One of the worst things you can do when you’re trying to network with potential customers or clients is spam them.
So, it never ceases to amaze me when companies attempt to coerce me into becoming a loyal and faithful customer by sending the equivalent of e-mail spam through my contact form.
Most times it will end up in the “filing cabinet” without being read, but this one was particularly egregious in its execution.
COMPANY NAME, INC.
##### North West ##th Avenue
Miami, FL #####
Phone (###) ###-####
Fax (###) ###-####
e-mail xxxxx@xxxxxxxx.comSpecial Pricing Program
The Company Name is offering a special pricing program for Catalogs, Publication, Newsletters & Brochures. This program is set forth to help our customers save $$$ on their advertising/marketing budget. In today’s economic climate, most companies are looking for ways to reduce cost and increase profits. We hope these special prices will help you achieve these goals.
==================
Block of pricing
==================The specification for these prices is as follows:
• 8 ½ x 11 Trim Page Size
• 80# Coated Text
• Self-Cover
• Prints Four Color Process Two Sides (bleeds)
• Customer Supplied Disk File
• Blue Line & Digital Color Proofs
• Fold, Saddle Stitch, Trim To Size & Bulk Pack In Cartons
• FOB Company Name Floor
Well, what do you think? If you don’t see what you are looking for, just give me a call, fax or e-mail and I will make it happen. Well what are you waiting for? Pick one and let’s go to work.FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION OR PRICING, CALL XXXXX XXXXXXXXX
I would never call, use, or recommend a company I believe to have spammed my contact form. (Yes, manually submitted spam is still spam.)
After cross referencing their time and IP address with my web stats, I discovered this person visited my site because it is listed in the Florida Web Design Directory.
No doubt, there are a number of other Floridian web design companies receiving the exact same message.
Quite frankly, I’m tired of receiving manually submitted spam via my contact form, so I’ve decided it would probably be a lot more helpful to provide you with some tips for networking with potential customers.
- Assume you’re contacting a (busy) human being. You are asking her to take time out of her busy schedule to review your offer, the least you can do is take the time to make sure she’d be interested. Read her website, you may find she doesn’t like commercial solicitations via her contact form or she may have specific instructions.
- Show her that you know her. Since you took the time to click around their website and got to know the webmaster a little better, address her by name. It doesn’t hurt to throw in a sincere compliment or two.
- Generic form letters are a no-no. You may end up looking unprofessional. The moment the webmaster realizes that you’ve made no effort to review her website, it gets deleted before it’s read.
- If you must copy/paste a generic form letter, disguise it. Write a custom introductory paragraph introducing yourself to the webmaster and letting her know you actually took the time to look through her site. Be specific and cite certain areas of the site that may be pertinent to your offer.
By just shooting a blind message off into cyber space, you’re burning your bridges before they’re even built.
Think of this first contact as your one and only chance at a first impression. You should probably make it a good one.
