You might be wondering what in the world a tennis player has in common with a marketer.  I can think of several similarities:

1. Good work ethic – Prior to Tuesday’s match you might not have even heard of either of these players (Isner is ranked 18^th and Mahut 148^th in the world).  However, just like your marketing efforts these guys aren’t overnight sensations.  Isner has been playing since age 9, Mahut since age 5.  Just like you can’t play tennis one time and expect to compete at Wimbledon, you can’t send out one marketing piece and expect immediate success.  You’ve got to keep working at it.
2. Determination – I can only imagine what each of those players was thinking as the match wore on.  Obviously, giving up was not an option.
3. Confidence - Each player had the confidence that he would ultimately succeed.  When fatigue set it they allowed themselves to rely on their instincts.   A marketer has to have the same confidence that his efforts will result in great results.
4. Keeping an eye on the prize – Although Isner won the battle, he lost the war as unfortunately he lost his next Wimbledon match.  There’s no doubt that both of these players will be playing many more matches over the course of their careers.  And they’ll concentrate on what they did accomplish and not on what they didn’t.

Wonder if either of those players is looking for a job?

About that time my significant other wandered in wondering what I was up to and why I was “urgently” requesting a cash advance.  His main concern was that this transaction might cause us to miss the opening pitch.  My main concern was that one of my clients or friends might receive the e-mail and actually fall for this scam.

Yikes!  I’ve written a couple of books and produced training videos on Outlook which included information on e-mail security.  My network is harder to access than Fort Knox.  How could this have happened?

Once the initial panic subsided I thought about the problem with a bit more clarity.   I only use the Yahoo account for “shopping” purposes and took comfort in the fact that all the companies that typically spam me to buy more products, etc, will receive a bit of spam of their own.  However, I needed to remedy the situation and, more importantly, prevent it from happening again.

My first step was to change my Yahoo password.  I then brainstormed for possible ways that this hacking might have occurred.  The list I came up with was rather short:

1. My computer has virus. This seemed unlikely because only my Yahoo account was affected and none of the numerous business accounts that I have in Outlook.
2. Someone stole my Yahoo password. Again, this seemed rather unlikely as I don’t post my password on the Internet or write it on a sticky note hanging from my monitor.
3. I checked my email from an infected PC.  A possibility, but because I rarely send or receive e-mail from my Yahoo account I have no reason to check this account from anywhere else than home.
4. I was drunk or on some other mind-altering substance and actually sent the e-mail.  A possibility except for the fact that I’ve never been very good at creating April Fool’s pranks or other hoaxes.  And I haven’t suffered from a hangover – or even a bad headache – lately.
5. Yahoo got hacked.

OK, I hate to point fingers but Yahoo seemed the most likely culprit.  So on Sunday I began to scour the Internet looking for other folks who had experienced the same thing.  I’ll have to admit that this was a bit time consuming as I had to keep reassuring various acquaintances that yes, I was all right and no, I didn’t need their financial assistance at this time.  My Internet search turned up lots of people who had experienced the very same problem that I had.  Ironically, in addition to Yahoo users, many folks using Gmail and Hotmail accounts had experienced the same problem I had.

Since I now felt comfortable in the knowledge that Yahoo had been hacked, I scoured the Yahoo help site for references to the problem and found – nothing.  Except of course for a few articles telling me how to change my password.  Hmm.  So Yahoo users routinely had their accounts hacked, but Yahoo wasn’t taking action?   Say it ain’t so, Joe!

I now set about trying to contact someone at Yahoo.  Surely they would be concerned enough to take action.  Surely they would want to prevent this from happening to other Yahoo users.  I found several messages advising me to change my password but no specific reference to any responsibility on the part of Yahoo.  It seemed to me that if someone was hacking into Yahoo and grabbing passwords Yahoo would want to know about it and, more importantly, put a stop to it.  After hours of trying I finally reached a heavily-accented person who, after several minutes of hold time, came back on the line and offered to walk me through the process of changing my password.

I now know what it feels like to come home and find that your house has been robbed.  My personal property was pillaged by some faceless low life and I feel violated.  The bad guys have won.  My main reason for posting this article is to get an idea of the number of other folks who have had their accounts hacked.  If it’s happened to you, let me know!

I spend a great deal of time working with my clients on creating e-marketing campaigns with the use of an ESP (e-mail service provider) However, much of the day to day e-mail that so many of us send can also be problematic.

