I highly recommend sending thank you cards to your clients & friends as a way to develop deeper relationships. Today I want to share how I usually write a thank you card. It is a method I learned from an article titled How to Write a Thank-You Note by Leslie Harpold (who sadly passed away in 2006.)

Her method is simple:

1. Greet The Person
2. Express Your Gratitude
3. Discuss Impact
4. Mention the Past, Allude to the Future
5. Say Thank You Again
6. Sign Off With Grace
   

Here is an example thank you card you might write to a client/friend who has just referred you a client:

1. Greet The Person

Hey Tiffany,

2. Express Your Gratitude

Thank you so much for sending (name of new client) my way. 

3. Discuss Impact

I met with her yesterday and it looks like I’ll be able to help her by (how the new client will benefit). We’ve got aggressive goals this year (or The economy is really tight right now) and this deal will have a big impact. And (name of new client) seems like an awesome person so she’ll be really fun to work with.

4. Mention the Past, Allude to the Future

Anyway, it was good catching up at Dos Coyotes last month. How ’bout we try Cheesecake Factory next week?

5. Say Thank You Again

Thanks again for the referral.

6. Sign Off With Grace

Yours truly,
~ mel

PS: I’m including a small token of my appreciation. Hope you like it.

Was this blog post helpful? Please me a comment and let me know how I’m doing & how I can improve.

Melvin Ram
CEO / President
Volcanic Marketing
melvin-at-volcanicmarketing.com
(916) 743-9369

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I was forwarded an email with a funny twist on marketing. I thought I’d share it with you (though I don’t know the original source so I can’t credit them.) It’s a bit sexist but I’m adding it in all good fun. Hope you enjoy it & don’t mind. Please no hate mail :D 

*** Email start ***

 The buzzword in today’s business world is MARKETING. However, people often ask for a simple explanation of “Marketing.” Well, here it is:

• You’re a woman and you see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and say, “I’m fantastic in bed.” That’s Direct Marketing.
• You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy. One of your friends goes up to him and pointing at you says, “She’s fantastic in bed.” That’s Advertising.
• You see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and get his telephone number. The next day you call and say, “Hi, I’m fantastic in bed.” That’s Telemarketing.
• You see a guy at a party, you straighten your dress. You walk up to him and pour him a drink. You say, “May I?” and reach up to straighten his tie, brushing your breast lightly against his arm, and then say, “By the way, I’m fantastic in bed.” That’s Public Relations.
• You’re at a party and see a handsome guy. He walks up to you and says, “I hear you’re fantastic in bed.” That’s Brand Recognition.
• You’re at a party and see a handsome guy. He fancies you, but you talk him into going home with your friend. That’s a Sales Rep.
• Your friend can’t satisfy him so he calls you. That’s Tech Support.
• You’re on your way to a party when you realize that there could be handsome men in all these houses you’re passing. So you climb onto the roof of one situated towards the center and shout at the top of your lungs, “I’m fantastic in bed!” That’s Junk Mail.

*** email end ***

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Email Marketing Resources

Below are some of the resources I have found to be helpful in understanding the strategies and techniques for success with email.

[LAST UPDATED: Sept 01, 2007]

Online Resource Centers

• Constant Contact Hints & Tips Articles
• Email Marketing Best Practices (EmailLabs)
• Chris Baggott’s Blog on Email Marketing (ExactTarget)
• MarketingSherpa’s Email Marketing Library (Subscription required)

Blogs (from email marketing reports)

• No man is an iland
• BeRelevant
• Messaging Times
• VerticalResponse Blog
• RetailEmail.Blogspot
• The Email Wars
• Campaign Monitor
• MailChimp
• SilverPOP Blog
• AWeber blog

Books

• The Quiet Revolution in Email Marketing by Bill Nussey
• Email Marketing By the Numbers by Chris Baggott and Ali Sales
• Effective Email Marketing by Herschell Gordon Lewis
• Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
• The Online Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert W. Bly

‘Keep in Touch Using Email’ Series

• Part 1 - Use Emails to Provide Value to People
• Part 2 - Supplement 1-to-1 Communication
• Part 3 - Use a Good Email Marketing Software
• Part 4 - Email Marketing Resources

~ mel

Melvin Ram
CEO, Volcanic Internet Marketing
Direct: (916) 743-9369
Email: melvin@volcanicmarketing.com

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Use an Email Marketing Software… not Outlook!

