Small Business Talk
The Podcast to Grow your Business Faster
10 Things You Need to Know About Email
Today’s topic on the Small Business Talk Podcast is 10 Things You Need to Know About Email. We send and email and we expect it to arrive at the other end and unfortunately this is not always the case. Listen to he Small Business Talk Podcast Episode #028 to find out more.
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Show Notes
Emails Don’t Always Arrive
The very first thing to remember is just because you sent it doesn’t mean your email arrived at the other’s end. Depending on the email software you are using, you can add a read receipt. The little popup that opens when the receiver gets your email. However they still have the option to say No so you may or may not get an answer even if your email does arrive. You can often track your email to see if it hit the server at the receivers end. Once again, it doesn’t guarantee that they got it; it just lets you narrow down when there is a problem if the email doesn’t arrive.
If your email contains important information or requires an answer, follow up with a phone cal. It’s not possible or practical to follow up every email you send. However, for important stuff, it’s worth the effort and a good secondary touch point.
Why Don’t Emails Arrive?
There are lots of reasons why emails don’t arrive. The most common ones are:
- Incorrect address
- Sent to the wrong person
- Caught by spam filter
- Blocked at recipients end
Often, emails don’t arrive just by human error. You send it to the wrong person or misspelt the email address. If your email starts with info@, sales@, accounts@, etc, these types of email are targeted by spammers. Often these types of email addresses will be caught in spam filters and you won’t even know they didn’t arrive. In this situation, you won’t get a bounce back, undelivered or error message as they don’t want to alert the spammers. If you are emailing large companies, governments or schools, you will need to think about changing your email address if you are having delivery issues. Your email can also be blocked at the other end for a number of reasons.
Email Is A Great Way To Advertise Your Business
Make sure you are using your business email address, not only does it give you a professional look, but you are advertising your business every time you send an email. Using a gmail or service provider email for business is not very professional and people will wonder what you have to hit. If you like the gmail interface, you can have your email service routing through your gmail account. That way, you have the best of both world – you get to view your emails in G-suite but your email address is your business domain.
Email Signature
Add an email signature to the bottom of your emails. You can put on a photo of yourself or your business logo plus contact details. Your website address and social links too.
Email Contacts Are Governed By Privacy Laws
We have all had the group cc emails where you can see everyone else that the email was sent too. Just because you were sent somebodies email address does not mean you can then market to them. In fact, it is against the privacy laws. You can only market to people who have given you permission to do so and it must be an active option. They must have ticked a consent box or signed a form allowing you to use their email addresses. Be very careful if you are buying email list because most times, the way the email that were collected will now be unlawful.
Email Marketing Does Work
When done correctly, email marketing can be a powerful business tool. It’s all about building the relationship with your potential customer and adding value. You have emails that arrive in your inbox and you can’t wait to open them. Get the next tip, find out what the person has to say. And you have other emails that you didn’t ask for, come to regular, you’ve bought whatever it was and are now no longer interested.
Keep it relevant, interesting and timely for your customers. The subject line is the key to whether your email gets opened or not. Please don’t uses click bait or trick subject lines. The short gain is not worth the damage that will be done to your business reputation. Remember to personalise your emails and use appropriate your subject lines too.
Send Relevant Email Message To The Relevant Audience
If you have multiple products, services or audiences, segment your email list so that the relevant message goes to the correct audience. To build the know, like and trust factor, you need to “talk their language” and the quickest way to do that is give them what they want.
Make Sure Your Email Is Mobile Friendly
Mobile or cell mobile viewing of websites and email content is now at an all time high so you need to make sure your email can be read easily on a mobile device.
Things for watch out for when sending emails so they are mobile friendly
- Don’t use large images that won’t be loaded
- Big blocks of text
- Writing an email that resembles an essay
Emails should be short and to the point. For extra information you can also add links to your blog posts or website rather than tell them everything in your email.
Don’t Over Do The Timing
You see something on a blog post of website and opt in. The first lot of content comes and it’s great. Then it becomes a waterfall you are being inundated with an email every day and before long, you have unsubscribed or hit delete as a matter of habit. Don’t be that person who annoys their audience with too much information and too many emails
Keep It Brief
Don’t write and essay. Make it quick, make it punchy and link to your website or blog for more content if you need to give them a more.
Don't Be Too Salesy
Build the relationship, create trust and add value before trying to sell your product or services to your email list.
Next week on Small Business Talk Podcast I am speaking to a lovely lady that has a wonderful business where she combines her love of travel and books.
