Is Email Advertisements A Business?

The wellness industry has a vast number of products for people to market and to sell. Trying to decide what is the best way to run your home business in the wellness industry can be a difficult decision. Let’s face it; the majority of us have limited funding for advertising and marketing. A new home business takes time to grow and thrive to make us a substantial profit.

One method that many people use to advertise their wellness industry products is through email advertisements. This is a highly effective form of advertising that can bring in substantial profits for your business. The key is to effectively use the email advertisement campaign.

The first important thing to remember is that you do not want to spam people. Spam is sending out unsolicited emails to people in the form of advertisements or even with information. Some people think that they can send out informational articles and have a link at the bottom for their websites. If this type of email is done without the consent of the receiver, you are sending them spam. Even though you are not directly advertising to them, it is still spam and you can get into big trouble for this. Additionally, you will irritate potential customers.

Another method of email advertisement that people think is getting around the spam issue is to send a chatty letter and state in there that you hope you are not bothering the person. This again is spam or you would not need to even include a clause that you hope you are not bothering the person.

The third method to be careful of doing is invitations. Yes, invitations that are unsolicited are also a form of spam and a big source of irritation. You want to avoid spam at all costs.

Now that you know who to avoid spam, how do you go about email advertisement for your wellness industry products? You can have a spot on your ecommerce site that allows customers and web page visitors to sign up for promotional offers such as coupons, free gifts, and other items. This will be the customer specifically giving you permission to contact them by email advertisement. You will also be sending emails to people that are already interested in your products and services instead of wasting time on someone that is going to automatically delete your emails.

Another way to obtain email advertisement candidates is through purchasing email names. There are companies that will sell their data base of names to individuals. The emails are supposed to be for people that have agreed that they will receive promotional offers from other companies and from partners of a particular business. This is a terrific way to get the word out and use email for wellness industry products without spamming others.

Many people sign up for the paid to click emails. The costs for these types of email advertisements are relatively cheap. You are able to reach a targeted market that will view your website for a minimum period of time. There is a low buying ratio for paid to click email advertisements, but it will get the word out about your wellness industry products. The trick is to have a dynamic and interesting page that the paid to click email visitors will be sent to so that they are likely to purchase one of your items.

Business Email Address

Right now I use Yahoo for all of my business dealings online, but I will soon have to get a more professional sounding business email address. Though Yahoo is great for what I need if for, I do realize that many people won’t take you seriously if you have a Yahoo address, or any other web based email address for that matter, as you main contact email. I guess I have to look into spending the money to get web page and I will then be able to have my email address through the site.

Your business email address can say a lot about you and who you are and what you do. If you have one that comes from a professional site, you are going to look professional. I don’t know if my Yahoo email address has scared away any potential clients, but I certainly don’t want that to happen in the future. I need a good solid business email address to deal with clients, and if you have a business or work online, you need to have the same thing. The very best news is that it really doesn’t have to be that expensive, but this will depend on the volume of traffic you have on your site on any given day.

When you get your own web address, you have the option of having a business email address along with your site. If you get the web address with your name in it, you can have your email address that reflects that name. For example, if you get the domain johnfoxly.com, you can have a business email address that says John@johnfoxly.com. When you do this, you instantly look more professional in the eyes of those who are going to contact you for business.

I originally picked Yahoo for my business email address because I didn’t know what would happen next. I am grateful for the success I have had, and I like to think that my work speaks for itself, and that my business email address is not a turn off. I chose them because they were not only free; they also have a lot of storage space. I think, however, the time has come to get a better email address, even if it means I must build a site. In the end, it can only mean good thing for my career, and that is something that is always welcome.

Critical Business Procedure - Keep All Email Communications

Businesses routinely maintain copies of correspondence and memos. Far to often, however, they do not extend this practice to email correspondence. Email correspondence is no different then your normal paperwork. You must keep copies of all of it to protect your business in any litigation.

Currently, only banks and broker-dealers are obliged to retain e-mail and instant messaging documents for three years under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules. Beginning July 2006, all public companies will also be required to do so under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Notwithstanding these laws, your custom and practice should be to maintain copies of all email correspondence. Email is considered evidence and courts are hammering businesses that do not maintain email records. Judges are often ruling that the failure to maintain and produce email records means the business in question is hiding key evidence.

In the recent Perelman v. Morgan Stanley litigation, a judge’s ruling on the failure of Morgan Stanley to produce email was key factor in the issuance of a $1.45 billion verdict. Based on the failure to produce email records, Judge Elizabeth Maass issued a pretrial ruling that effectively found Morgan Stanley conspired to defraud Perelman in a 1998 deal. Morgan Stanley is not the only business defendant to have this problem.

