Corrections or additions?
This article by Kathleen McGinn Spring was prepared for the
May 9, 2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Smarter E-mail Marketing: Blaine Greenfield
Use E-mail to inform, to sell, and to build strong
business
relationships. Just don’t use it to send Christmas greetings. So says
Blaine Greenfield, owner of Blaine Greenfield Associates in
East Windsor and marketing teacher at Bucks County Community College.
E-mail is a powerful business tool, he says, but companies are just
not exploiting its potential. Sending a mass Christmas or Hanukkah
mailing, for instance, is unimaginative and dooms the message to be
quickly deleted by customers overloaded with seasonal greetings.
Greenfield speaks on “Marketing Using Technology” at the New
Jersey Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Conference on Friday,
May 11, at 8 a.m. at the New Brunswick Hyatt. Cost: $69. Call
609-989-7888.
A complete list of workshops and speakers follows this article.
Greenfield, who holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing education from
Rider (Class of 1971) and a master’s degree in vocational-technical
education from Rutgers, grew up in marketing. He followed his
grandfather
and his father into Federal Distributing Corporation, a family
business
involved in sampling and distribution. He left the company in the
1970s, he says, because “a large part of it was cigaret sampling,
and I didn’t want to be involved in it all my life.” He founded
his own marketing firm in 1976, but did return to the family business
for a time when it shifted emphasis from cigarets to the distribution
of phone books.
A member of an entrepreneurial family, Greenfield, whose mother still
runs an interior decorating business after retiring to Florida,
advises
small and mid-sized companies implementing a variety of marketing
techniques. Technology is not often the whole show, but he says it
has its place. “Marketing is still high touch, not high tech,”
he says. “Even with technology you can have close personal
contact.
Technology lets you do it more quickly and efficiently.”
E-mail has turned out to be the universal runaway hit of the Internet,
technology working so well that few businesses can imagine how they
functioned without it. Greenfield says, used correctly, it can add
customers and keep current customers happy. Here are his suggestions
for doing E-marketing the right way:
Say `Happy Holland Bulbs Day.’ Or maybe Happy DuffersDay or Happy Copier Salesman’s Day. Avoid the obvious, saysGreenfield.Everyone sends Christmas cards via E-mail. Check the calendar, andbe creative. “No marketing idea is brilliantly new,” he says.Find out all you can about business contacts, and then send greetingsfor occasions that are important to them. And don’t forget theoccasionthat is important to everyone.”I send out 400 birthday cards, and increase it by 100 ayear,”Greenfield says. “It’s the single most powerful thing that Ido.”Speaking like the marketer that he is, Greenfield says he gets a 30percent response rate from the birthday greetings, mostly in the formof thank-yous.One caveat: Don’t send Blue Mountain Arts E-cards, or similar Internetstock greetings that have been done to death. Greenfield says it ismuch better to make up a custom card. He has turned outbirthday-themedversions of David Letterman’s Top Ten List, for instance.Think of Clients While Reading. Greenfield subscribesto the digital form of the Wall Street Journal, reads it religiously,and always keeps an eye out for items that match his businesscontacts’interests. When he sees an article, perhaps on banking, that a numberof his clients might be interested in, he zaps a copy to each of them.”It takes two seconds,” he says, yet is a most effective wayof letting contacts know he is thinking of them. Newsletters are astaple way of keeping in touch for clients and potential clients,he says, and is a great tool. But it is a good idea to varycommunications,and sending information E-mail recipients will enjoy is a prime wayto do so.Use Distribution Lists. E-mail makes it possible not onlyto send the same banking article to 23 people with click of a mouse,but to send it in such a way that each has no idea it was sent to22 other people. It is vital to send bulk E-mail this way, Greenfieldsays. Not everyone observes this rule, which he calls “basicInternetetiquette.” Many people, and some businesses, send out mail thatbegins with a string of names. This compromises the privacy ofeveryonelisted at the top of the E-mail, is annoying to read through, andlooks unprofessional.Get Permission. Unequivocally, Greenfield states thatno one should send E-mail to any person who has not expresslyindicatedthat