one of them
have gone and done it for themselves: Abel &
Cole is an organic vegetable delivery company.
I've used them for years and they are a very
passionate company who really care about the
product and the well-being of their customers and
the service. With each delivery they include a
mini paper newsletter that talks about the
vegetables that are in season plus recipes and tips
on how to use them.
Now the majority of their orders are done online,
so they will have collected a huge number of
highly qualified email names. And yet they never
used these emails to communicate with their
customers. Just think if they turned that weekly
paper newsletter into a friendly email . . . and just
think if they could describe some of those yummy
recipes in this email with links to order the
specific vegetables . . . don't you think that would
be a wonderfully intimate, low cost and effective
way of boosting orders and adding value to the
whole customer experience?
You can bet your sweet potato they would!
But even they are missing a trick . . . yes they
have offered a weekly eletter to customers, but is
there a name capture on their website?
Erm, nope!
Type 'organic delivery' into google and they are slap
bang at the top of the listings. So they probably
get thousands of hits a day to their site, but have
no way of retaining a prospect and then
developing a relationship with them . . .
Perhaps they still need a bit of consultancy to
help them along! ;-)
That's all for now - send me an email if you are
expecting a reply . . .
Cheers
Nick
PS: I'm terrible at keeping secrets . . . I've got a
proposal I'd like you to consider later this week
that could benefit you in a big way. Now I
normally on make this invitation to my most loyal
and long-standing business associates, but I'm
opening it up to my eletter readers for the first
and perhaps only time. And on that cliffhanger . .
.
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