Hiya! You don’t know me but I want to sell something to you. I haven’t bothered do do any research on your company, so don’t know the name of anyone to approach. Even though I’ve used the susan@ email address, I’m still addressing you as “hiya” because actually I’m sending this email to 20 other people. Oops, I put them in the cc section of the email rather than bcc.
I always delete these emails. They are the equivalent of the cold call “Could I speak to the business owner”. Of course newsletters don’t always have a name on them, but the recipient has (hopefully) subscribed to the email first.
I was at a leadership course this week, and some business owners were horrified when I said I disregarded any email approach by a musician for Viva Live Music that emailed “Hi” or “Hiya” without using my name or the name of one of my team. Other people completely understood. The nature of Viva Live Music is that clients trust we will send out musicians that know how to behave. If they can’t be bothered to look on the website and address a member of the team, what could they be like with clients when they are representing the company? What does it say about them if they value our potential business relationship so little, they email us with 20 other people?
On Tuesday I gave a lecture to Third Year students at Hertfordshire University. I mentioned emails and also the value in preparing before any email. Finding the name of a decision maker in a company you approach is invaluable as well as tailoring the email to the company.
Social media and digital methods of communicating with each other have made it so much easier to reach out to others. As the technology has moved so quickly, etiquette hasn’t quite kept up with this. A posting on Facebook or tweet is to all of your followers; but an email is more personal.
A social media consultant has just contacted me, via the Linkedin email system (i.e. personalised messages) with a Hi, address. He wanted all of his followers to endorse his services as a social media expert. Of course he is using the Linkedin technology to communicate, but he might as well have posted this on his status because he didn’t personalise the email. So it was deleted.
What do you think?
Hi Susan! yes, I am entirely in agreement. I get 70+ applications a week from freelancers. They are wasting their time if they don’t make the right impression – I just press delete. As we offer translation and proofreading services, the worst offence is to make a spelling or other error, that’s a big no for my industry. I regularly talk to translation students and stress that instead of mass emailing 200 companies, pick 5 a day, look at their website, research them, maybe even call them to ask a few questions, and then email a direct contact with a personalised message. Flattery works – love your website for instance! And so lazy to use the standard LinkedIn invitation when it takes so little time to add in a sentence. Please can I use your blog post on my blog?! Clare
Thank you so much for your comment – and for agreeing with me! I would be delighted for you to use the post on your blog. See you next week! Susan
Hi Daniella,
Great to hear from you. The article was designed with you in mind. My name is on the article as the author, and it is great to be addressed as “Susan” rather than “Hi there everyone”. I almost deleted your comment because of that, but wanted to illustrate how your comments could be devalued by not taking the time to address the right person. Good luck. Susan
Completely agree! As a blogger I get hundreds of these emails every single week – it is unprofessional and ill-thought through, the equivalent of throwing 100 darts at a board behind you in the hope that one might stick. It might, but it probably won’t stay in very long, having landed poorly.
Dear Helen, Thanks for your comment. You have hit the nail on the head (or tip of the arrow): quality communication rather than quantity reaps better results. Best wishes, Susan