Pack Rat in Hiding
Lately, I seem to have a huge fixation on email.
Perhaps it’s because not so long ago I had a bit of Excedrin headache issues with mine. The most recent happened when Microsoft released an update. Between my Outlook 2003 and my anti-virus software, I ended up unable to send or receive email using Outlook 2003 for over a week.
It turns out my anti-virus software did not recognize the MS update and caused the “send/receive” feature to stall out. (In fairness to Microsoft, it took a while to resolve the issue because we were unable to reach each other; on several occasions they called me and I was not available. I emailed them and they were unavailable, etc.)
Numerous telephone calls, email conversations and remote hook-ups with Microsoft and my anti-virus provider and many days later eventually resulted in a positive outcome.
And once again I was finally good to go.
But not before I managed to rack up a bit of distress at my inability to send and receive email in a timely manner. Of course, I did have Outlook, and I added Thunderbird. But they just weren’t the same!
That said, now I’m faced with another email issue.
This time, though, it’s because I seem to “somehow” have got on everybody’s list. “Somehow,” of course, really means at my own doing over a course of months it appears I have managed to sign up to receive email ezines/newsletters from “everyone in the whole wide (web) world.”
And more and more I get email, ezines/newsletters and offers, etc., than I have time for. Much of my email is now coming addressed to “undisclosed recipient” (who, for Pete’s sake, is “undisclosed recipient”), advising me I’ve won the lottery in the UK, or the British Prime Minister has a bunch of sterling for me; or I can enter into a very lucrative Hong Kong business proposal, or some woman’s deceased family member deposited a huge sum of money in a foreign bank for me, and they’re waiting to get my name, address, and other identifying information.
And that’s a whole other story.
This too much email dilemma can possibly be resolved in a number of different ways; the most obvious and least disruptive for me would be, when traveling about the Web, to just make it a practice to not sign up for ezines/newsletters or other email notifications. Unfortunately, though, this measure could result in the loss of really great ideas and tips, and networking that could be of benefit at the time you’re at the site or much later down the road.
Another solution might be to set aside time in each day…or at least weekly–to sort through your email to read what is going on in your niche market or an area where you’d like to venture.
It’s not hard to unsubscribe from a list. Well, at least it shouldn’t be, if the form of email that comes to you provides you with a means to unsubscribe. (I have seen instances, though, where it was not possible to unsubscribe.)
Short of unsubscribing, another solution would be to just hit “delete” when the notion strikes.
It’s going to be the death of me
My Inbox, that is!
Is this you, too?
You have Microsoft Outlook. You can see your email come in and immediately have to check it out. So you stop what you’re doing to go see who it’s from and what it’s about. While you’re rummaging in your Inbox, all your other tasks go by the wayside. Especially if some email message has a task that must be addressed as soon as you read it.
It’s driving you nuts.
Me, too!
So what are we going to do about it?
This calls for some drastic action.
Did you know MS Outlook 2003 has some really great features to manage your email? In fact, one of the results in “MS Office Outlook Help” with the search feature of “Rules and Alerts” - “About Managing Messages with Rules” - has the following solutions for setting “Rules and Alerts”:
“Rules (rule: One or more automatic actions taken on e-mail messages and meeting requests that meet certain conditions, along with any exceptions to those conditions. Rules are also referred to as filters.) help you manage your e-mail messages by performing actions on messages that match a specific set of conditions. After you create a rule, Microsoft Outlook applies the rule when a message arrives in your Inbox or when you send a message. For example, you can automatically:
* Forward to your manager all messages sent by Judy Lew when they arrive in your Inbox.
* Assign the category Sales to all messages you send that have the word “sales” in the Subject box.
* Flag each meeting request or meeting update you receive from your manager.
Rules fall into two general categories: notification and organization. Notification rules alert you in some way when you receive a particular message. For example, you can create a rule that automatically sends an e-mail message to your mobile telephone when you receive a message from a family member. Organization rules perform one or more actions on a message. For example, you can create a rule that moves certain messages to a folder or flags them for follow-up on a particular day.