For many of us, the Rules of Netiquette are just plain common sense. The tremendous increase in the amount of e-mail being sent through cyberspace has necessitated some basic rules of behavior or Netiquette.   Here’s my list of the unofficial rules:

1. Avoid large attachments.  E-mail was not intended as a way to send really large attachments like program files or documents the size of War and Peace.  Most e-mail clients will block their transmittal.  If you are able to actually send the file, chances are that the recipient’s e-mail client will block them anyway.  Worse yet, the large file might use up the recipient’s storage space and prevent them from receiving and additional mail.
2. Use the BCC (blind carbon copy) or a Distribution List when sending a message to multiple recipients.  By using the BCC you’ll protect the e-mail addresses of your recipients.  You’ll also eliminate the necessity of having to scroll through lines and lines of names to get to the body of your message.
3. Leave the jokes to the comedians. Maybe I don’t have a great sense of humor but I get annoyed when friends, acquaintances and enemies send me e-mail Jokes.  I view them as just one more thing that I have to open and then clean out of my Inbox.  Besides, I really don’t have the time to scroll all the way down to the bottom of a long message to find the punch line.
4. Don’t send chain letters. Come on folks, didn’t that behavior disappear in high school?  Do you really think that saddling twenty of your closest friends with one more piece of e-mail is going to bring you good luck, or that Microsoft is quietly sending out billions of dollars to folks like you to “test” e-mail?
5. Don’t send emails containing links unless you are 100 percent sure of their origin. That link to the cute kitty picture might just set lose a virus on someone’s computer.
6. Refrain from hitting Reply to All. Realize that the simple gesture can set of an ocean of e-mail.  Do all 100 recipients of an e-mail really need to know that you’re happy that you received it?

In the example of the Home Land Security fiasco, a seamlessly innocent violation of just two of these rules created major havoc.

Be sure to let me know if you have a few other rules to add.  I’ll send them to my friends they next time they send me a chain letter!

Karen Fredricks
blog@techbenders.com
www.techbenders.com

Once your e-mail address –or worse yet – your company’s domain – becomes black listed it can take you months or years to get the problem rectified.  And, even if you don’t get blacklisted, most spam filters will eat your message for lunch if you don’t follow a few e-mail best practices.

Here’s my short list of suggestions:

1. Scrub your database.  Make sure that you aren’t emailing to e-mail addresses that have bounced in the past or are just plain invalid.  Avoid sending your message to duplicate addresses or generic addresses that start with “info” or “webmaster”.
2. Make sure you’re spam compliant by following the Can-Spam law.  Basically you need to make sure you have procedures in place for users to easily opt-out of future mailings, and include a valid mailing address in your message.
3. Use an ESP (email service provider) that uses a valid form of e-mail authentication.  That basically means that your e-mail blast comes from an authorized source.  These folks spend lots of time – and money – making sure that their emails get through to the folks using the Big Three for their e-mail (Yahoo, AOL and Google).
4. Time the frequency of your mailings; sending out a monthly newsletter is much more appealing than sending out a daily special pricing offer.  Target your mailings so that you are not sending your message to folks who have absolutely no interest in your products.
5. Make sure you know the difference between plain text and HTML e-mails.  If you want to include graphics in your e-mail blast you’ll need an HTML editor or risk having your message show up as a jumbled mess.
6. Avoid common spam triggers like exclamation points, red lettering and words like “sale.”

If you’re new to the world of e-marketing you’ll want to consult with an expert for a while.   They’ll be able to help you master the process and avoid some serious blunders.

As an author I’ve been critiqued by some of the best editors in the world and I know the process.  It’s not unusual for the early drafts of my books to return to me in the form of road kill.  As the daily recipient of dozens of pieces of spam I know which messages will make their way through – and which messages will take a permanent place in the Spam Folder.

My rule of thumb for writing a marketing piece is to pretend that I am writing to one of my buddies with a bit of friendly advice.  You might want to think about the following parts of your message before sending out your next blast:

1.       Subject line: This is absolutely the most important part of your message because it will determine whether or not your e-mail is opened.  Take a look at your own Inbox and determine which message you opened and which you immediately marked as Spam.

2. Length: Do you have time to read a two page message from a stranger, or someone you barely know?  After you write your piece go back and remove any unnecessary verbiage. Keep you sentences brief and to the point.

3. Tone: Keep it simple and friendly.  Period.  Don’t lecture.  Don’t sell and/or come across like a carnival vendor. 

4. Formatting: If your message is clear you don’t need to resort to bold, underlined and red formatting, and avoid using ALL CAPS.  This type of formatting will make readers think you are shouting at them and will cause spam filters to gobble up your messages and spit out the pieces.