In the previous posts, we talked about how to use email to provide value to people and how to use email to supplement 1-to-1 communication instead replacing it. Now what?

The next question you need to consider is: “How will I be sending my emails?”

You may be tempted to reach for your normal email program such as Outlook, Hotmail or Gmail and using the BCC or CC functionality of these programs… but in most cases, this will be a mistake.

Without a specialized email marketing software, you’ll face many problems:

• You won’t know who opened your email
• Your emails will probably get caught in the spam/junk folders by the major email providers such as Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, AOL & Gmail
• Your emails will look like they were send to a massive list… and won’t get the attention it deserves
• You’ll violate many laws introduced under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

What do smart email marketers do? They use a good email marketing software.

If you’re going to be sending out ‘1-to-many’ type emails, you need a good email marketing software. Why? A good email marketing

software lets you personalize your emails, deliver more emails to the inbox instead of the junk folder and track vital usage information such as who opened your emails and clicked on the links in your email. Let’s look at each one closer:

a) Personalize your emails (Whisper, don’t shout!)

When your email looks like it was sent to everyone, people are much less likely to read it. When an email looks like it was sent to just you, you are more likely to open & read it.

A good email marketing software will deliver your email so it looks like it was sent just to them. Higher end solutions even let you personalize content based on different criteria. For example, women may get a different email then men.

b) Deliver emails to the inbox… not the junk folder

If you send a ton of emails at once using Outlook or other email programs, major email providers such as Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Hotmail & AOL might move your email to the junk/spam folder.

Good email marketing software companies have built up relationships with the major email providers to increase the deliverability rate.

For example, Constant Contact has very strict opt-out policies. If someone clicks on Unsubscribe at the bottom of your emails, it will be very difficult/impossible to ever send them another email using Constant Contact. For this reason and others, the major email providers treat Constant Contact mail with a little more care.

c) Track vital information

Tracking is the nature of the sophisticated marketer. With normal email programs, it is near impossible to do any kind of tracking that is useful.

A good email marketing software can track vital information such as such as who opened your email, how many times they opened it, who clicked on your links and who doesn’t view your email.

d) Compliance wih CAN-SPAM Laws

When you conduct email marketing using your regular email program, you are violating many laws.

Good email marketing software, such as Constant Contact, automatically set you up with everything you need to be compliant with these laws.

Recommendations for email marketing software

There are many email marketing software services on the market today. Here is a short list of the top:

• Constant Contact - CC is our recommendation to most clients. It’s simple and their customer service is great.
• iContact - Offers a decent combination of an autoresponder, blogging tool and a rss tool.
• Aweber - Great as an autoresponder… but not as your primary email marketing tool due to it’s reporting deficiencies.
• ExactTarget - Great for medium & large size companies.
• SilverPOP - Also great for medium & large size companies.

Already using an email marketing software?

What email marketing software are you currently using? Please be candid about your experience. As long as it helps others make good decisions, we’ll let things roll.

‘Keep in Touch Using Email’ Series

• Part 1 - Use Emails to Provide Value to People
• Part 2 - Supplement 1-to-1 Communication
• Part 3 - Use a Good Email Marketing Software

~ mel

Melvin Ram
CEO, Volcanic Internet Marketing
Direct: (916) 743-9369
Email: melvin@volcanicmarketing.com

Technorati Tags: email marketing, relationship building, keep in touch, email marketing software

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Supplement 1-to-1 Communication

With email marketing, an easy trap to fall into is treating email as your main means of communication with people… because of how convenient and time-efficient it is.

This is a mistake because emails lack the ability to create that human bond that is the real goal of keeping in touch. Here are 2 ways to get around this and use email as a supplement and not a substitute for 1-to-1 communication.

a) Categorize contacts 1, 2 or 3

Categorize how often you want to keep in touch with people off-line (such as a phone call or an in-person visit.) Here is how it breaks down:

• 1 = reach out once a month
• 2 = contact once a quarter
• 3 = connect once a year + birthday

I learned this technique from Keith Ferrazzi’s Never Eat Alone book. Keith also recommends that in the first month you meet someone, connect with them in three 3 different ways… such as email, phone & thank-you card or email, phone & in-person to build substantial recognition of your name.

b) Prompt people to respond in your email

Write your emails in a way that leads to 1-to-1 communication. How? Towards the end of the email, prompt people to respond.

