Guest Blogger Michelle Cubas: Earn a Place in My Inbox
How is it that so many people think they know what I need? They haven't asked, nor have I met them. Yet they fill my inbox with information they assume I need. It's rude.
Is it possible that senders of this "stuff" think they're the only ones pitching information? Have they considered that they'll end up in my junk folder? I guess they don't care, because the next transmission is on the way. It's all about them, what they're selling, with no real interest to serve me.
The objective of email communication in a B2B setting is to make a connection and find common ground. It is a form of networking; an audition for trust and comfort. The sales meeting will occur at least five contacts down the road.
So, how does an ad in my inbox do that? It doesn't. It becomes a nuisance factor, and the minute I see those pests, I erase them or create "rules" for the junk folder. These email predators do not consider how they mar their own image.
Email is effective as a delivery system. Because it is basically free, it is used more as an impersonal sales channel. As humans, we relate to personal messages. Subliminally, we want email to be personal.
Here are three tips to adopt for more personal, effective email communications:
- Accompany each contact with the promise that you will only offer relevant information to what your client or prospect has shared, or what you have learned is important to them. When a marketer or salesperson forwards an article or link, it should be with intention: "I want to 'show up' and serve my contact and be a powerful resource for them. They begin to count on me."
- Remember than email is about authenticity and attention to others' details, not your own. It's the authentic care and attention that is the best marketing tool. People like that they are being heard, served, and supported.
- Often in our competitive universe, expansive general spheres of contact, dialing-for-dollars focus, and comparing databases, we make little of our inner spheres of influence, people with whom we already have a connection. Nurture those relationships. One client said she felt like she was my only client. That is what I strive to achieve with each email I send.
Want to make a difference? Make someone's day by acknowledging, caring, and supporting what is important to them. After all, communicating with relevancy is about avoiding abuse of a contact's trust, not about email.
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About the Author: Michelle Cubas, CPCC, is lead enterprise business coach at PositivePotentials. She blogs at Business Influences.
Related Entries
- Email Marketing's New Rules of Engagement
- Guest Blogger Tod Rathbone: The Reported Death of Email Is Premature
- Sending Customers a Bouquet of Relevant Messages
