Find more clients through every email you send

Original Post: by Krishna De

Find more clients through every email you send

February 15th, 2006 by Krishna De / Print This Article / Email This Article / Twit This

How many emails do you get in your in-box a day?

How many of them are remarkable and get your to take action?

And how many do you forward on to your colleagues and friends?

Well the chances are that your own emails, if they have compelling, relevant and interesting content in them are forwarded to others. If you send 50 emails a day and just 5 of them are forwarded to other people by the person receiving your mail you have the opportunity to be in front of 25 potential new clients a week.

So are you leveraging the power of your email as a low cost - may be even no-cost marketing engine to power up your business?

One of the most under utilised strategies for connecting to more clients and prospects is the use of your email signature.

Recently one of the actions we took with a group of my clients was to review their email signatures.

Here is a summary of the 12 key actions I encouraged them to take:

• Ensure that your email signature has a clear call to action
• Have your contact details available - be that your web address, your phone number, your fax number and your mobile number - don’t make it difficult for people to get in contact with you
• If you work internationally make sure that you have the international dialling code in your contact information and you may want to add your time zone
• Have a compelling call to action - don’t just list a strong of web sites - why would I want to click on www….. - what am I going to find there or in any other of the web sites. What’s the promise you hold for me?
• Avoid Tiny url’s - it’s not branding you well. It makes me think it’s an affiliate link. Purchase a domain name to map it to or even simpler create your email signature with words and then have the web domain as a hyperlink behind the word - see mine that you will have received in emails as an example
• Don’t list your appointment diary in the email signature - if it is easy to find in one of the web sites then that would be fine - it’s OK to add it in an email where you think people may want to book time but can look like you are ‘desperate’ for clients
• Create several email signatures with different call to actions or create a master email signature with several calls to action and then delete some as they are not applicable in the email to who I am sending it to - it takes a second to delete them and I think is worth the effort - in other words customise what you want people to see and do depending on the content of your email
• If you are going to add colour to your email signature then use the same colour as you corporate identity so that it connects and everything you do is ”onbrand"
• Rather than just listing www….. have the web domain as a hyperlink behind the call to action
• Consider your email signature as part of your marketing collateral - a very inexpensive one - and don’t be frightened to adjust it as the months go on so that it remains relevant
• Have a different tip or call to action each day or each week in their email and people like to watch out for what they have to say each time - I change my email address each week to reflect where my next live speaking gig is and the details of my next Biz Growth Live call
• And my number 1 rule - get yourself an email signature that reflects your business name even if you don’t have a web site yet - why build yahoo, msn or eircom’s brand at the expense of your own - not only that, it looks like you are not serious about your business and are operating it from your kitchen table if you have a unbranded email address.

So why not take a look at the email signatures of people you receive emails from in the next 24 hours and see if they are leveraging their reach through this low cost marketing tool. you might also glean some great ideas for how to enhance your email signature too.

Tips on Finding more Clients in this Economy

I found a great blog: LifeBeyondCode and here's a post that I thought had some priceless advice:

First, remember that more people NEED help in this economy. They need “good” help. They are looking for it.So there is a bigger opportunity find clients in this economy.

Second, You have to be there where they are looking for “good” help. Visibility is key. If there is no awareness in the marketplace about who you are, it gets tough. This is where the Personal Branding (free eBook) comes into play.

Third, You have to create an assessment in these clients that YOU can provide that “good” help. There are so many people looking for the same clients so this is where the relationships you have built (free eBook) will come into play.

Fourth, You should have “accumulated” lots of proof to back up your claim that you can “provide” that good help. Your past accomplishments will provide a shortcut to establish the proof.

Fifth, If you do get a project, you should provide a service that “will blow them away” so that they go out and tell others to come and “find” you.

Utah execs more upbeat about state's economy

Great news... at least people are upbeat! Check out this article I found today...

original post

After two years of growing pessimism about the economy, some Utah business leaders are saying that the worst of the recession may be over.

Optimism among executives about the futures of their companies increased in the opening three months of 2009 for the first time since the fourth quarter 2006, according to the bank's latest quarterly forecast of the economy, released Tuesday.

"It's the first time I've seen attitudes look more upbeat, to see hope for the future, rather than a steady decline," said Julie Olsen, an analyst for Dan Jones and Associates, the Salt Lake City market research firm that constructed the forecast for Zions.

Olsen said it's too soon to call the upswing the start of a recovery from the worst recession gripping Utah since the 1930s. But "at least during this quarter we are willing to say that the executives in this survey see [the economy] improving."

The level of optimism hardly compares to when Zions established its quarterly report in the second quarter 2006, when Utah's economy was booming. Back then 90 percent of the executives who took part were bullish on their businesses, compared with 65 percent today.

In hindsight, second quarter 2006 turned out to be the survey's high point. Except for small increases in the fourth quarters of 2006 and 2007, optimism fell steadily until the first quarter 2009, and business leaders hope the turnaround sticks.

"We have seen an uptick in demand, which is

---

Advertisement

---

very good," said Dan England, chairman of Salt Lake City-based trucking giant C.R. England Inc. "We are not going to be too aggressive on our predictions, but we are hoping and thinking that things may be improving a little bit."

The Zions forecast is based on a survey of 337 executives from April 2 through April 30. Olsen said a "notable" number of executives believe their companies' "health" will improve in the second quarter ending June 30. Forty-four percent sense better times ahead, compared with just 22 percent in the last three months of 2008.

Similarly, more executives expect their companies to maintain or boost spending on capital projects and add employees during the quarter, she said. Fifty-seven percent of executives in the statewide survey anticipate spending as much or more on capital expenditures, compared with 41 percent in the fourth quarter.

The executives showed more inclination to hire additional workers in the second quarter. Twenty-six percent said their work forces would increase somewhat or greatly, up from 17 percent who in the first quarter said their payrolls probably would increase.

"What you have is some optimism that there are parameters to the recession," said Mark Knold senior economist at the state Department of Workforce Services.

"Before, it just felt like it was in a free fall, like nobody knew where it was going to go [or] what it would take to get their hands around it.

"What's changed now is there is a feeling that a bottom is somewhere close, and some of the indicators may have seen their deepest day," he said.

Knold doesn't think Utah is out of the woods, though. Initial claims for unemployment benefits are still hovering around 3,000 per week, three times greater than normal levels.

"I'd like to see them trending below 2,000" before calling a bottom to the labor market, he said.