For example, at the end of a recent email about 6 ways to ask people their birthday, I asked people the ways they ask people of their birthday. I learned a few new techniques and it started a few very interesting conversations.

Ad: Looking for a good email marketing software? I recommend signing up for a free 60-day trial of Constant Contact. It’s the email marketing software I use.

~ mel

Melvin Ram
CEO, Volcanic Internet Marketing
Direct: (916) 743-9369
Email: melvin@volcanicmarketing.com

‘Keep in Touch Using Email’ Series

• Part 1 - Use Emails to Provide Value to People
• Part 2 - Supplement 1-to-1 Communication
• Part 3 - Use a Good Email Marketing Software

Technorati Tags: email marketing, relationship building, keep in touch, email marketing software

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Keeping in touch with clients, partners and friends is important to maintaining relationships… as well as getting repeat sales and referrals. As the marketing person in your team, this responsibility falls squarely on your shoulders. The challenge is, keeping in touch takes time.

An approach I’ve found to work well for me is to employ techniques that allow me to leverage my time… including, sending emails, attending events and speaking to an audience, in a podcast or to a reporter.

I’m a big fan of sending emails because it is a simple & easy way to keep in front of people you want to stay in touch with. It can give you huge returns on your time investment but you need to be intelligent about how you use it.

In this “Keep in Touch Using Email” Series, I’m going to share tips on how to use email as an effective way of keeping in touch… so let’s get started.

Use emails to provide value to people

If you are going to use email is a strategy for consistently keeping in touch with people, you need to make sure that they will continue to open your 2nd, 3rd and 100th email.

Here are two things you should keep in mind:

a) Find or create content that is interesting

If you bore people to death or try to shove sales-pitches down their throat, you’ll loose their interest quickly. Try instead to add value to their life with your email. How? Here are some types of content that can help you do that:

• Relevant News - For example, if you are changing your company name/location or you’re adding people to your company that your customers will be interfacing with, you can use email to info them of the news.
• Funny Jokes, Pictures, etc - A good joke, funny pictures or just something weird can be great content. Who doesn’t enjoy a good laugh?
• Educational Articles - Do you know something that others want to learn more about? Educational emails are good if they are relevant & interesting. This also has a side-benefit of positioning you as an expert on the topic.
• Inspirational Stories - To inspire is to motivate someone to act. You can have client stories that show the height of success someone can have if they just do things your way… or you can have an inspirational story that brings out the passion in people. Either way, inspirational emails are great.

b) Separate people into lists by interests

I am a 24 year old male who likes to dress elegantly. I am a semi-regular customer at Banana Republic. If they send me an email about women’s clothing, it’s getting deleted… immediately! If they do it enough times (twice is enough for me), I will unsubscribe and they’ll loose the ability to market to me.

Think about the different groups of people you’ve got in your contact list. How can you divide them into lists so that you can speak about things that are more relevant to them, more clearly.

If you have 5 major products/services, create 5 lists and put the customers of each into the appropriate lists… and speak to them appropriately.

‘Keep in Touch Using Email’ Series

• Part 1 - Use Emails to Provide Value to People
• Part 2 - Supplement 1-to-1 Communication
• Part 3 - Use a Good Email Marketing Software

~ mel

Melvin Ram
CEO, Volcanic Internet Marketing
Direct: (916) 743-9369
Email: melvin@volcanicmarketing.com

Technorati Tags: email marketing, relationship building, keep in touch, email marketing software

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NOTE: Share this blog entry with college students you know… such as your son or daughter, niece or nephew or your friends kids. You’ll look very wise & caring Share Now

August is here and my sister, Michelle, will be starting her college career at UC Berkeley this fall. Michelle, along with thousands of other students at various universities, will attempt to attain higher competence in their elected fields.

However, most students will miss the most important learning experience that higher education institutions have to offer: how to build relationships with people who can & will impact their future.

But you can’t really blame them because no one ever tells them that they need to build relationships nor do they have classes at most university on relationship building (aka networking).

Below are 5 strategies that have worked for me, in academic circles as well as the professional world. Used intelligently, they will help you open doors you never knew existed.

