“How to Get Your Emails Noticed”

by Susan Dunn, MA Clinical Psychology

I’ll cut to the chase: The way to get noticed is
to change something.

That having been said, there are two schools of
thought re: what in traditional marketing is
called your “collaterals.”

I wonder who chose that buzzword and why,
because “collateral” means property you put up
to when you take a loan to protect the interest
of the lender. In this context it makes no
sense. Or does it?

COLLATERALS

“Collaterals” in marketing means your business
cards, stationary, brochures, etc. And, BTW, to
the disappointment of most clients, it’s the first
thing the marketing consultant looks at. From
that you should take notice that it’s the most
important thing about your business, and often the
most neglected.

I suppose the gist is that a “collateral” is a
very valuable thing. You secure the other thing
with it. In a very real sense, your collateral
secure your business.

School 1: STANDARDIZATION

You will see this in major law firms. If you’ve
heard working in a law firm is different, it is.
“ The law,” as its referred to, changes slowly,
which you know. The laws of a society are its
stability. When a law such as women not being
able to vote, or people not being able to have
slaves changes, the results in the society are
tumultuous.

Law firms seem to all use the same font on their
collaterals. Everything in a major national or
international law firm is standardized by decree.
The last thing they want is something looking
different … attorneys aren’t known for
broadcasting their “personality” in their
brochures.

What brochures? It’s a different field. Short
and sweet – all attorneys carry the same card.
Sidebar – what if your attorney carried a
fuschia card with navy ink and comic sans ms
font? Yikes!

Medicine also has little use for collaterals.
Don’t know about you, but every time I visit one
of my doctors, I’m amazed to receive the same
crummy multigenerational scraps of paper cut by
hand, with scissors even, to fill out.

Does it keep me from going to that doctor? What
if I told you he also holds his glasses on with
green rubber bands?

Presumably we do not care about our doctors’
personalities or the appearance of things. At
least we don’t associate it with his or her
ability to do their job.

My friend who’s a doctor tells his son to go into
medicine because, “You don’t have to drink with a
man to take out his wife’s gallbladder.” There’s
probably a Ph.D. thesis behind that statement.

At any rate, this is more the position of the
“ professions,” a line that is blurring because my
nail technician calls herself a “professional.”
So go to the meta idea here – someone who does
specific piece work (which can be said of a brain
surgeon or a seamstress) is going to be judged by
the finished product, and less by their
personality or the “personality” of their
products.

My young friend who’s a genius on computers tells
me, “I could show up with a bone in my nose and
they’d hired me.” There’s another thesis there.
(And only a very young person would think there
are no limits to what we will endure from the
gifted. Extremely bad breath comes to mind!)

However, from those of us who sell widgets, there
is less toleration. There are too many of us, and
of widgets, no matter how good. We must have out
collaterals in order.

Which brings up School 2: STAND OUT

When you’re in a highly competitive field you must
stand out – from others, and from yourself from
time-to-time.

Your EMAIL is an important collateral. Pay close
attention to what it looks like.

CHANGE THE APPEARANCE

Probably you’re using the default that came with
the computer. There are lots of other options!
Try some. Start with changing the font, style and
size of the text.

To change the text style for all your messages (on
Outlook) go to Tools and click Options. Find
Compose and click Font Settings.

To change the text within an email message, select
the text you want to format and then on the
formatting toolbar, click the buttons for the
options you want.

To change the font for an entire message go to the
Edit menu and click Select All.

STATIONARY

To apply stationery, go to Format and then Apply
Stationery.

YOU’LL GET LETTERS

When you change the appearance of your email, you
will get reactions. If you’re a newbie, you’ll be
amazed and confused that some will love it, some
will hate it. If you’re a seasoned warrior, I
mean entrepreneur, you will have been expecting
that.

You will also know that your email – whether liked
or hated – was noticed.

Think back on the Classic Coke brouhaha – if
you’re old enough to remember that, and the word
“ brouhaha”. It means “hubbub” or “uproar” and
none of those synonyms is in much use nowadays
either, because what ISN”T a brouhaha, hubbub or
uproar these day? They come with chaos and
constant change. Peaceful sameness would be a
brouhaha these days.

Coke announced they were withdrawing Classic Coke
from the market. It made us all realize how much
we loved it, whether we did or not. The thought of
it no longer being available made us frantic.

Of course it remained on the market, after a
hearty boost in sales from a very clever
marketing campaign that jolted the consumer out
of complacency.

CONFUSION

If some hate it, and some love it, and you’re not
sure, what do you do? A marketing coach can help you
with one-shot deals like this, and with your
overall marketing plan. You do have a marketing
plan, don’t you?

©Susan Dunn, MA Clinical Psychology, Internet
Marketinging Services,
http://www.webstrategies.cc. Most entrepreneurs
fail because they don’t know how to market. Let
us help you in all areas – web strategies, web
design, promotions, marketing, public relations,
market research, demographics, and nerves.
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