IT Security has a great (and very long) article about e-mail: Hacking Email: 99 Security and Productivity Tips.

You can read the entire article at their website, but I am posting a few key tips here:

Etiquette

We’re all guilty of bad manners once in a while, but when it comes to emailing, some people are downright clueless.

1. Don’t send private messages with the company account. If you want to send personal messages from work (and you should probably try to minimize this), use a freebie account like Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo!, or Excite, if your office permits it. The content of your emails is less visible to employers through these accounts, so the private messages you send will stay private.

2. Don’t forward chain letters. Just don’t do it. Enough said. That includes the email that says that if you don’t forward it to 10 people you’ll die. I don’t care how superstitious you are, don’t send them.

3. Be professional. Ensure your work emails don’t contain ‘u’, ‘afk’, ‘ty’, ‘jk’ and/or several million other texting/chatroom acronyms. These developed because cell phones’ keypads aren’t well-suited to writing fully-formed words, sentences and paragraphs. In business communications, however, they may give the impression of childishness and illiteracy.

4. Be professional, part 2: Check tone. Be aware of the professional (or not) relationship between yourself and the recipient before starting an email. Use that to gauge what topics are appropriate to write or not, as well as the tone of your writing. This may be common sense to most, but you’d be surprised at how often the rule is ignored.

5. Be careful. Email is not private; it can be intercepted anywhere en route to its recipient. In addition, it can live on for years in recipient email boxes, later to return to its sender in choice quotations. Think before sending email you will later regret.

6. Don’t use email when you are angry. This is a tip from Joan Tunsall’s Better, Faster Email (non-affiliate Amazon link). While most of the time email does not convey your emotions, particularly humor, it somehow seems to transmit anger - even when you don’t intend it to come through.

Communicating & Effectiveness

Now that we’ve covered the basics of emailing with manners, it’s important to make sure your intended message is actually getting across:

7. Use meaningful subject lines. Write something “meaningful” in the subject line, to give recipients a clue as to what your email is about. This is increasingly necessary to distinguish legit emails from spam. The latter’s subject lines are are often deceptive.

8. Be brief. Do not send excessively long emails if at all possible. Try to summarize your information so that your recipients are more likely to read the email and actually respond. When possible, break long emails into numbered point form so that recipients can respond by reference number.

9.Summarize. Precede a long email with a short summary.

10. Remember the telephone. Unless you need a written record of a given communication (or if the person you’re communicating with is long distance), consider calling (or sending a letter to) your intended recipient instead of an email. People often default to writing an email because it is quick and easy; but sometimes a handwritten letter or phone call can provide the personal touch your communication really needs.

11. Proofread. There is a difference between typos and poor writing. Poor writing improves with practice. Typos stay typos unless you take the time to eliminate them. If you are applying for a job or freelance gig, it’s especially important to prufreed before you send that email. And as if you needed another reason to be concise, remember that the chance of typos is directly proportional to the length of your email.

I recommend reading the full article since it also includes a lot more tips to keep your e-mails professional, your worktime productive, and most importantly your computer safe from viruses, hackers, and con artists.

Hugs and success, Wendy Maynard

Your friendly marketing maven

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Recently, I came across an organization that I want to share with you since it’s a way to touch another woman through business. I feel very inspired by this organization and the amazing work they do. The reason I think it is so powerful is that it doesn’t just give money to women in war-torn regions of our world (although that is part of what they do). They also give women the skills to build a different life for themselves.

Owning my own business has helped to grow my self esteem and taught me so many important lessons. And this international organization helps other women who have their lives devastated to heal and start their own business.

Women for Women International pairs up a woman sponsor with a woman from a war-torn region. The sponsor pays a little each month and writes her “sister” letters to help her rebuild their lives first by providing for her basic needs and to get emotionally and physically healthy. Then the organization provides a wide variety of job skills training and specific education to help the woman start her own business.

I just signed up last month and have not received my sister assignment yet, but I am looking forward to finding out who I will be sponsoring - I’ll get her name and address so that we can correspond.

There are a number of different way to contribute if you are interested. You can go to the home page of the website and learn more: www.womenforwomen.org I do hope you will take the time to look at their website and see if this organization’s work speaks to your heart.

To sponsor a woman on a monthly basis: http://www.womenforwomen.org/scintro.htm

If you would like to make a one time donation, there is a matching fund through December 31:https://secure.entango.com/donate/kFgy9aTiESF

Please forward this to any other women in business who you think might be interested. Also, for the women who are bloggers and read this, please help spread the word about this organization.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hugs and success,

Wendy Maynard Your friendly marketing maven

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Let’s just start off by saying that you MUST have a website. No ifs, ands, or buts. Your prospects will not perceive you as an expert and a professional without a website. Plus, you are missing out on so many potential sales and marketing opportunities if you don’t have a website.

A website is a marketing tool that will do the following:

• Increase your visibility and credibility.

• Provide instant information and answers to your prospects’ questions.

• Show your prospects that “I know how you feel.”

• Allow your prospects and customers the ability to see the full spectrum of your services/products.

• Give your site visitors a taste of your personality - you are already building a relationship with them before you ever talk to them!

• Tie together all of your other marketing efforts.

• Offer a storefront to sell your info products including reports, books, tele-classes, e-courses, and digital videos.

• Expand your geographic reach to a much broader audience.

• Provide a place for referrers to send their friends and associates.

• Decrease the length of your sales cycle because by the time your prospects call you, they have had an opportunity to learn about your business online.

Ask yourself a question, “If your website were a salesperson, would you fire him or her?” If the answer is “yes,” well…we have some work to do!

A website is one of the most powerful marketing tools that you can implement. You can update it immediately; it is unique to your business; it can be seen by thousands of people who are searching for EXACTLY what you have to offer; and it works as your sales force 24/7. And, it can be expanded and changed over time.

People don’t read websites like they read a newspaper or book. Instead they scan until they find a link that looks interesting and then they click on it. Therefore it is crucial that you make your website pages compelling and make it obvious what a person is supposed to do next. For example, “Purchase now” or “Read more.”

On your homepage, start with a compelling headline that speaks directly to your target audience. Next, create a series of “pull” marketing questions or statements for your home page. These are problem-oriented - your prospects should be able to read these and answer, “Yes!”

Then, tell your site visitors that they have a way out. Explain exactly what your prospects can do to solve these problems you’ve just laid out. Always provide a call to action. Be sure to explain EXACTLY what you want your visitors to do. For instance, you may want to get them to subscribe to your ezine, go to a specific page, or to register for a seminar.

In your website, be sure to include pages in your website that give a comprehensive explanation of your services, products, or programs. Be sure to give visitors information about you and your staff, your clients, the way you work, and include testimonials from satisfied customers.

I also recommend that you provide a way to capture the names of your prospects. Professional Cart Services can do this for you. Otherwise, they can move on and you may never hear from them again. So, offer a free report and/or an ezine in exchange for your visitors’ contact information.

ACTION ITEM: Do you have a website currently? If you don’t yet have a website, what can you do to build an online presence? What pages will you include?

If you already have a website, is it working for you? What can you do to your current website to improve its selling power? What areas can you add to your website (or plan for a new site) to enhance its stickiness - how can you keep people coming back? Get started now as it can often take weeks or months to overhaul a website to make it a super selling machine.

Hugs and success, Wendy Maynard
Your friendly marketing maven

Learn more about my super strategy guide: Maven Marketing System

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My mother just reminded me that I promised to post a Halloween picture. So, as promised here I am as the Elf Queen with my fiancee, Nathan, as a Wizard Dude.

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