Step 1: Identify people who can & will impact your future

• Make a list of possible future employers and identify specific people inside these organizations.
• Make a list of critical people in your department such as the dean, dean’s secretary, the chair, professors of advanced classes, department advisers, etc.
• Seek out and make a list of people successful at what you are considering doing. Want to become a pediatrician or a lawyer? Find out who the top people in that field are.
• Identify local chapters of associations relating to your field.

Step 2: Proactively reach out (aka build your network of friends before you need them)

• Go see your professors during office hours… especially the during first few weeks… because most people won’t
• Introduce yourself to people in your department (after first few weeks. It’s less busier and fewer faces to remember)
• Identify places people meet… and hang out/study there
• Find non-profits that you are passionate about… that have influential people as supporters… so you can interact with them in a non-professional setting.
• Get business cards with your basic contact info. Get them at VistaPrint (free) or 4SquareGraphics ($15 for 250 cards)
• Introduce yourself to the smartest, most interesting students in your classes in the first weeks. Most learning in college happens from interacting with other students

Step 3: Cause them to recognize & remember you by giving something of value

• Humor is a universal gift
• Join discussions
• Ponder Pearls (starts at $25/month) is something I give
• Introduce professors in different departments to each other
• First be interested, then be interesting
• Interview them and publish it on a blog
• Offer to work for free (if you can afford to)

Step 4: Get personal with them

• Find out their birthdays
• Find out what they are passionate about
• Ask them to mentor you (when it makes sense)
• Invite them have lunch/dinner with you and a few other interesting people

Step 5: Commit to relationship building as a life-long discipline

• Start Now! It’s never too early… or too late
• Take down names and ask people their email
• Use HighRise (250 contacts free) to track people you meet
• Sign up for Plaxo (free) so your address book stays accurate
• Get an email (from Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo) that you will keep forever
• Think 5 years ahead in terms of relationships you’ll need
• Set aside 30 minutes every day to reach out to people

What advice would you give Michelle & other college students on how to build a network of friends who can impact their future?

~ mel

Melvin Ram
CEO, Volcanic Internet Marketing
Direct: (916) 743-9369
Email: melvin@volcanicmarketing.com

Technorati Tags: relationship building

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Birthday’s are great for building relationships. Why? Because almost no one remembers birthdays. When you remember someone’s birthday, you’ll usually get put into a special category of people. If you do this consistently, you form a special bond over a few years.

However, in order to remember someones birthday, you have to know their birthday. So how do you find out the birthdays of people you know?

Here are 6 ways I have used in the past to find out someones birthday:

1. Use Plaxo - What is Plaxo? Plaxo is a way to keep the information in your address book always up to date & accurate. Here’s how it works: Once you import your contacts into Plaxo, you can send people a request to update their contact info. Your contacts will get an email with asking for updated information. They’ll click on the link in the email and update their information. How does this help with finding out birthdays? There is a field to enter their birthday (with or without the specific year) and a lot of people fill this out. Best of all, Plaxo is free of charge for it’s basic service and their premium service is awesome.
2. Ask Someone Who Knows - Do you know the office manager/wife/husband/sister/brother of your contact? Use email, SMS & phone calls to ask people the birthdays of other people. The officer manager may even have the birthday’s of a few different people you know.
3. Just Ask Them - Just ask straight out: “Hey when is your birthday?”. You can do it through email, SMS, on a phone call or in person. I like email. On the phone & in person, I like to ask them towards the end of a conversation. Don’t make it a big deal. It’s a simple question, looking for a simple answer. You will get people who will ask you “Why are you asking?” I just tell them that I like to call people on their birthday.
4. Make it part of a form - If you have an agreement or form that most of your clients have to complete in order to do business with you, add Date of Birth as a field into that form. People will fill it out without thinking twice about it. This is the reason Plaxo works so well.
5. Pay Attention - If you pay attention to people, you’ll sooner or later discover their birthday. Just today I discovered someone’s birthday because I went onto their blog. I often ask people what they did over the weekend and many times I find out it was their birthday or their spouses birthday.
6. Create a FaceBook account & invite people - The cool thing about FaceBook.com is that you can share so many intimate things like photos, videos and more. The feature I love the most is that it asks people their date of birth right in the beginning and publishes the day & month by default. Again, it works like Plaxo. People fill it out because its part of a form. So invite people to Facebook. You get to share things with them… and you get their birthday

What are the ways you’ve found to be most effective in discovering birthdays? Leave a comment below.

