Email Prospecting: Mining for Gold on the Internet (a.k.a., The Hitler Letter)
This article is verrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy looooonnnnnggggg.
But it's probably the best article I've ever written.
If you skip any of it, it won't make sense.
There. I've warned you.
It was prompted by a load of questions sent by my colleagues on a writer's forum.
We'd been discussing email marketing and I offered some past experience.
I also included links to two other articles that I wrote for The Spotlight! two months ago on this topic:
Part I
Part II
Then, a membership marketing site to which I belong unearthed this topic in a series of threads and I thought, hmmmmm, better start digging a bit deeper into this topic.
Then the emails started flooding in.
The cyber-levee breached.
My in-box literally runneth(ed) over with questions by fellow scribes who, as one so eloquently put it, "would rather have a root-canal without anesthesia than do any more cold-calling."
(Blush...I actually wrote that in my first article on the topic. Feels good to be quoted! :D )
Another said, "I guess I should stick with cold-calling but it still makes me feel like someone is removing the top of my head with a tile grinder."
(I wish I'd written that.)
=So, What Is One To Do?=
I have long been a proponent of warm calling. I define warm calling as a call placed to someone who has already expressed interest in hearing from me.
All of you reading this have expressed that interest in one fashion or another.
I didn't send this email to you by accident, now did I?
Making a telephone call to someone who's expressed an interest in hearing from me is much easier and less like a root canalthan calling someone and saying, "Hi, My name is Barry and...." it just makes more sense to me to call people who respond with, "Oh, Hi Barry, thanks for calling back," rather than those who say,"Barry who?"
=Email as a Heat Source=
So the question remains: How do we warm all those cold-call targets up to become warm call candidates?
Though you may choose to do this is any number of ways, direct mail, postcards, billboards, commercials during the Superbowl, etc., however, my preferred method is email.
(Definitely easier on the budget than a Superbowl commercial.)
I figure that most of my clients spend a good deal of time in front of their computers.
Therefore, I'll get them where they live.
If you haven't read the first two articles, you really should.
You're missing some of the fundamentals that, from this point on, I'm assuming you know.
So, go a head and click below to read those articles.I'll wait.
(Insert music from Final Jeopardy here)
Here they are...again:
Part I
Part II
=Now That You're Officially 'Well-Red' =
(Some of you will get that lame joke)
Finally, we get to the meat of this article and the core of the questions upon which I've been asked to elaborate.
They are:
1. What's the secret to that first email?
2. What did you put in your email to warm up the contact?
3. Are you married? (Oh, sorry, that's from another list...)
4. How did you target your initial list?
5. What do I put in my first email?
6. Did you rent a list?
7. Will you write my email for me?
8. Are you really addicted to Starbucks? (Me?)
9. Where did you find your prospects?
10. I'm a generalist, where would I find email addresses?
It's easy to see the pattern surfacing here.
Most of the questions I received (represented by this sample of ten) are about two main issues.
1. What's the secret to that first email?
2. Where do I find my list?
I'll answer those two issues in reverse order.
=The Primacy of the List=
Targeting your list is almost as important as what you place in your email message.
If you're targeting hospital marketing personnel (as I did), you'll certainly need to spend time digging around for the email addresses of California hospital marketing personnel (as I also did).
If you're target market is the legal profession, then you need to begin burrowing in the appropriate legal databases that exist.
There is a marketing association for almost every industry and I've found that contacting those associations to be invaluable in locating additional collections of names, web site addresses, and phone numbers.
A great number of business databases are available to anyone and can be found at your local library. The library in Aptos, where I live on the coast of California, is small and doesn't house many titles.
But via the Internet, I have access to numerous databases from which I can cull names and numbers. I can tap into the library's subscription to business databases that cover nearly every industry.
Still, I'm not interested in every industry.
I would imagine that the same is true for you.
=Back To School Night=
Here's an assignment. Years ago when I was in academia, I gave my communications students an assignment. It required them to go to a local library and ask for the Reference Librarian (RL).
They were also required to answer some questions, but I'll stop just short of there.
Go to your local library, a university library if you can, and ask to see the RL.
With rare exception, he/she will be delighted to share his/her knowledge with you.
Tell them that you want to find email addresses and web site addresses for companies in your target market. Then sit back and watch their eyes light up!
They thrive on things like this. They're like a kid in a video gamestore, or, Barry during the Starbucks Annual Brewing Sale (There's your answer to #8 above)!
The kicker here is that this service is free, the information is free, and you gain a very smart ally for future searches at the library.
This means that you DO have to get out of the house and actually talk to somebody.
I know how comfy we can become in our isolated little kingdoms.
We think that as long as we have our high-speed Internet hook-up and our java, we don't need the rest of the world.
