Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

Your Email is Hurting Your Brand

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imagesThe other day I tweeted the following:

what is my responsibility to tell an adult they can’t write an email for $h*t and it’s hurting their business & brand?

Improper email etiquette is one of my bigger pet peeves. Here’s a few ways to make sure your email isn’t hurting your brand…

  1. Don’t FORWARD information: only my mom and mother in law can forward stuff en mass. And even then it’s usually deleted.
  2. BCC line. I gave YOU my email address, I didn’t give the 75 other people in your network my email address. Nothing will make me delete emails from you faster.
  3. “Open this attachment.” We all want people to click the link to read more, or open the attachment for more details. But give me the basics in the body of the email you thoughtfully crafted (“I’m excited to invite you to my workshop on June 2nd at 10 AM in Bellevue, more details and a link to register are at this link/in the attached flyer”)
  4. Asterisks, exclamation points & emojis- STOP IT!!! (see what I did there?). Alright I am the first to say that I do NOT understand emojis. And unless you’re a tween girl, they aren’t appropriate. Just because your AOL account allows them, doesn’t mean they are business professional. Sure, use images in your newsletter or blog posts, but I don’t need hearts and smily faces in my business correspondence.
  5. Your Email address: if you can own your own business and can afford the $10 URL, you can afford to set up a business email address. yourname@hotmail.com (or AOL, Gmail, etc.) is not appropriate. Yourname@yourcompany.com shows me you are in this business for the long haul and I might listen to what you have to say.

These simple tips will help save you from yourself and may even help you grow your business in the process!

Be Organized, Be Polite

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ron-swanson2I emailed a fellow service provider today asking for information for another service provider on a client of mine. I asked a quick question “can you please send him X, thanks!” Sounded simple right?

What I got in reply was “Don’t you already have that? I can look it up when I get back to my office if necessary.”

And then it took every fiber in my being to not respond with “Hey numb nuts, get you head out of you a$$ and send me this simple thing I asked you for. Sure I have the information, I’m just looking to waste your time and mine.”

I am a pretty organized person, I have different email folders for each client and make sure to keep any passwords or login/codes/etc saved. But, sometimes they got lost. Or sometimes, it doesn’t seem like it’s something I should keep so I use it and delete it. And sometimes, I have it and just am trying to waste your time. It’s an easy way to rack up the bill…

Why Pick One When You Can Pick Five?

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BkBE92PCQAAiMqzOne thing I often do for clients is review content and make suggestions. Sometimes it doesn’t take much, a few minor tweaks here or there. Sometimes we need to make some big changes to ensure that potential clients know WHAT they do and why. And more often than not, we’re cleaning up the content to make it tighter and more efficient. Too often we take five words to say what could be said in one or two.

Take a look at your content, does that giant paragraph LOOK like something you want to read? Does it make sense? Does it use twice as many words as necessary to say the same thing? It may be time for a refresh.