~ mel

Melvin Ram
CEO, Volcanic Internet Marketing
Direct: (916) 743 9369
Email: melvin@volcanicmarketing.com

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People are usually generalists or specialists. You either have a decent knowledge of a wide range of areas or a deep understanding of a narrow range of topics.

In either case, writing presents some interesting opportunities that can significantly impact both your business and your career.

Personal benefits of writing include:

• You dig - When we write on a topic, whether we know it back & forth or just enough, we usually do some digging to double-check the accuracy of what we’re talking about and to find supporting evidence. Digging can lead to connecting with new contacts, discovering prospects we may not have considered and opportunities we may not have thought about. Digging also takes you deeper into your subject matter… expanding your expertise and perspective.
• You become more articulate - When we write, we are forced to put our thoughts into words that others can understand and utilize. When we write, we create phrases that effectively communicate what we mean and we begin using these phrases in our real world discussions. The net result? Our words become more digestible and articulate.
• You get branded as an expert - When you share knowledge that is accurate, well thought-out and and easy to digest, people perceive you as an expert. Benefits may include increased trust (which leads to sales), job promotions, getting assigned leader of a project, etc.
• You build an audience - The best side effect of being branded an expert is that you start building an audience. This audience can help you in ways you can’t even imagine… from asking you to speak to their association members to introducing you to their top contacts.
• You stand out - Most at your company will never write for others. They will never share their experiences, expertise and insights. By writing, you will stand out. It will give you a good medium for staying in touch with people for being remembered.

Writing while working at a company can also have benefits for the company.

• Good content is great for search engine optimization - When you write content that is not only interesting, but can also attract search engine traffic, you help your company increase search engine visibility and sales.
• The company looks like an expert - A company is merely a reflection of it’s people. When you look like an expert, your company will look like an expert. This can (and usually does) increase sales.

If you’re not comfortable with your writing skills, just start writing. Just pick a topic and start writing. Write daily if possible. Focus on the thoughts you’d like to share and not the writing itself. Once you have your thoughts down, you can utilize a professional writers’ help to either rewrite your material in a more clear, stylish way… or just have them edit your work.

Overall, there are many reasons to write as mentioned above. At Volcanic, we write marketing tips like the one you’re reading right now, for all the above reasons. In addition, it helps us communicate to our clients that we know what we’re talking about without having to say it.

How can or has writing benefited you and/or your company? Leave your comments below.
~ mel

Melvin Ram
Volcanic Internet Marketing
(916) 743-9369

PS: Volcanic is an Internet marketing company that can advice you on what topics to write about by researching what people are searching for. We also optimize your website content to rank higher on search engines. If you need search engine marketing help, call us at (916) 743-9369.

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Question:
How can a company that takes 70% of it’s orders over the phone, track how people who ordered found their website and what keywords they used on search engines?
~ Igor M

Answer:
In the off-line direct marketing world, toll free numbers are one of the best ways to track sales back to campaigns. This also works in the online marketing but you need to think through what information you are really after.

A lot of times, you don’t really need on-going data. Simple 1 or 2 month tests can give you reliable data that you can assume till the next time you do a test.

For example, before launching a landing page, we at Volcanic Marketing create 12 variations that allow us to test a variety of variables such headlines, benefit statements, calls to action, etc. On each of these variation, we assign a different toll free number. Toll free company gives us a break down in terms of number of calls and length of calls. We use this info to make decisions and move forward.

Using pay per click, you can direct people coming from different keywords to different landing pages. You can run a 3 month test to see which keywords are will get the phone to ring the most and make decisions based on this insight.

Do you want the data to be gathered and assigned to sales leads on an on going basis?

The other approach in linking your phone sales to your web traffic is to have an item on your site that collects simple info and tags it with search engine & keyword/campaign info. Don’t ask their family history. Just their name. When they call, have your reps look up your database of registered people and link the sale to that contact.
Examples of items that could help you collect simple info are:

• Email newsletter sign-up
• Downloadable ebook
• Multimedia presentation

Do you have other ideas on linking Internet marketing to off-line sales? Leave your comments below.
~ mel

Melvin Ram
Volcanic Marketing
916.743.9369

PS: Volcanic is an Internet marketing company that can help you with various issues surrounding Internet marketing. Give me a call if I can help with anything you need. I promise to do my best.

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