In the last post about using international business email
marketing, we addressed the mistakes that many (if not most)
people make when attempting to use email for marketing both
domestically or internationally.
In this post, we will address international business email
solutions to help you get the most from your email marketing
efforts.
International Business Email Solution 1.
Format your email message to look as professional as possible.
One of the first things you can do is begin saving the emails
that you receive which impress you the most as appearing to
be from a professional.
Try to keep your email lines to 63 characters per line or less.
Below is a simple grid you can copy and paste into your email
to use as a guide (just be sure to take it out of the email
before you send it - yes, I have made that mistake):
123456789012345678901234567890123..out to 63 numbers.....
You may wish to cut it off at 60 characters, as some email
programs on the receiving end may cut off the line at 60 and
drop the last word(s) down to the next line.
If you speak a different language from that of your intended
email recipient - try to get a friend, library employee or
college student who speaks their language to review your email.
Times and business are changing, but English still stands out
as the language of choice for doing business worldwide, so if
you have a fairly good command of English and not the
recipient's native language, try converting your message to
English.
International Business Email Solution 2.
Use a subject line that identifies your purpose for contacting
the recipient. Something simple like:
About Your Request for Wood Flooring Prices for Import
Once you have established communications with a potential
buyer/seller, put your name in the subject line, like this:
From Ron Coble - Coble International or
From Ron Coble - About Your Request for Quote.
DO NOT PUT ALL OF YOUR SUBJECT LINE OR YOUR
MESSAGE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
Using all capital letters in email etiquette is equal to
SHOUTING at someone - this applies to both your subject
line and the body of your email.
And last but not least on this solution, do not use any
of the following in your subject line:
INVESTMENT - URGENT - PERSONAL -
CONFIDENTIAL - EMERGENCY
The are common words that many spam filters will place in
the junk email file because they are some of the most
commonly used words from spamming scamsters trying to
lure you into believing you will get a percentage of the
hundreds of millions of dollars that their dear deceased
father, brother, uncle or other relative just happened to
stash away while they were in some government job or
high paying position. And now they need you to help them
get the money out of the country. Oh yeah, and I have
a bridge in New York I want to sell you too.
International Business Email Solution 3.
Once you have your email formatted and looking as
professional and business like as possible. Take it
over to the following web site and use their FREE online
form to run a spam check on your email before you send it:
FREE Email Spam Checker
You will get a report back (in seconds, perhaps a few minutes
if volume is heavy) showing you how bad or good your email
is, from a spam-detector's programming. The report you
receive may be free but it is a full report that will include
the corrections that you should make, in order to keep your
email out of the junk folders.
It will NOT, of course, actually comment on WHAT (or
how good) you write, first, it is not quite that smart yet
and second, the actual content of your email is YOUR business.
International Business Email Solution 4.
Stop using a free email account to send your business email.
If you are serious about success in your international or
domestic business, you are going to have a thing called
"business expenses". One of those expenses (if you are really
serious about succeeding) needs to be a "REAL" email account.
If you have a yahoo, hotmail, gmail or other freebie email
account - keep it for testing purposes to send your spam
checked email to so you may see if it gets filtered out.
You may also continue to use your freebie email accounts to
see what you email looks like when it is received. Does it
show up unformatted from what you sent it? Do the end of
sentences cut off and break down to the next line?
Remember that your email is a reflection of you and MANY
business people have a very low opinion of emails received
with a yahoo or hotmail address on them!
If you are able to get your email through the perils of
email filters and into the intended recipient's mail box,
now you have to overcome the "EYEBALL" filter.
What exactly is the "EYEBALL" filter? It is the fraction
of a second opportunity your email gets when "busy"
recipient scans his or her email.
Now before your email even reaches the "EYEBALL" filter,
the recipient may have already added yahoo, hotmail,
gmail or other freebie emails to their email filtering
because they feel if someone is not willing to invest
$35 a year to have their own web site email address,
and that freebie email sender is really not
to serious about their business.
The business email solution for this problem can be
found in the form of getting your own web based email
account.
