Shown above is a real email that recently came in to a site I work with. Now, I will be the first to admit that there is always room for improvement for virtually any site but the one referenced here is ranked on the first page (of Google) for a number of key terms.
Unfortunately, I see emails like this way too often. It’s clear this is just mass spam sent out with the goal that a portion of business owners will react. My hope is that everyone would see the obvious warning signs but, just in case, let’s hit the highlights:
- Sent from a personal email account
- No company name listed in the signature line
- No phone number listed in the signature line
- Not addressing you by name
- Citing general issues instead of detailing the specific issues/errors
The first three points speak to the level of professionalism. If someone is claiming to want to help you manage your digital marketing, it’s reasonable to expect they aren’t using a gmail/yahoo/hotmail/etc address and have their own website! It only takes a few bucks and a little effort to set up a formal/corporate email address. And even though we are talking about digital marketing you should still be able to pick up the phone and call someone.
The last two points relate to how much (or how little) they really care. In most situations, it usually only takes a minute or two to find the name of a contact on a website. Using a generic “[website name] Team” salutation suggests this is just an automated blast and not an individual email.
Some may argue the last point is asking a consultant to give away their services for free. However, they are contacting you! Anyone trying to create a genuine relationship should be willing to offer specific ideas to help. In other words, instead of saying “found HTML errors,” they should cite the exact error, give a short summary of why it’s important and (even better) offer a suggestion of how to fix it. Yes, that means the person sending the email is giving away work for free but it shows they actually care, and they know what they are talking about. That’s just the cost of developing long-term relationships…
About the Author Nick Perry is a marketing and digital strategy professional who has worked in both B2B and B2C environments. With deep experience in software, SaaS, and financial publications, he specializes in helping small- and medium-sized businesses build, grow, and optimize their digital marketing. He can be reached at (513) 279-2075 - or emailed directly.