Primary marketHow To Reduce E-Mail Burdens
Dear Mr. Internet:As the number of my online leads continues to increase, so does the time it takes to respond to all that e-mail. Is there some way to keep my responses personal yet cut down on the time it takes?
Sam Miller
RE/MAX Stars Realty
Mount Vernon, Ohio
Dear Sam:
For those professionals like yourself who are successfully growing their online business, handling e-mail leads effectively and efficiently can be a major issue. Fortunately however, there is a way to send the perfect response for most e-mail situations with a simple click of the mouse!
(NOTE: the following discussion assumes you are using Outlook 2000 or similar professional e-mail software that allows you to use multiple e-mail signatures.)
The Magic Of E-Mail "Templates"
When you think about the types of e-mail you receive, chances are most of it will fit into one of several categories of inquiries. Now imagine the time you would save if you had a specific e-mail response or "template" prepared and ready to be used for each type of inquiry.
For example, when a visitor to your Web site sends an initial message requesting more information about a particular property, you could use a special "first response" template as a reply. (NOTE: an example of this was shown in the June 2000 issue of "Ask Mr. Internet!").
Here are examples of some e-mail templates you may be able to use in your own business:
•
First
Response E-mail
•
Agency
Disclosures
•
Property
Descriptions
•
"Package
is on the way" Notice
•
Response
With MLS Info
•
Rental
Info Request Response
•
Area
Relocation Info
•
Agent
Recruitment
•
Information
Packs
•
Testimonial
Request
•
Follow
Up
•
Agent
Bio
•
Newsletter
Delivery
•
Referral
Requests
•
Anniversary
of Purchase
•
Referral
To Other Agent
•
Online
Form Response
•
Holiday
Greetings
The secret to creating powerful and effective e-mail templates begins with the "end" in mind...
Creating Your "Killer" E-Mail Templates
Choose a situation (perhaps from the list above) that represents a category of e-mail inquiries you
receive on a regular basis —the more specific the better. Now using a word processor (like
Word®) write an appropriate general response where you would only have to change a couple of
details like the recipient"s name, etc. For any variable information that needs to be changed
depending upon circumstances you might consider using square brackets (i.e. [NAME],
[PROPERTY ADDRESS], and so on) so you can readily identify what needs to be personalized
when you first bring up the template.
To format your message to be easily readable by most e-mail users, set your font to Courier or
Courier New (which are mono-spaced fonts) at 10pt size and margins so that you have 5.5" line
length. These settings will ensure that your e-mail message line length will not exceed 65
characters, thus avoiding the problem of recipients receiving your message with unintended line
breaks.
Once you"ve completed the template message, have someone else review and edit it for spelling,
grammar, punctuation, and style issues. Then be sure to include your full e-mail contact and
signature information at the bottom. Now you are ready to save your masterpiece —in a
way that will make it magically appear with the simple click of your mouse!
How To Make Your E-Mail Templates Appear Instantly
There are several important things to keep in mind as you save your newly created template to your hard disk:
Name It Descriptively - so you instantly know its purpose;
Save As A Text File - that"s with a .txt file extension and with "line breaks" so the message will always look the way it should to recipients;
Save It To Your Signatures Folder - which is the special folder where all your e-mail signature files are stored. (If you don"t know where this is, check your e-mail software help files.)
Using this method you are essentially saving your templates as e-mail "signatures", which means
they are instantly accessible with the click of a button on the message window (at least for
Outlook 2000 - see figure below).
Once you have crafted, edited, and proofed an e-mail template and saved it as a signature, it
becomes a consistent and powerful tool for the situation it was intended. Ideally, you would then
create a template for every conceivable e-mail message category. In fact, some Net-savvy
professionals like Chris Newell of RE/MAX Blue Springs in Milton, ON (www.new-all.com) use over
30 e-mail templates (as signatures) to help them respond quickly, consistently, and with powerful
results.
Receiving a lot of leads online doesn"t mean you have to be "buried" by the process of responding
to them —not if you set up systems like templates to do most of the work for you!
Article Resources:
Outlook 2000 - where you can you can learn more about Microsoft Outlook 2000, arguably one of the most powerful e-mail clients available. NOTE: you are likely to find the best price for Outlook 2000 from an online discount retailer rather than buying it directly from Microsoft.
Having broken links on your site is, at best, a professional embarrassment and could mean potential
lost business. However, the process of finding them yourself (before your visitors do) can be very tedious, especially if you have a large site.
The fastest, easiest, most comprehensive tool I"ve found to handle this task is call Xenu Link Sleuth™ and can be found at http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html.
Amazingly, this powerful utility is free and downloads / installs in just minutes. It will even work on database driven sites (i.e. template sites) --which was confirmed when I ran it on my main (ColdFusion driven) www.russer.com site and found more bad links than I care to admit.
Now you have no excuse to check your site"s link integrity. JFDI (Just Focus and Do It!)