Design & Publishing . / . WEB . / . Tips & Tricks Index . / . 9803 Clifford: Part 1 . / . 9803 Clifford: Part 2
Douglas Clifford - Part 2: Ways to Shoot Your Web Site in the Foot
Rule #5
Buy a real email program if you’re running an online business.Don’t be content with those watered-down versions included with today’s web browsers. Personally, I’ve used Eudora Pro version 3.0 for more than a year now. It’s one of the few software programs I can claim complete satisfaction with, and that is saying a lot. (Hello Qualcomm, send me 4.0 and I’ll review it for the readers.)
Why a real email program? Because you can do so much more with it. Create, organize and store address books with hundreds of email addresses. Choose filters to sort your incoming mail. Send a letter to one person and everyone on your "quick recipient list" will get the same letter. Format the text to suit you. These are just some of the features found in a program like Eudora.
Learn how to create stationery files. That’s a fancy name for form letters, which you can store and call up the appropriate one just before you hit the reply key. I personalize every single form letter I send out. It only takes a minute to add a paragraph or a few words here and there, and voila, the customer thinks you’ve taken a personal interest in them. Always close email by thanking the customer for contacting you.
Learn how to create signature files. A signature file can be much more than your name and title, it can include your pithy quote of the day (oh please spare me), it can remind the customer about your business, it can even include a hyperlink to your web site. Here’s an example of the signature file I use when contacting photo commerce businesses listed in the ACE Indexes:
ACE Increases Traffic To North American Photographic Commerce Web Sites
"When a consumer finds ACE, they find your business too."
<http://www.acecam.com> ACE Means All Camera Equipment!Learn how to create hyperlinks in your email. Did you see the hyperlink in my signature file above? It stands right out and the customer can’t miss it. He can go right from your email letter to your web page with one click. It’s incredibly simple: just enclose your URL between the < and > brackets, as in <http://www.whatever.com>
Doug's Rules: Rule #1 _|_ Rule #2 _|_ Rule #3 _|_ Rule #4 _|_ Rule #5 _|_ * Rules #6, #7 and end
Doug
Douglas Clifford is the webmaster of the ACE Indexes, an annotated directory of photo commerce web sites, and online photography and digital imaging magazines. (http://www.acecam.com)
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