Have you been missing receiving important email and are using a MS based email service? Here's a good argument for having your own domain for sending and receiving email. I shared this with my VA group on Facebook this week. Are you using a Microsoft owned email address? That is hotmail, live.com or outlook.com? Think very carefully about using these email services. They've blocked my domain vadirectory.net and I've now heard they've done it to others too. It is believed that MS … [Read more...]
Sign it off!
I'm amazed at how many emails I receive where people don't sign off properly. It might be a client, a colleague, a friend but all people who are in business. I use a signature block all the time, and when I hit reply to an email it automatically appends. It also automatically shows when I create a new message. If someone wants my phone number, it's there, same with my website to click on, or even my Facebook Page, LinkedIn profile and Twitter account. They don't have to forage around, looking … [Read more...]
How do you grow your email list?
I periodically hear of people who want to buy a list for email purposes. Personally I believe people will do better if they grow their own list. They know where it comes from and that it is genuine. And for Virtual Assistants I feel it's important to grow their own lists. But I appreciate for some industries it doesn't work that way and they need to purchase existing lists. If you are planning to grow your own list then it's important to make it easy for people to subscribe via a blog or … [Read more...]
Sign off your emails!
This is a message for anyone in business - Virtual Assistants, their clients and others. Please sign off your emails properly. Even if you have an existing relationship with someone you're emailing, it still makes sense to use your signature. Why? Because not everyone remembers your phone number off by heart, or has it in their database, or knows what your website is (especially if your email address does not reflect your business website address), your fax number or whatever. Sometimes I … [Read more...]
Be specific
This is probably a post directed more at clients, rather than VAs, but it is important for all to note. When responding to someone via email, make sure you address which parts of the email you are responding to. Just to explain. Someone emailed me asking to change something I was doing for them next Wednesday. So I emailed back asking did they mean Wednesday 15th or the following Wednesday 22nd? And then I added another question. The answer I got was 'yes'. huh? What part were they … [Read more...]
Let people know who you are
There seems to be this 'new' phenomenon where people email me or respond to an email and then not sign off their name. They make an assumption I know who it is. Often I have an email address and sometimes a business name but those things don't always clue me in as to who wrote the email. Which means I either have to search my database or do a search online to find out who it is that sent me the email. Doesn't matter if you think the person you're emailing knows who you are, it makes sense to … [Read more...]
Identify yourself!
I've just published my latest newsletter which has an article about identifying who you are when emailing people, particularly if they've been added to a list. It doesn't matter if they've even self-subscribed. Your newsletter, auto responders and any other emails should identify who the sender is and should also have some kind of signature at the end, again identifying the sender. Don't assume that people will know. Co-incidentally, I was participating in a bloggers forum this morning and … [Read more...]
Show them you care
I wonder if you take the time to check the location of a person you are emailing? Too often I get emails that are directed to me personally, and are not part of a bulk email, where the person says 'have a great day', or 'hope you're having a great summer' when the reality is I live on the other side of the world to that person so it's night not day and winter not summer. Do you think I'm being pedantic? I don't believe so. When I email someone and if I'm going to make reference to the time … [Read more...]
The Act of Responding
Is it me or is it everyone else? It seems to me, if you email someone, requesting a quote, a job to be done, asking for information or something that requires a response, then good etiquette states you should reply and acknowledge the email, even if you don't have an immediate answer. Over the past year, different people I do business with have not responded to my emails of request for assistance or advice and the end result is I send more email messages and then end up ringing them because I … [Read more...]