5. Bullet points: Yes, pithy little statements neatly arranged with bullets can be effective – but only if they are done extremely well.  In my client’s case his bullets had no symmetry; some started with sentences, others with verbs, some focused on his product and others on the customer. 

6. Blatant sales pitches: Granted, some of your product pricing might include a manufacturer’s discount or rebate that you’ll want to share with your recipients.  My client, however, offered a “3 day only” offer for his services knowing full well that he’d offer the same “deal” at any time.

7. Closing: This one should be simple.  Do you normally sign your emails with your own name or just that of your company? 

Put yourself in the shoes of your recipient, keep your message simple and you’ll find that writing great marketing pieces is easier than you think!

 Alyssa was raised with a computer.  She used to come with me to my computer school and help teach the children’s classes.  We were the first house on the block to have Internet access and Alyssa took advantage of my expertise when it came to mastering Word, Excel and Power Point. 

 My two daughters are only four years apart in age, yet I saw a tremendous difference between their generations.  When Andrea departed for college at the start of the millennium it took a mini-van filled to overflowing to carry her “necessities.”  Her possessions included a stereo, television, desktop computer, digital camera, photo albums and a huge box of cables including one for the dorm’s Ethernet connection.  Alyssa arrived on campus four years later carrying only an IPod, I-phone, Mac book and a couple of power cords; although she traveled much lighter her amenities were comparable to those of her sister.

Alyssa is a card-carrying member of the 70 million strong “Generation Y.”  Although they travel light they have access to a never-ending source of media which they expect to access immediately, anytime, anywhere.

ACT 2010 now includes links to various social networking sites including Facebook and LinkedIn.  I was surprised to learn that many of my clients weren’t as excited about this new development as I was.  “Don’t use Linked In,” huffed one person.  “Facebook is for kids,” snapped another.  These folks obviously assume that the people they encounter in the business world think the same way they do.  Unfortunately, they don’t.

I’ve identified ten areas of communication that have changed over the course of the last ten years, at least if you’re a member of Generation Y.  And, like it or not, if they want your business to survive you’ll have to adjust to those changes. 

1. Land lines:  For Generation Y, land lines are a thing of the past.  If they do talk on the phone they do it via a cell phone which has become a permanent appendage. More than 23% of homes currently lack land lines – and the number is going up all the time.
2. Newspaper Classifieds:  I’m a firm believer that radio killed the video star then Craig’s List surely killed the newspapers and put most forms of print media in jeopardy of extinction.  Morning papers and TV news have been replaced by online media sources.   
3. Dial Up Connections:  Your first Internet connection was probably a dial-up.  Today’s generation wants instant gratification and finds it at home, on their phone and even at the local McDonalds.  And your site had better have the bandwidth and design to enable quick page viewing!
4. Books:  I’m an author so this one really pains me.  Books are expense to produce – and purchase.  They take space to store.  Gen Y does their research over the Internet and downloads their reading material to their Kindle. Students can even download textbooks at sites like Coursesmart.com.
5. CD’s:  Whoosh.  Now you see them, now you don’t.  Faster than you can say “download” the CD has been replaced by YouTube, ITunes and a variety of other sites that allow media downloads.
6. Film cameras and prints:  Even if you could buy one, you’d have a hard time finding a place to process your film.  Gen Y has thousands of pictures residing on their cell phones, computers and Face Book pages.  And can access millions more on the Internet. A single image is no longer enough to speak a thousand words.
7. Yellow pages:  Ironically, the only people using the Yellow Pages these days are aging Baby Boomers who probably lack the eyesight to read them anyway.
8. Fax machines:  If they don’t have land lines, why in the world would a Generation Y’er have a fax line? 
9. E-mail:  If you think you’re reaching your target audience via e-mail alone, think again.  Generation Y is so mobile that even e-mail can’t keep pace with them.  they’re using Face Book and Twitter to communicate. 
10. Cell Phones:  Buh-bye cell, hello smart – at least when it comes to phones.  Gen Y doesn’t have to sit at a desk or be tied to a computer to access information; they carry a wealth of information in the palm of their hands.

Of course, you don’t have to reach out to Generation Y.  You could market only to people who think – and communicate – the way you do.  Unfortunately, that idea makes the somewhat flawed assumption that those people will still be around at the end of the next decade!