Email: Blessing and Curse

When you can't meet a client or hostess in person, and you are unable to contact them by telephone, the next best thing is email.  Email can be instantaneous, however, due to that nature, the wait can often drive you mad or, at worst, it can be paralyzing.


Questions creep into your brain: "Did the email bounce into the SPAM box?"  "Does the client or hostess not want to be contacted?"  "Did the client or hostess change his mind?"  "How soon is too soon to contact him again?  What if..."


To validate your questions, but not your obsessive fear, reread your SENT email and make sure you included your name, telephone number, email address (even though you've sent it via email, you need to include it again in the body of the letter), and physical address if applicable (if it turns out you forget to give contact information, send a follow-up email with a very short message and the information).  If you included contact information, just wait.  Three days for a follow up email (unless time is of the essence), but you can call the following day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SAMPLE EMAIL

for a home-party-based-business to an online Lead
Thank you, Michelle, for sharing your letter!

Dear [Insert Lead's Name Here];


Thank you for contacting us; it's an exciting time to inquire about AtHome America, to host a party and earn free HomeWares or to become a HomeStyle Specialist.


The company is sending you a packet of information, including our latest catalog, and you can also view the catalog online at http://AtHome.com/Teraisa.


April and May have fabulous hostess and customer specials, including HomeWares to share on Mother's Day, which you can have free when you host a qualified home, catalog, or online party or by becoming a HomeStyle Specialist (HSS) yourself.


Whether you are looking to supplement your income, schedule your work hours around your family, travel for FREE, decorate your house, meet new women, or just need to get out of the house, AtHome America (AHA) is the right place to be.  AHA offers the flexibility and the income to do all of these things. Be the first in your area to begin an AHA business with a brand new product line that is sure to please everyone who attends one of your shows.


For starters, you can begin your business for only $49 (INCLUDES tax and shipping and handling) - this means you receive more than $425 worth of products and business supplies similar to those on the attached flyer [be sure to attach any pertinent information].  You KEEP the $49 HomeStudio by submitting $900 in home party sales within 35 days of your HomeStudio being shipped out; you can earn this easily by hosting your own Grand Opening and two other parties ($300 in sales or more each). Talk about parttime!


These three parties not only earn you the HomeStudio, but you'll also receive commission ($225), you'll be on your way to earning a Jeep Patriot (we'll talk!), and you will have earned MORE FREE HomeWares if you hosted your Grand Opening. Don't worry about learning the ropes, once you sign up, you'll have access to training videos and guides, and you can always call, text, or email me (123-456-7890 AHA.Home.Decor@gmail.com) - you may own your business, but you won't be in business alone.


I have been selling AHA since last November and I've enjoyed every minute of it. I can't wait to see what's in store for my team this year. The sky truly is the limit.


If you'd like to host a party, let's get you set up (I'm attaching our hostess and product specials' flyer) [don't forget to attach flyer!] with a date and invitatons your guests.  If you want to join AHA, choose a date to host your grand opening (two weeks from now is perfect) and five friends who will help you practice by hosting your first parties and keep you on track to all AHA has to offer. I'll send you the online application.  Together, we CAN do this!


Teraisa J. Rogers, Hawaii
123-456-7890
AHA.Home.Decor@gmail.com

Basic Marketing and Promotion Tip

This year, whatever you do, you MUST promote YOURSELF and your business.  Marketing 101 (and basic business sense) tells you that the biggest part of the sale is the marketing. You can build the best product ever, but if you do not promote it wisely, it's value goes way down.

Some of us are in business for ourselves out of basic necessity; others are working from home because that's where their life's passion lies.  Still, some of us are in it to win it (whatever "it" is!).  None of that matters if you sell nothing (and no, I am not talking only about products; many of us sell skills, integrity, loyalty, whatever).  Zero percent of zero is zero.

In this age of electronics, it's nearly impossible to NOT market, but people often overlook the most obvious and extremely affordable marketing strategies - use your signature!  If you have an email (or two or three or four), add a short blip about you/your business and simple contact information. Do this for your computer AND your smart phone.  Use a different signature for each account and change it up.  Most importantly, be direct and keep it simple.

Do you belong to Google groups?  Yahoo groups? Any online bulletin boards?  Check your account, they often allow a simple two or three line signature, as well.  Think about it - even if your odds of selling yourself/product are one time for every million signatures you share: it's one more you sold without much work.

When I'm emailing via True Crime Fanatic, my goal is to get people to read our website.  I can lead with an interesting case, but more often than not, the words "true crime" often trigger intrigue and I've been able to get away with this:

Teraisa Goldman

Editor: True Crime Fanatic

http://TrueCrimeFanatic.com

I do try to stay away from extremely high profile cases because they're the cases people literally go online to read, so I'll pick a quote from a book, a favorite author, or a tag from an online article.  When I'm using a short blurb, it may look like this:

--

"... Negroes on the plantation were to rise up and begin killing their masters with axes, hoes, and clubs while they were drinking and celebrating Independence Day."  Harry N. MacLean, The Past Is Never Dead

FYI: When emailing from your smart phone, include a single word at the beginning of your signature letting others know. Why? Because although we are professional, using a smart phone often causes a few unplanned typos. When your target market receives an email from you (we can all pretend we'll never do this, but I venture to say 90% of us will send at least one in the course of our business life), and we mean to say "Harry," but it comes out "hairy," we'll be grateful they can see we let our smart phone get the best of us, just as they have, and we'll quickly be forgiven.  Example of how it could turn out:

iPhone

"... Negroes on the plantation were to rise up and begin killing their matters with axes, hose, and clubs while they were drinking and celebrating Independence Day."  Hairy Macintosh, The Past Is Never Dead

I leave you with this reminder: market and promote, but promote wisely.