This morning as I flicked through my inbox I had two emails trying to sell me something that stood out for the wrong reasons.
The first was someone trying to sell me their WordPress services. They insulted my website without even looking at the brand in a misplaced attempt to sell their own ‘modern, fresh’ approach. They also included links to 3 sites as examples of their work. The first one had a broken portfolio page (I didn’t look any further), the second was nice and the third had outdated logos for social networks.
The second company were responding to my downloading a whitepaper. They mentioned they had looked at my website, that they could help my sales team and felt they were a good fit for my business. They also included a pointless image in PDF format (which I actually clicked accidentally).
If you are sending out unsolicited approaches either based on websites you have found or people who have downloaded lead generating material then get it right.
1. DO YOUR RESEARCH! There is nothing more irritating than an unsolicited approach that is total irrelevant.
2. PROOF READ YOUR EMAIL. Check the detail – the attachments, the spelling and the links
3. BE POLITE. Manners cost nothing and being rude or criticising someone straight away in an approach is not going to do you any favours.
Unsolicited approaches can be successful but you need to be offering something that is genuinely of use, solving a problem and appealing to the buyer by showing yourself in the best possible light. Otherwise they will reach for the DELETE button or worse the JUNK button quicker than you can say pretty please!
VM.