Here is a link to a service where you can set up your
own web based Email account (and web site)
for just $35.00 a year:
Business Email Hosting Account
For just $35.00 a year you get a web based email
account that gives you UNLIMITED email accounts, your
own domain name and space for a web site that will make
your business stand out to the "EYEBALL" filter
as being much more trustworthy than a yahoo, hotmail
or other freebie email domain.
You can take your business email to a professional
level for just $35 a year by setting up your own
web based email domain and beginning to send and
receive your email from your own domain name.
International Business Email Solution 5.
Last, but certainly one of the most important business email
solutions is a two-fold solution.
This email solution incorporates not only a means to help you
get your company and products on display to the world but
prevents your email from still another spam trap that could
cause it to never be seen by the intended recipient.
You should NEVER send photographs or attached files to someone
"until" you obtain their permission to do so.
There are emails I receive from my friends and even my
daughter that I will delete without opening. Why?
Virus programs and trojan horse virus programs can be embedded
in the attachment and I have read they may even be embedded in
some images if you open them.
The business solution for this is to have your own web site.
Let me say right up front that a web site does not have to be
expensive. I am going to point you to a service that can host
your basic web site and provide you a free domain name for less
than $35.00 a year.
You DO NOT need to have programming skills to build a web site.
The service I am suggesting below (and many others) have their
own web site building program available within their hosting
for FREE. In many instances it is as easy as point and click.
You DO NOT need a lot of flashy moving images and stuff that
takes time to load for someone who might be on a dial up
connection which 46% of the world's populations still is.
You DO NEED (at a minimum) a simple, NO FRILLS web site
where you display your company's products and services,
provide contact information, prices (if your industry is too
competitive to display prices, then have a form they can request
a quote on), information about your business, etc..
Your simple, NO FRILLS web site becomes your storefront to
the WORLD. Your web site is available to any potential
customer, importer, client worldwide 24 hours a day, 7
days a week, 365 days a year.
Once you have your web site set up, you can send links to
your web site and specific pages for your email recipients
to visit by merely clicking a link.
By sending links in an email, you email has a MUCH BETTER
chance of getting through ALL the levels of filters that
might otherwise prevent it from ever being viewed by the
intended recipient.
With your own web site comes your OWN EMAIL ADDRESS with
YOUR OWN DOMAIN NAME in the from area of the email (in
fact this recommended service gives you the ability to
set up UNLIMITED email addresses - YES, that is UNLIMITED).
All of those large attachments and photographs describing
and displaying your products may now be posted to your
web site for everyone worldwide to see (who want
to see them).
No longer will you be forcing some poor person who
has to pay by the minute phone charges to ask their ISP
to have your email deleted from the server level because
it is taking too much time to download. Yes, it happens
and I have done it when I was still on dial up.
Here is a direct link to the very highly regarded web
hosting company our research has discovered has such
great service packages - yes, it is the same link as
above - the same service has both Email hosting and
very low cost web site hosting packages:
Extremely Low Cost Business Email/Web Site Hosting
The bottom line on successful international marketing
involves the successful use of Email and having a web
site.
Quite frankly, if you are not using Email properly,
your chances for success in this business are very
limited. And more importantly, if you do not bring
your business into the 21st century with a web site
that displays your company's products or services,
your competition will leave you in their dust.
You may research other email or web site hosting
services on your own and I say more power to you,
but at some point, stop researching and start taking
action.
You can save yourself some valuable time by following
because there have been many hours put into it and
the above service is the best that we have found.
Invest $35.00 into you and your business by
getting a "real" email address and a web site for
your international business.
If you are not willing to invest a few dollars a year
in your business to project a more professional
image, then you are not serious about success
for your business in international trade and
should not expect anyone else to take you seriously.
This is the best advice that has been shared in this
blog yet that has the best potential for helping you and
your business achieve and maximize your success
in the Import Export business.
Hopefully you will act on it. Do it TODAY!
Ron Coble
Coble International Business Marketing Services
http://www.importexporthelp.com