You can also run one or more of your rules manually. Running rules manually allows you to selectively apply them to messages already in your Inbox or in another folder.
You can add exceptions to your rules for special circumstances, such as when a message is flagged for follow-up action or is marked with high importance. A rule is not applied to a message if any one of the exceptions you specify is met.”
That’s it!
The other part of the solution is that you must be willing to set boundaries… you may need to make them known publicly. Perhaps you will do this via your Web site or in a handout you provide for your prospects and clients.
But then, of course, you must stick with your decision and the schedule you’ve chosen.
For instance, you might elect to check your email in the morning prior to beginning your regular work day, at noon and again at the end of the day before you leave the office. Of course, you’d also want to set time aside to respond to them. Then, too, you might run into situations that require you to respond outside the regular time set-aside for your email management.
Seems pretty simple!
I don’t know, though. I find I may have a bit of difficulty. Since by not checking my email regularly, I still often tend to think I’m going to miss something!
Hmmm.
I wonder if there’s an “email-anon” for “email-holics!”
Bees do it!
Yeah, they do!
Have you ever really watched them, and how they buzz their way from flower to flower? They may seem somewhat fickle to the observer but the flitting about is really just the bee’s way of “doing her job” of collecting the flower nectar.
Some of us do it, too. Marketing that is! Going from idea to idea; trying to find the ideal solution to getting customers to our “virtual” door!
But in order for your marketing to work, unlike bees, you must find one, or two, or a few more really effective ideas to use to build trust with prospective clients. And then stick with them.
How often have you thought, if only I had more clients…? Or, how can I get more clients? What about…how can my prospects know I can help them?
Well, what do you do? Do you have a way to capture names of new visitors to your Web site? Do you keep in touch on a regular basis? Do you have an offer they can’t refuse? Can they find you easily if all of a sudden they decide they want you?
Let’s look at these points individually:
How often do you think about getting more clients?
To some, thinking about finding clients is much like thinking about chocolate or cigarettes; you do it everyday and sometimes more than once. Especially, if you’re low on them at the time; you’re just starting out, or if you want to shore up your current list.
How will they know you can help them?
You have to tell them, and do it again and again. Think…how many times did your mother have to tell you to do something before you finally did it? Unless it was with a threat to your life or limb, more often than not, it took more than four or five times before you finally “heard” your momma’s admonitions!
To put this into perspective; initially, your message is at your Web site. But prospects don’t usually keep coming back to your Web site…so it’s necessary to figure out a way to either lure them back to your site or get you to stay in front of the interested prospects. This is commonly accomplished by a newsletter, ezine, blog, email campaign or direct mail.
Are you able to capture names of visitors to your web site?
Once you get prospective clients anywhere near your “door”, so to speak, you want a means to know who is “visiting”. Think of how you communicate with those around you in “real” time…think outside of the “box”.
No, really…outside the box!
Like, how do you interact with those at the grocery store? Or with a young woman or a guy at school or church, or the office, who’s caught your attention? Sooner or later, your conversation turns to the exchange of names, addresses or telephone numbers.
Do you keep in touch with prospects on a regular basis?
Going back to the “bees” thing, we know bees flit around the countryside, going from flower to flower. Of course, they get their business done, but we can’t do it quite like that.
If we jump from one thing to another and never stick with a specific direction or plan, always looking for something new but not “cultivating” what we already have, we’ll never know the true value of our list of visitors or potential clients.
And, conversely, they won’t be able to know our value either!
Do you have an offer they can’t refuse?
This can be something as simple as a complimentary report to lure your target market, or perhaps you’d offer a bonus of a free hour of service.
Can they find you easily?
What if, on the spur of the moment, they want to contact you to do some work for them? Is your contact information, including your full name, prominently listed and easily and quickly found on your Web site or in your email signature.