he wants to receive it. “It’s spam,” he says. Avoid it,but know that getting that permission is one of the most importantmarketing moves a company can make. It delivers potential customerswho have shown a strong interest in a product by agreeing to beupdated.Give some thought to obtaining this permission, Greenfield says. Don’tjust ask something like “Do you want to receive E-mail?” Makethe offer enticing. Say “Do you want to know when we have a bigsale?” or something similar that will show a clear benefit toagreeing to be put on an E-mail list.Mind the Subject Line. First of all, don’t send any E-mailthat has the telltale “FW” in it. Standing for”forward,”the initials are a clear sign that the attached missive is part ofa bulk mailing. Most readers press “delete” as soon as theysee forwarded mail, Greenfield says. Inundated by spam, most peopleneed little excuse to press that delete button. Thought needs to begiven to the subject line, capturing attention in the nanosecond ofthought surfers expend in deciding which new E-mail to open. Considerusing names in the subject line, Greenfield says. Personalizing mailis an old direct mail tactic, he says, and it works. Beyond usinga name, offer recipients a compelling reason to read the message,perhaps by touting a limited-time sale or the price of a cut-rateticket.Answer Your Mail. If you solicit E-mail, Greenfield says,you need to be ready to answer it. This can be a chore, one thatrevealsthe dark underside of E-mail. Getting out personal responses can bea daunting task for a company of any size, taxing resources andcallingfor extra manpower, but it is a most important one. Greenfield himselfis still smarting from an auto-reply from America Online that he isconvinced was at least three years old. When he wrote back to sayit was “a stupid letter,” he got no response at all.Constantly Test Your E-Campaigns. “It’s simple totest the stuff you’re sending out, but nobody does it,” saysGreenfield.He tells his clients to create their own board of advisors, made upof current customers. These are the people whose opinion counts most,he says. Have them read and evaluate your latest E-newsletters. Striveto get an honest opinion out of them. “Don’t say `What do youthink of my newsletter?’” he advises. “Say `What is one thingwe could be doing better?’”There are any number of ways that technology, and particularlyE-mail, lets businesses connect with potential clients in ways thatjust were not possible before. When he goes to a trade fair, forexample,Greenfield collects E-mail addresses and sends a thank-you note toeveryone who visited his booth. “If I tried to contact 100 peopleby phone, I’d never get through,” he says. “I can E-mail themall in seven seconds.”Other workshops at the May 11 Small Business Conference at theNew Brunswick Hyatt include:Is Your Business Geared Up for the 21st Century?Speakersinclude Joan Verplanck, president, New Jersey Chamber; Norm DeLuca,Fleet Bank; Maxine Ballen, executive director, NJ Technology Council;and Rosemary Alito, McCarter & English.Getting the Word Out on a Limited Budget. Speakers includeMichael Cherenson, Cherenson Group,and Rich Ecke, Berry AssociatesPublic Relations.Marketing Using Technology. Speakers include BernadetteTiernan, NJSBDC E-Business Training Director; and Dana Hutchins,InforextCommunications.Top Of PageWomen & WellnessB>Judith Heumann was barred from public school untilthe fourth grade, and was able to begin her teaching career only aftersuing the Board of Education of the New York City school system.Strickenwith polio at age 18 months, Heumann is confined to a wheel chair.Her personal experience with the discrimination that affects personswith disabilities propelled her toward a career in which she strivesto improve opportunities for others.Heumann served as assistant secretary for special education andrehabilitativeservices in the Clinton White House, and is co-founder of the AmericanCoalition of Citizens with Disabilities and of Disabled in Action.She helped develop legislation that became the Individuals withDisabilitiesEducation Act and the American with Disabilities Act.Heumann delivers the keynote address, “Meeting the Challengesof Career Development as a Woman with a Disability,” at the Women& Wellness Conference, sponsored by the YWCA of Princeton, the JewishFamily & Children’s Service, and the Senior Resource Center on Monday,May 14, at 5 p.m. at Adath Israel Congregation, on Route 206 justsouth of Rider University. Free. Call 609-497-2100, ext. 303.In addition to Heumann’s address, the Wellness Conference featuressix workshops, including “Optimizing Health Insurance and EstatePlanning.”Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