Trust me, go to the library. You'll be sooooooooo glad you did. Then go to Starbucks to celebrate your new found source of information and buy me a pound of Italian, or the new Papua New Guinea blend, or....oh, sorry about that.
So, the list...it's vitally important. The library is your first stop. Second to that is the good old yellow pages (YP). Totally underrated. It's also free. And many companies, probably some in your target market, list their email addresses.
Using the YP, I sometimes will call to verify a contact name or ask who I'd email for such and such. It doesn't count...as a coldcall...because I'm not trying to sell them or shoot the you-know-what.
=Caution: Fragile Contents=
What you decide to put inside your email is the second crucial portion of your email campaign.
It's got to be perfect. It's got to be client-centered.It has to contain NOTHING about you...at least not at first.
My Soapbox: Far too many web sites, email campaigns, even direct mail campaign pieces try to make the sale with the first impression. They do this by boasting about themselves.
Instead of leading to the conversion of cold-lead-to-warm-contact, it leads to instant rejection. No one wants to be sold on the first try. I don't and neither do you.
Instead, you should be spending your time and your space connecting with the potential client / visitor.
So, here's the recipe for your email:
1. Name--You must know who you're targeting.
If all you have is info@yada-yada.com, it's better to get on the phone and find out who actually gets the info@yada-yada.com email messages. Even though you might think, "Gee, they will probably think of this as spam..." they won't. Business-to-business email is perfectly acceptable and results in the majority of business for the Internet marketer. By prospecting via email, that's what you've become. Do it well and you'll be proud of that title. But, to be effective, your email must be addressed to the right person.
2. First sentence--This is crucial.
You have about 7.482 seconds before they hit the delete button, so you've got to make it count.
Here you must come right to the point with a painful issue that you already know (from your exhaustive research into their demographic and psychographic) they experience. No need for a laundry list of issues; you'll lose them for sure. Focus on one.
Here, you've got to get the prospect to go further into their problem so that, in this brief email, they get that they have a problem. This is also a crucial step. Blow it here, and you'll lose them. Ease them into the message.
Every offer has a CTA. In this case, the desired action is some sort of feedback. We're not asking them to whip out their Visa card; we'd love an immediate email saying, "YES, Please sell me someszhing!" But in reality, we'll settle for a "hmmmmm, OK, I'm curious." response. A response is all we need to convert this cold email contact into a warm phone conversation.
I call this section a CC because like its cousin, the complimentary close, it draws your email to an end while providing the subtle incentive your reader needs to contact you. You're making it easy on them by providing this comprehensive information.
Yes, you need a postscript. It's both expected and effective. Dangling a really cool carrot in front of them with an enticing postscript just might do the trick and prompt a response. The PS is a tested tool in direct-response copywriting. Can you afford to ignore it? It's an opportunity to remind them of the painful issue, the solution to that issue, and, when carefully crafted, allows them to associate you with that solution.
Recently my son Justin had to compile a sizeable report on Adolf Hitler. Together, we read four books and interviewed a WWII survivor. He's in the 4th grade and produced a written report, an oral presentation, a slide show, and a interview transcript.
I'm so steeped in Hitler-lore at the moment; I had a bit of trouble disassociating myself from the subject as I wrote this article.
Just so you don't think I'm a Nazi or anything....
=Final Thoughts=
Mining the Internet for warm leads can be done effectively. As you've learned, to gain impressive and lasting results, you must first dig in the dirt.
You must do the hard work of mining the raw ore from the earth before you begin to uncover gold. Laying a foundation in solid research into your target market is the first step.
Follow that up with a good email message that accomplishes its mission. Spend a lot of time getting it right. If you send it off too soon, your minimal results will be your evidence. You'll come off as ill-prepared and naive.
Follow-up via phone is covered in my original two-part article.
If I were you, I print them all out and put them in a binder to read all together.
(There's no extra-charge for this!) ;-)
If you need a professionally written email campaign, I'm available.
There is a fee for that! (Answer to #7)
And the answer to #3? Not any more.
:-)
Thanks for Reading,
Barry
But it's probably the best article I've ever written.
If you skip any of it, it won't make sense.
There. I've warned you.
It was prompted by a load of questions sent by my colleagues on a writer's forum.
We'd been discussing email marketing and I offered some past experience.
I also included links to two other articles that I wrote for The Spotlight! two months ago on this topic:
Part I
Part II
Then, a membership marketing site to which I belong unearthed this topic in a series of threads and I thought, hmmmmm, better start digging a bit deeper into this topic.
Then the emails started flooding in.
The cyber-levee breached.
My in-box literally runneth(ed) over with questions by fellow scribes who, as one so eloquently put it, "would rather have a root-canal without anesthesia than do any more cold-calling."
