Newsletter ArchiveSUBJECTs:Promote Thru E-mail - Virus The Internet 800 Directory - http://www.inter800.com The Internet 800 Directory Newsletter This issue is for Friday, September 7, 2001 Table of Contents 01. Intro 02. Promote Thru E-mail 03. Virus *01 Intro Welcome to The Internet 800 Directory Newsletter. Over the past week we moved our servers to a new location. Because some ISPs cached our IP address instead of refreshing it as requested in our DNS record, the site was unreachable for some of our users. We contacted the problem ISPs and got them to fix the problem. If you are currently having any problems getting to our site please e-mail me with your ISP’s name and I will get it corrected. *02 Promote Thru E-mail This week I want to pass along some tips on creating promotional e-mails. Many companies are blurring the lines between newsletters and promotional emails. Newsletters should add value to your company by building a stronger rapport with your customers. You can create long-lasting relationships with your customers by becoming a trusted source of useful information. This could be the difference between your customers viewing you as just another merchant who only cares if they close the deal, or one who values their business. On the other hand, promotional emails can do the crucial work of building traffic and encouraging sales. E-mail leaflets are precisely what some customers want from you. They may only want to be informed about great deals and new products. These two approaches should always be viewed as separate with different mail lists kept for both. For a good promotional mail model try these rules: 1-Keep it short Make your email message short and to the point. Limit the paragraph length to 3-5 lines and the entire message to around 15-20 lines for easy readability and to keep the readers' attention. 2-Use enticements Create incentives that will motivate people to buy now. Some suggestions are discounts, free shipping, limit time offers and samples. Keep your enticement believable. 3-Use personal words Say things like, “This is your lucky day” and “Shipped directly to you”. Make the message speak to them by using the words "you" and "your". 4-Include a call to action “To get your discount CALL NOW!” “Visit our web site at www.yourname.com for your free sample” Make sure you close the sale, ask them to visit your web site or call. 5-Grab their attention in the subject line “Order online this week and get free shipping” “Today only, Get 20% all orders over $50” Use a call to action, combined with your incentive. 6-Include your contact information Put your contact information in the top, with the call to action and at the bottom. Clearly display your web address AND toll free number. 7-Don’t use all caps IF YOU SEND IT OUT IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IT WILL NOT BE AS EFFECTIVE. Please note: I’m assuming this promotional e-mail is not "spamming". These tips are recommended only when the people receiving the e-mail have either requested or given permission to the mailer. I would not recommend these tips for unsolicited mailings. If you have any thoughts on this subject or any ideas that could be helpful to the others in this group send them to me (Chuck Arning) at chuck@inter800.com *03 Virus For those still receiving or suffering from the SirCam virus, I have some more potentially bad news. Ready? Currently, there is another worm making its way thru Europe. Actually, there are two. Magistr.A, and it's sequel, Magistr.B. While Magistr.A has been running rampant through Europe since March, for some reason, it has not made much splash here in the US. Truthfully, noone seems to know why. Magistr.A, a self-propagating worm, infects Windows files and sends itself to all addresses in the Outlook/Outlook Express e-mail folders, the "sent items" file from Netscape and the Windows address book. Although it picks random copy from infected users' hard drives, Symantec cautions that the virus could send confidential Microsoft Word documents to others on the user's e-mail list. The Magistr.B virus arrives as an e-mail message and is contained in an executable file titled "readme.exe." Although it does not appear to have spread as widely as its predecessor, virus watchers say it could cause more damage to those who are infected. It generates random subject lines and body texts, and attaches itself as a random file with a .bat, .bif, .exe, .pif or.com extension. The new variant can pull addresses from the files of several e-mail programs, including Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape Messenger and some Web-based e-mail programs. Like the original worm, Magistr.B overwrites hard drives and erases system information stored by the BIOS (basic input/output system) chip, rendering the computer unusable. Last, I'd like to cover the opposite issue, virus hoaxes. Anybody who has an email address has probably received these little beauties. They often come in the form of a dire warning about an impending virus and what to do about it. The virus is always the most catastrophic ever created and will surely be the end of us all if proper steps are not taken. Further, as a recipient of the warning, you have a moral responsibility to forward it to everyone in your address book, lest they get caught unawares. The most famous of these is the "Good Times" virus of 1994. And that is the first sign that you are viewing a hoax. A legitimate virus warning would not implore you to send the email to everyone you know. Also, the sending team, usually using PGP, digitally signs legitimate warnings regarding viruses issued by computer security response teams. If you receive this type of email, please do NOT pass it along. Simply delete it. If you receive an email of this nature instructing you to delete files from your hard drive, please ignore it! The problems incurred from passing on warnings seem minimal, which is why they are so often sent. I'm sure many have passed these emails along, even though they doubted their authenticity. Faced with the prospect of being infected, it seems safer to pass the message along, "just in case" it's real. When you look at this as a single situation, the effort wasted appears trivial. When you multiply it by the thousands that receive these, the lost time is quite substantial. Also, users often report "infections" from these alleged viruses as soon as their computer behaves erratically, wasting countless hours diagnosing and curing a problem that doesn't exist. The second problem hoaxes cause is complacency. If you've been embarrassed once for naively following the instructions in a hoax email, you will probably be less likely to accept a valid virus warning as being true. Thus, a valid warning is met with disbelief and apathy. Finally, spammers harvest email addresses from chain letters such as this. When you forward a warning to everyone you know, you may be inadvertently putting them (and yourself) on multiple mailing lists. In fact, some chain letters are started by spammers with the sole intention of gathering email addresses. I hope this has been helpful. Please help others by forwarding a copy to every email address you've ever seen. Thank you. That is all – George (george@inter800.com) Thanks for taking to time to review our newsletter for this week. If you know of anyone that might benefit from receiving this newsletter, send them to (http://www.inter800.com/news800/ ) where they can subscribe. All Contents Copyright ©1995-2001 The Internet 800 Directory Subscribe To The Newsletter: |