In the summer of 2004, UBS bank was found by a judge to have “willfully destroyed” email evidence in a discrimination case. UBS was ordered to pay costs and a jury returned a $29 million verdict.

Email Policy

To protect your business, you must have a procedure in place to maintain email communications generated through the business. Failure to keep these records can lead to rulings in litigation that your business willfully destroyed evidence. If this occurs, the judge may issue significant monetary sanctions, automatically find you liable or take other harsh steps that assure a victory for the Plaintiff. As if such developments are not bad enough, there exists a second risk associated with email communications.

Maintaining email communications, however, can have a downside. The problem arises, of course, when a communication contains statements that are damaging to your business. Yes, the proverbial catch-22 situation.

To avoid such disasters, your business must develop a clear policy on email communications and train all employees to comply with that policy. Employees must understand the business environment is not one in which jokes, flippant remarks and so on should be made in email communications.

How To Get Business From Your Email Enquiries

Does your business get a lot of email inquiries? You know the type I mean - where all the information you have of the enquirer is their email address.

Isn't it frustrating when you reply to the email and hear nothing back? Then you send a follow up email and still nothing! Finally in desperation you send a third email with your best price and nothing… nada… nil response!

You finally give up out of sheer frustration. So how is it possible to turn this type of inquiry into a sale?

Don't give up hope yet as I have some possible solutions. Instead of responding with a sales pitch straight why not ask some questions first?

Possible questions include:

How did you find our company details?

When do you need delivery?

What number can I reach you on?

Who do you currently buy from?

Why are you thinking of changing suppliers?

How often do you place an order?

What are your views on X, Y & Z?

Your aim surely has to be to elicit a response and if possible further contact details like a phone number. By responding with a question, you can gauge the level of interest and avoid wasting precious time on "tyre kickers."

Try to ask some questions that can not be answered with a straight yes or no. Instead ask leading questions that must get the enquirer thinking.

If your standard response is not working why not try the above approach? To get business from an email inquiry you must get the client communicating and if possible talking as soon as possible. This is the only way you are going to achieve results.

You also need to build rapport with your potential clients, and instill confidence. They need to be persuaded they are making the right decision. By asking leading questions you are demonstrating that you treat their inquiry with respect.

Why not prepare a standard questionnaire to send out to all initial inquiries? If somebody can not be bothered answering some basic questions then it does not make sense wasting any more time on them.

Another great idea is to hold a weekly conference call for initial inquiries. Some potential clients might not be ready for a one on one chat but would happily attend a tele-seminar without feeling threatened.

Personally I do not like the idea of giving a price based on an email inquiry. If the price is all the buyer is interested in then chances are that you will lose this customer pretty quickly even if you do manage to get their business.

If you do give a price by email and it gets rejected then reply "If price is the only issue then why don't you give me a call? We have some great deals but I would rather we talk first before I send you a quote."

Have you had an email inquiry recently? How much more successful would you be if you could double your conversion rate? Let the games begin!

Business Letter & Email Etiquette

In Business Letters and Email, what are the basic rules one should follow when writing? Your letter might be the first point of contact with another business, and how it's written, will demonstrate your communication skills to the other party.

Always date your letters, and make sure that you spell the persons name correctly. If you are unsure, call reception and ask for the correct spelling. I am amazed at how many people send me letters with my name spelt incorrectly.

Use clear headings and subheadings. A well constructed letter is much easier to understand.

Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation - A well written document says a lot about you. Most software has a "check spelling and grammar" function. Make sure that you always use it.

Plan your letter and decide what you are trying to convey before you start writing. It's a good idea to make some notes, before you start writing the letter.

Be concise and to the point. Use the minimum number of words to convey your message. Try and use simple words that everybody can understand. Try to keep the recipient in mind when writing, especially when writing to someone overseas.

Do not use technical terms or jargon, unless absolutely necessary. Your reader might not be familiar with them.

Space out your letter. This makes the message easier to understand. Start a new paragraph whenever you can as a well spaced out letter is easier to read and understand. It is a lot easier on the eye!

Keep templates, for standard letters. I find that over time my templates improve as I make minor, but significant changes, to the wording and style.

Keep your humour for your telephone conversations. Jokes can easily be misinterpreted in written communication.

If your message is very detailed, it might be simpler to break it down into two letters. Send the first letter and follow it with a phone call to make sure that the message is understood before sending the second part.

Always be polite. Make sure that you ask or request, rather then demand. Don’t use informal terms in the beginning of your relationship. You can start being less formal once a relationship has been established.

Answer all correspondence quickly and clearly. Often, in business, the other party could lose interest if they do not believe that they are important to you, or if another business responds first.

Never use shortcuts! You are not sending a text message.

Make a copy of any written correspondence and file it away for future reference.

Once you have written the letter, read it carefully and think about the message you are trying to convey, before posting or hitting the send button.