(Blush...I actually wrote that in my first article on the topic. Feels good to be quoted! :D )
Another said, "I guess I should stick with cold-calling but it still makes me feel like someone is removing the top of my head with a tile grinder."
(I wish I'd written that.)
=So, What Is One To Do?=
I have long been a proponent of warm calling. I define warm calling as a call placed to someone who has already expressed interest in hearing from me.
All of you reading this have expressed that interest in one fashion or another.
I didn't send this email to you by accident, now did I?
Making a telephone call to someone who's expressed an interest in hearing from me is much easier and less like a root canalthan calling someone and saying, "Hi, My name is Barry and...." it just makes more sense to me to call people who respond with, "Oh, Hi Barry, thanks for calling back," rather than those who say,"Barry who?"
=Email as a Heat Source=
So the question remains: How do we warm all those cold-call targets up to become warm call candidates?
Though you may choose to do this is any number of ways, direct mail, postcards, billboards, commercials during the Superbowl, etc., however, my preferred method is email.
(Definitely easier on the budget than a Superbowl commercial.)
I figure that most of my clients spend a good deal of time in front of their computers.
Therefore, I'll get them where they live.
If you haven't read the first two articles, you really should.
You're missing some of the fundamentals that, from this point on, I'm assuming you know.
So, go a head and click below to read those articles.I'll wait.
(Insert music from Final Jeopardy here)
Here they are...again:
Part I
Part II
=Now That You're Officially 'Well-Red' =
(Some of you will get that lame joke)
Finally, we get to the meat of this article and the core of the questions upon which I've been asked to elaborate.
They are:
1. What's the secret to that first email?
2. What did you put in your email to warm up the contact?
3. Are you married? (Oh, sorry, that's from another list...)
4. How did you target your initial list?
5. What do I put in my first email?
6. Did you rent a list?
7. Will you write my email for me?
8. Are you really addicted to Starbucks? (Me?)
9. Where did you find your prospects?
10. I'm a generalist, where would I find email addresses?
It's easy to see the pattern surfacing here.
Most of the questions I received (represented by this sample of ten) are about two main issues.
1. What's the secret to that first email?
2. Where do I find my list?
I'll answer those two issues in reverse order.
=The Primacy of the List=
Targeting your list is almost as important as what you place in your email message.
If you're targeting hospital marketing personnel (as I did), you'll certainly need to spend time digging around for the email addresses of California hospital marketing personnel (as I also did).
If you're target market is the legal profession, then you need to begin burrowing in the appropriate legal databases that exist.
There is a marketing association for almost every industry and I've found that contacting those associations to be invaluable in locating additional collections of names, web site addresses, and phone numbers.
A great number of business databases are available to anyone and can be found at your local library. The library in Aptos, where I live on the coast of California, is small and doesn't house many titles.
But via the Internet, I have access to numerous databases from which I can cull names and numbers. I can tap into the library's subscription to business databases that cover nearly every industry.
Still, I'm not interested in every industry.
I would imagine that the same is true for you.
=Back To School Night=
Here's an assignment. Years ago when I was in academia, I gave my communications students an assignment. It required them to go to a local library and ask for the Reference Librarian (RL).
They were also required to answer some questions, but I'll stop just short of there.
Go to your local library, a university library if you can, and ask to see the RL.
With rare exception, he/she will be delighted to share his/her knowledge with you.
Tell them that you want to find email addresses and web site addresses for companies in your target market. Then sit back and watch their eyes light up!
They thrive on things like this. They're like a kid in a video gamestore, or, Barry during the Starbucks Annual Brewing Sale (There's your answer to #8 above)!
The kicker here is that this service is free, the information is free, and you gain a very smart ally for future searches at the library.
This means that you DO have to get out of the house and actually talk to somebody.
I know how comfy we can become in our isolated little kingdoms.
We think that as long as we have our high-speed Internet hook-up and our java, we don't need the rest of the world.
Trust me, go to the library. You'll be sooooooooo glad you did. Then go to Starbucks to celebrate your new found source of information and buy me a pound of Italian, or the new Papua New Guinea blend, or....oh, sorry about that.
So, the list...it's vitally important. The library is your first stop. Second to that is the good old yellow pages (YP). Totally underrated. It's also free. And many companies, probably some in your target market, list their email addresses.
Using the YP, I sometimes will call to verify a contact name or ask who I'd email for such and such. It doesn't count...as a coldcall...because I'm not trying to sell them or shoot the you-know-what.
=Caution: Fragile Contents=
What you decide to put inside your email is the second crucial portion of your email campaign.
It's got to be perfect. It's got to be client-centered.It has to contain NOTHING about you...at least not at first.
My Soapbox: Far too many web sites, email campaigns, even direct mail campaign pieces try to make the sale with the first impression. They do this by boasting about themselves.
