# Don't rely just on search engines...



## Rholl (Feb 3, 2009)

I posted something a while back about effective email marketing. 

I just wanted to follow up and say that too many people rely on trying to get their website high up on google or other search engines. I'm not saying it is a waste of time because if you manage to do it right with good SEO marketing then overtime it is possible. But you have to ask yourself, how many people are selling t-shirts out there? A TON! Many spend time and energy doing all they can to make their website rank high on search engines and then they sit back wondering why it is not working out the way they thought it was. They have been relying too much on that and not putting enough attention to good old fashion sales. I say old fashion sales but what I should say is "new fashion sales"

We all know cold calling is a thing of the past. If you call me and try to sell me something, I don't care if you are offering me 50 yard seats to a Houston Texans football game for only $20.00, I won't bite. You are interrupting my day and all I see is that you are trying to "take money from me". Overtime it just becomes a natural reaction.

So what to do? Email marketing. Not the email marketing you might think of. Not the blasting of newsletters, not the fancy templets with all kinds of offers. People wont open the emails.

Everyone sits in front of a computer. So sending an email makes the most sense but it has to be done correctly. It may be boring and take up some time but if done correctly it can bring you a ton of leads (daily).

How? Simple: Locate an industry that you want to sell to. Many of these industries can be found by google searching. Say for example you want to target gymnastic organizations. Look for "gymnastic associations" then find a member list. Go down that member list and start emailing. You will have to copy and paste to make it go fast but you always want to use the owner or reps name to address the email. Make it simple like a one liner. Don't sell them on anything. Just ask a question. Ask them how you might go about being on their supplier list for the t-shirts they use. Be respectful and wait for an answer. What you are doing is building report. They may not reply but I can promise 9 times out of ten they are forwarding your email to someone in the company to hold onto. If you are a detailed person then keep a log of those you have emailed and if they do not respond then follow up with them a week later.

Your email subject line should always say: question

If I got an email from someone I did not know and the subject said "question" I am going to open it to see if I need to answer their question.

Many feel they need to make the sale right then and there. That is the mistake they are making.

Look it's kind of like job hunting. Most people think Monster, Career Builder and other job search sites hold the key to the only jobs in the world. So millions are all competing for whatever job pops up on these websites. You have to think outside the box and go against the waves. Go directly after the targets instead of letting your potential customer go to the search engines to do some price comparisons. If you contact them and build report, they will learn trust you and not the guy on the web who has cheaper pricing.

The email lists out there are endless. Heck if you wanted to just stay within a certain radius, go to the BBB website and you can actually narrow down not just the members but any business out there. You can do so by typing in the type of business and the actual street or zip code they are in. Most times it will provide you with the owners name and email. Or if it does not provide their email just go to a "who is" website, type in the companies website and most all the time it will provide an email address.

It just takes work. Overtime you will build a nice customer base and can slow down on the marketing. But don't settle for just hoping your website makes it to the top 10 of google. You are fighting with millions.

Good luck! 

Ryan


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## GCharb (Jun 12, 2009)

Unsollicited mail is a hazard, a receiver might perceive it a spam and put a complaint to your provider, which could have you kicked out, happened to me some years ago!

If you want to go this way you should make your email interesting, even make it profitable, less chances you get a complaint this way.

If you target gymnastic organization, offer a free demo of your product or a free catalogue, good publicity cost something, but can give great rewards if well done.

Offer information, free advices, interesting and usefull url's.

Unsolicited email is spam, be carefull with it. Many organisations out there are working against it, Microsoft being one!

Think of the kind of email you would like to get, look at some of the spam you get, are some worth the trouble of openning them, if so, why!

Look around and see what makes you tick, will give you a good insight of what you should do.

Personaly I decided long ago not to use bulk or even targeted email campain, mail list are okay, since peoples subscribe to them.

I prefer by far to publicize through communities like Facebook and tweeter, fun stuff, and word of mouth is the best publicity there is. 

GO VIRAL, not that hard.

My two cents

Gilles


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Your email subject line should always say: question


This is a misleading subject line and will increase the chances that your email will be perceived as spam.



> How? Simple: Locate an industry that you want to sell to. Many of these industries can be found by google searching. Say for example you want to target gymnastic organizations. Look for "gymnastic associations" then find a member list. Go down that member list and start emailing. You will have to copy and paste to make it go fast but you always want to use the owner or reps name to address the email


This is called unsolicited commercial email, which is another name for spam.

People have the same reaction to it as if you were trying to cold call them.

You are interrupting their day with your commercial message they didn't ask for.

Sending emails like that can get you banned from your ISP and webhost if enough people complain.

I wouldn't suggest spamming anybody at all.


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## NoNeck (Mar 19, 2010)

Rholl said:


> Your email subject line should always say: question
> 
> If I got an email from someone I did not know and the subject said "question" I am going to open it to see if I need to answer their question.


