Direct your pitch - e-mail solicitations - Industry Trend or Event

Home Office Computing, Feb, 1997 by Victoria Hall Smith

How to Solicit Business Via E-Mail Without Lapsing Into Spam

E-mail has changed the way millions of us conduct business, so it's only natural that we explore the ways e-mail can increase our bottom lines. One possibility that's getting a lot of attention is marrying traditional direct-mail campaigns to e-mail. Usually, direct mail means blindly sending thousands of direct marketing pitches to a list of potential customers. Attempts to use this idea with e-mail (known as spamming in Net vernacular) have caused an enormous backlash involving thousands of e-mail users, the courts, the FTC, and privacy advocacy groups. Clearly, this is not a brawl any sane small business wants to join. We checked with some leading electronic marketing experts, however, and found that a new model is emerging for using e-mail to increase your profits.

"A cyber-update of proven direct marketing basics" is how Ivan Levison describes the emerging model for direct e-mail. A direct-mail guru and freelance copywriter hired by many large computer hardware and software companies, the Greenbrae, California-based Levison now writes direct e-mail pitches for his clients. He warns, however, to never send a direct e-mail pitch unless your company has had a previous contact with the prospect. For example, Levison's direct e-mail pitches only go to his clients' customers who have mailed or faxed in their product registration cards or registered via e-mail.

Concentrate on your current customers, he advises. The marketing basic that 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers implies that your first source of new business should be the 80 percent of your customers who underutilize your services. Most small businesses, Levison feels, "still are not doing a good job of servicing their core customers, and that's where a direct e-mail campaign should start."

Creating Direct Marketing Materials for Cyberspace

Experts told us that direct e-mail should be used for lead generation--not for an immediate sale of your product or service. Keeping that restriction in mind, here are five ways to create a great pitch.

Write a terrific headline. One of the three basic rules of any direct-mail pitch still applies in e-mail. You have to grab readers' attention while telling them what it is you have that they need. If it's a short headline, Levison suggests centering it and using all caps. If it's a long headline, too many caps are unreadable, so capitalize only the first letter of each word. You might also want to place two or three asterisks at the beginning and end of the headline to help grab attention.

Keep it punchy. Most recipients rarely scroll past the first screen. Since the space you have to make your point is limited in direct e-mail, don't ramble. This rule is even more important for the subject line. Levison advises keeping it to two words since many e-mail packages only display the first two or three words of the subject. FREE REPORT works better than GET OUR REPORT FREE, which may appear to the receiver only as GET OUR REP ....

Provide a call to action. Because of space limitations, a call to action should follow the headline and a short opening paragraph. "You've told them what it is. Now, here's how to order," says Levison. "Don't make [recipients] scroll or search for how to respond." If you want them to send back an e-mail response, make sure your pitch comes from the e-mail address where you want to receive the replies or make it clear where to fax or call you. Remember this is for lead generation only, so don't ask for money; ask only that prospects tell you how to contact them with some free information or a 30-day free trial offer.

Create visual interest. Break the information into zones to avoid a run-on look. An opening box of three or four points followed by a box containing the call to action is easy for the eye to follow and makes the information jump out to the reader. Levison points out that e-mail currently uses neither four-color art nor the bolds, italics, and other graphic elements that we have come to expect in professional print pitches. Until that capability comes to e-mail, he suggests using borders of asterisks or dollar signs or simple "wingdings" found in your word processor.

Offer a way out. Levison urges you to include a line like "I sent this because I thought it would be of real value to you, but if you don't care to receive any future offers, please send me a reply." He says, "It doesn't have to be at the top of the message. Placing it at the end of the letter is fine." Just make sure it's there.

Expanding Your E-mail List "Anything unsolicited is unappreciated," says Danville, California-based Internet marketing consultant Dan Janal. He too advises clients to forget the old model of buying a list, sending large numbers of mail, and looking for a I percent response. He also notes that "most small businesses couldn't handle that sudden volume anyway." Janal advises finding targeted new names for your e-mail list by trying the following methods.