Instead of leading to the conversion of cold-lead-to-warm-contact, it leads to instant rejection. No one wants to be sold on the first try. I don't and neither do you.
Instead, you should be spending your time and your space connecting with the potential client / visitor.
So, here's the recipe for your email:
1. Name--You must know who you're targeting.
If all you have is info@yada-yada.com, it's better to get on the phone and find out who actually gets the info@yada-yada.com email messages. Even though you might think, "Gee, they will probably think of this as spam..." they won't. Business-to-business email is perfectly acceptable and results in the majority of business for the Internet marketer. By prospecting via email, that's what you've become. Do it well and you'll be proud of that title. But, to be effective, your email must be addressed to the right person.
2. First sentence--This is crucial.
You have about 7.482 seconds before they hit the delete button, so you've got to make it count.
"Dear Adolf,
Not wanting to interrupt your busy day as Fuhrer with anunsolicited phone call, I thought to send you this brief email to inquire...."
- Name? Check.
- Courteous? Check.
- Acknowledgement of their busy-ness? Check.
Here you must come right to the point with a painful issue that you already know (from your exhaustive research into their demographic and psychographic) they experience. No need for a laundry list of issues; you'll lose them for sure. Focus on one.
"I'm contacting you today to see if your German Shepherd's current dog-walker is as caring and thoughtful as an aging Shepherd deserves?"
- Identify the painful issue? Check.
- Got the prospect thinking about the problem? Check.
Here, you've got to get the prospect to go further into their problem so that, in this brief email, they get that they have a problem. This is also a crucial step. Blow it here, and you'll lose them. Ease them into the message.
"I know that my aging Shepherd, if cooped up in an underground bunker in the middle of a war, needed to stretch her arthritic joints and breath some fresh air, I'd want a patient, experienced, Goose-stepping Shepherd walker for the job."5. Call to action
Every offer has a CTA. In this case, the desired action is some sort of feedback. We're not asking them to whip out their Visa card; we'd love an immediate email saying, "YES, Please sell me someszhing!" But in reality, we'll settle for a "hmmmmm, OK, I'm curious." response. A response is all we need to convert this cold email contact into a warm phone conversation.
"As a Freelance German Shepherd Dog-Walker, I've been tending to the needs of aging shepherd's since 1996 with my trademark Doggie-Mozart approach. If I can be of any service to you during these difficult times when walking poor Blondi is such a risk, I invite you contact me at..."
- Mention my experience ever-so-briefly? Check.
- Personalize the message if possible? Check.
- Provide an incentive to call? Check.
I call this section a CC because like its cousin, the complimentary close, it draws your email to an end while providing the subtle incentive your reader needs to contact you. You're making it easy on them by providing this comprehensive information.
7. Postscript."At your service,Wilhelm T. Kaiser, Certified Shepherd Fitness Specialist 800-555-5555mailto:BigWillie@Shepherd-Walking.com http://shepherd-walking.com/ "
Yes, you need a postscript. It's both expected and effective. Dangling a really cool carrot in front of them with an enticing postscript just might do the trick and prompt a response. The PS is a tested tool in direct-response copywriting. Can you afford to ignore it? It's an opportunity to remind them of the painful issue, the solution to that issue, and, when carefully crafted, allows them to associate you with that solution.
=An Explanation=
"P.S. Adolf, I really care about Blondi's ability to meet the dawning of the Third Reich at your side. Imagine her standing proudly at your side while all of Germany rises with new world order. I can help you make that happen. 800-555-5555."
Recently my son Justin had to compile a sizeable report on Adolf Hitler. Together, we read four books and interviewed a WWII survivor. He's in the 4th grade and produced a written report, an oral presentation, a slide show, and a interview transcript.
I'm so steeped in Hitler-lore at the moment; I had a bit of trouble disassociating myself from the subject as I wrote this article.
Just so you don't think I'm a Nazi or anything....
=Final Thoughts=
Mining the Internet for warm leads can be done effectively. As you've learned, to gain impressive and lasting results, you must first dig in the dirt.
You must do the hard work of mining the raw ore from the earth before you begin to uncover gold. Laying a foundation in solid research into your target market is the first step.
Follow that up with a good email message that accomplishes its mission. Spend a lot of time getting it right. If you send it off too soon, your minimal results will be your evidence. You'll come off as ill-prepared and naive.
Follow-up via phone is covered in my original two-part article.
If I were you, I print them all out and put them in a binder to read all together.
(There's no extra-charge for this!) ;-)
If you need a professionally written email campaign, I'm available.
There is a fee for that! (Answer to #7)
And the answer to #3? Not any more.
:-)
Thanks for Reading,
Barry
posted by Barry W. Morris at
7:29 AM