I'll have to agree with Rodney & Gilles that this would be considered spam. I know if I didn't know the person, and received that same email, I would NOT open it. (There are just too many SPAM / VIRUS / Trojan / Malicioius Emails out there to take the chance)

But, since you've done enough research to find a member list, I would at least use those results to may advantage: 

Subject line: My Company is Interested in Helping XXX Gymnastics with Custom Merchandise. 

My interest would be peaked, and you would get a response, even if it was only to ask the question, "How did you know I was a member of XXX Gymnastics?"


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## Rholl (Feb 3, 2009)

Good points but for what it is worth, I send 100 to 200 selected emails each day asking questions and I can't remember the last time someone replied in a negative manner or asked to be taken off "a list". However just to do a test I took about 200 random new emails and put them in the "constant contact" bulk mail system they have set up and created a "sales" pitch with some sales pitch subject line. 79 people opened the email, 54 asked to be taken off the list. 

What is "unsolicited"? Does anyone ever say anything about the amount of junk mail you get in your home mailbox? They swarm you with "buy this, "buy that". But if you receive a hand written envelope addressed to you, the odds are you are going to open it. and if someone wrote me a simple line (with their pen) asking me a question, I feel as if they are a real person asking a real question. People don't mind being human.

When asking a question and finding enough interest to want to be placed on their "bid list", I would appreciate that if I received an email like that. I would also be able to "network" with the person who emailed me and turn around and see if there was a chance I could sell his company my products.

Facebook, Twitter and all the others (what I call "where are my children because I spend all day on this thing") are good ways to offer your services to people you know and hope they spread the word but eventually networking sites like this will be nothing but business ads and will look a lot like "yellow pages". Does not hurt if you want to go that route though.


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## NoNeck (Mar 19, 2010)

Do you have any insight into what happened to the 121 emails that went Unopened?

And have you been contacted by the 25 people who opened the email - but did not ask to be removed?

-- I'm NOT saying that this would not work, but if those 54 people "Reported" the email as Spam to your ISP... eventually you will lose your service. So I was simply saying "Tread Lightly" ...


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## Rholl (Feb 3, 2009)

To each their own. To me, this is not spam:

*Subject:* question

Hi Debbie,

I was trying to find out if it was possible to be placed on your vendor supply list for the t-shirts you order. Do you know how I might go about doing that? 

Respectfully, 
Ryan.....

Spam is: 

*Subject:* RE: Did you say you needed this....

Vitamin B
Vitamin C
Vitamin D
all wrapped into one vitamin! Purchase for only $24.99 and if you order now, we will include free shipping!

Hello, I said do it!
________________

To me that is spam. Again, In a short period of time, I was able to gain 1,600 solid customer....all by "permissioned based" email marketing. Everyone can put in their 2 cents but don't knock it until you try it.

I wish everyone luck in any way they try to gain business, as long as it is ethical.


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## Rholl (Feb 3, 2009)

I was speaking of the test through "Constant Contact". I never use that method but wanted to see what happened. It proved that people do not like to get "spammed" with sales info. So they asked to be removed. 

Permission based email is the way to go. I never get negative reply's.


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## Louie2010 (Feb 26, 2010)

Rholl said:


> We all know cold calling is a thing of the past. If you call me and try to sell me something, I don't care if you are offering me 50 yard seats to a Houston Texans football game for only $20.00, I won't bite. You are interrupting my day and all I see is that you are trying to "take money from me".


This is an interesting thread. I am just in the process of starting an embroidery business, and ironically I plan on doing cold calling. I am more old school and not very tech savvy so I appreciate hearing ideas along this line.

My one exception is that you are saying people don't want to be bothered by someone taking their money, yet your e-mail is all about just a friendly respectful introduction. I believe that if a person cold calls with that same attitude you can also be effective. 

I believe if your main emphasis in person or by mail is to "take money" you won't be effective. However if your main motive is to just make an introduction and to take a moment to explain what you do, both ways can be effective.

Again thanks for the ideas, I might have to try it out once I am up and going.


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## Retro Campaigns (Jun 27, 2008)

Rholl said:


> Again, In a short period of time, I was able to gain 1,600 solid customer....all by "permissioned based" email marketing. Everyone can put in their 2 cents but don't knock it until you try it.


Huh? How did they give permission?


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## GCharb (Jun 12, 2009)

You can buy list of peoples you can email, well, most of them anyway agreed to some sort of permited spamming. 

You need to lookup those who sold you the list, what reputation they have.

This also can lead to problems.

Gilles


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

If you're going to do any sort of e-mail marketing your want to be sure you're in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act. There are some pretty stiff penalties if you're not.


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## designnbuy (Jan 1, 2010)

Email marketing is not a good idea. This way it's quite difficult to convince people to visit your site. Those days are gone when email marketing was considered as a useful technique for getting target traffic to sites. It's the time to do proper SEO and SMO. Those are only effective ways that can give you target traffic.


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## SHIROINEKO (Mar 31, 2010)

Useful tips.


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