How many times have you been at a Web site that caught your interest but for the life you you could not find an email address or even a telephone number. So you were unable to contact the person who offered the service.
Instead, your course of action was to jump back to Google; that business lost your business, and in all probability will never know why!
Okay, so they’ve read your ezines, and your “staying in touch” email. But they can’t use your services after all.
Now’s the time to make lemonade! Particularly, if you routinely include in your “marketing” email the suggestion that your prospects consider working with you on a referral basis.
Above all, no matter what marketing methods you choose, the effectiveness will come most easily when your “PC” shows; that is, you are “persistent and consistent.”
Things are not always as they seem
It’s happened again!
In the past week or so I’ve received two, separate, “forwarded”, “forwarded” (ad infinitum) emails from people “I think” I know—and if I’d look close enough I’d probably find a recognizable name or two; one email alluded to a “killer virus” poised to attack, the other to a “dying child”, complete with picture!
You know the kind; the ones that can cause all kinds of anguish and distress to the head or the heart—and for very different reasons.
The email that discussed the “virus of all viruses” apparently has the potential to latch onto your email and that of all your friends and colleagues and kin, too, before it might burn out your hard drive. If you make the wrong move and click on the link to open an attachment! Or it may even poof in your face. Strangely enough, this email included documentation that the ever-looming virus had been verified at snopes.com.
Of course the email about the dying child included a picture of the cutest, sweetest little girl, and, disturbingly to me, asked the “passers on” to add their name and town to the bottom of the email and then forward it to “everyone on your email list”.
Because, whoever originated the email wanted to see from how far around the world the email could go. It worked, too, since the email I received had people and locations listed in places like Africa, Australia, lots of the states in the United States, and Canada, too. In fact, the locations were too numerous and the pages of the email were too many to read through.
There also seemed to be a more “”sinister” reason—m-o-n-e-y, although I was not being solicited directly for my own funds.
The “buck stopped with me”
Since both of these email missives had somewhat of a false ring to and about them from what I’d read in recent years, I chose to delete them both without any other action. Except, to tell the person who sent them to me, who then felt bad!
I did, however, take a “little trip” afterward over to Google, my favorite search engine! There, I learned that the specific virus “flavor of the day” warning was, in fact, false at that, and would not cause all, any or even a tiny smidgeon of the havoc mentioned in the email.
Nada! Zip!
And, the email about the little seven year old girl who was dying of cancer and a brain tumor was also a hoax. The sad, sad, sad thing about this hoax was that the narrative in the “chain letter” used a very popular charity/foundation as the benevolent “contributor of money every time the email was forwarded”. No wonder recipients were so many and all over the place.
In fact, if one were to check that Web site, you’d see a list of names of other “ill” children that have also been used in this fashion.
So what?
Well, this!
It’s easy to get caught up in such hype, and there’s rarely anything that plays on one’s alarm ringers and sympathy and empathy more than “doom and gloom” for what could or would happen.
It’s also unfortunate there are those in the big realm of the Internet who, for whatever reason, think it necessary or important to abuse the good will of others.
Thus, as watchful keepers of our Internet business, it’s imperative for us all to remain vigilant and mindful of the things that come our way—whether it’s via our email Inbox or some other means. Actually, it’s no secret some of the “invaders” could also reach us by such things as a download from a favorite Web site. Or, perhaps because we register for something at a Web site.
If it’s too–this …
Then I want to continue to be astute enough to be alert, and to recognize when something just doesn’t seem right if it’s made it to my Inbox or anywhere near my computer. For, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck…it probably is something that requires us to take a few extra measures.
Because I’ve found, by its very nature, that an Internet business can be vulnerable it’s imperative to continue to remain vigilant.
And just for the record, like Scarlett, I’ll save any talk about the abundance of “email solicitations” from a specific country that ask me to use my bank account for what may be “unseemly“ activity–and the “toll free” calls from the “breathers”, for another day!
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