Way Back When…

 Way back when I first decided to be a brand new, innocent and ignorant small business owner I made a very important mistake. That mistake probably cost me a lot of work, but sadly I had no idea at the time.

What was my mistake? I decided to send emails to as many organizations I could find online and offer my wonderful services to those organizations.

Many years later I now know what happened to my emails, they were sent to the spam folder. I now receive thousands of those same emails and they all end up in my spam folder.

My email would start something like this:

Good Morning, my name is Linda and I am a Motivational Speaker and my topic is Health & Wellness. I would like to speak at your next event. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to your reply.

What Did I do Wrong?

 What did I do wrong, let me count the ways…

I was an unknown small business owner.

  1. I had no credibility.
  2. I had no online presence.
  3. I had no testimonials.
  4. I had no trusted connections.
  5. I was sending spam emails.
  6. I had no brand to speak of.

 People Sending me Spam emails.

 I receive thousands of emails from people who are desperate to sell, and you can tell they are desperate, I know I was, because they think everyone is their target market and they spam everyone with the same message.

Some of the emails I receive start something like this:

“Hi, I am a website designer, and I have looked at your website and I know I can help you make it better. I can get you to the top of the search engines.”

 What’s the first thing that I ask myself when I receive an email like the one I just shared as an example? My first thought is – which website did this person look at? I have more than one website. Secondly, how can they make any of my websites better? Also if they checked, then they would discover I have quite a nice perch on all of the search engines.

I used to feel insulted that some stranger was emailing me to sell me something that I did not need, and that they were being very rude and insensitive. Then I woke up and knew that whomever this person was they had no idea who I was, what I did, what my websites looked like, they were mass emailing everyone in the hope of finding someone silly enough to pay them!

Then The Penny Dropped, & I Saw The Light.

 Obviously once I saw the error or my ways I stopped the bad practice of emailing everyone on this earth and I began to build my brand.

I know I probably lost a lot of potential clients way back then, because of my bad behaviour, but luckily for me I turned the situation around quite quickly and that led to my success.

What is The Solution?

The solution is to know your target market first and foremost. Building the following foundations will also assist you become known and lead to many referrals:

 

  • Plan, Prepare, Prioritize.
  • Build your brand.
  • Build your online presence.
  • Build your networking contacts list.
  • Build relationships with your connections.
  • Build trust.
  • Build your email list.

 

  • Set short and long term goals.

 

  • Know that your business plan will change over time.

 

Next Time You Feel Like Emailing Everyone…..

Certain demographics have a lot of success emailing everyone, but it takes them time and a lot of planning ahead. Dedicated sales professionals, marketing agencies, are two examples. They know exactly what works for them, and how to use their lists to email would be customers.

Do your research; ask others how they do this successfully. Be prepared, and you will be successful, otherwise you will be tossed into the spam folder never to be seen again.

 

Me – Now

 I don’t take care of email lists or other such related tasks. Someone takes care of that for me.

Due to the fact I have built my brand, my online presence, I have credibility, I am much more well received in the business world.

I believe in building rapport, relationships and getting to know what my target market wants. What solution are they looking for? I always research my connections, my partners, my clients, my sponsors, in fact everyone I want to work with.

As ever, I love receiving your emails and comments, so please keep them coming, thanks.