What,Does,Your,eMail,REALLY,Sa marketing What Does Your eMail REALLY Say?

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What Does Your eMail Really Say?eMail Holiday Cards May Send the Wrong MessageBy BIG Mike McDanielThinking about saving time and postage this holiday season by sending your greetings by eMail? Don’t.Using eMail will get the greeting delivered all right, but it might not be the message you want to convey. eMail is great for rapid communication. eMail is terrific for business. eMail it is great for old friends to keep in touch. But eMail is a real flop when it comes to expressing genuine emotion or caring.The sentiment expressed when you snail-mail a card, picked by you, addressed by you and signed by you cannot be duplicated on a color monitor. Some people like to use the free electronic greeting cards that send an eMail message that points the recipient to a web page that has an antimated greeting card, some artificial music, and an ad for a product! What feeling does that convey? Think back to holidays past and the joy of opening cards and reading the handwritten messages. Now consider how you felt when the card was factory imprinted with the name or business of the sender, or worse, how you felt when your name was stickered on the front by a computer label. I help people and businesses better understand and use eMail. With over 50 Billion eMail messages traveling around the globe every day, there is not a lot of room for the flat emotion of an eMail holiday greeting. First, more than half of the people who use eMail still see only plain vanilla text. Newer and fancier eMail programs allow the reader to see fancy pages with color and photos, called HTML. But if you send an HTML encoded eMail message to a friend with plan vanilla text eMail, your message will be lost in lists of code and funny characters. I tell my audiences to stay away from eMail greetings at holiday time.Many people put their snail-mail (US Post Office) address in the “signature” at the end of their eMail messages. Most eMail programs will do that automatically on every message, if you ask. Start now, collecting post office addresses so you can mail a sentiment to your friends. You can keep your holiday list in the computer, nothing wrong with that, but leave the labels in the drawer and print the list only as a guide for hand addressing those envelopes. Get the family involved. Everyone can address, even the kids. If you feel comfortable with your computer, check into printing your own greeting cards. There are a number of programs available at office and computer supply stores that will design and print cards for you, for any occasion. They come with blank cards and envelopes. Make sure the program you select has refills and additional card blanks available. Exercise restraint when making your own cards… it is so easy to let the computer print your name on the inside like those factory imprints that most of us find so distasteful. I recommend you make, or purchase, several styles of cards. Cards with a Jolly Santa, A Holiday Tree, A Serene Setting and a Religious Theme, or more. Send different sentiments to different friends, business associates and relatives. You may want to send a “Happy Holidays” card to those who might be offended at “Merry Christmas”.Whether you print or purchase your variety of greeting cards, choose ones that use the same size envelope. By doing this, you can have an address party instead of watching TV and get all the envelopes done at one time. Then have another party (a week later) to select and sign the cards. Take the time to add a personal note on every card, it will convey emotion and friendship so much more than just your signature. Hold back on the desire to insert one of those “what we did this year” newsletters. Those tend to say the recipient is not important enough to have heard from the you at the time of the breaking news. If there is big news in your family in June, print your card list and hand address some notes, don’t wait until December.Most holiday cards will still mail for 37 cents even with a picture enclosed. Sort though the many pictures taken this year and choose one or more to insert with your cards. Order your reprints now, so you have plenty of time. If you took pictures with your computer camera, you can get special glossy paper to print pictures that look like drug store originals. Don't make them too big. There is nothing tacky about using your computer to add a caption to the picture before you print it. Computer or drug store, be sure all photos have names and dates of those pictured. Oh, if Grandma had only done that, those old pictures in the drawer would have some much more meaning now.The Post Office always wants you to mail early, but for best emotional results hold off until after the first of December. In 1860, the goal of the Pony Express was to get mail from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California in ten days. Not much has changed. Mail before December 10 or your snail-mail may not make it in time. Convey your message of friendship, love and business communication in a very personal way this holiday by not using eMail for seasons greetings. Copyright 2003 BIG Mike McDaniel - All Rights ReservedBIG Mike McDaniel is an Author, Professional Speaker and Business Consultant with Advertising, Promotion and Publicity ideas that really work. Sign up for his free BIG Ideas Newsletter at http://BIGMikeOnline.com Reach BIG Mike by eMail at [email protected]