Sending Emails to Offer Online Marketing Services
Posted on: October 14, 2009 by Jordan Hardy Comments Off
The most recent unsolicited email I received from someone I don’t know offering online marketing services was this morning. It amused me to no end. I think it was partly the grammatical errors that added to their professionalism. Or possibly it was that they didn’t know my name and addressed me as sir or madam. Or maybe it was the fact that the person spent a paragraph explaining they really did look at my Website thoroughly before sending me an email. But in their email they didn’t take the time to actually mention my Website name / URL! They talked about having techniques to get any Website to the top of Google quickly. They alluded to a handful of social networking Websites as examples of the kinds of sites they would automatically link me to. They feel it is effortless for them to do this work, as if their magic computer would plug my Website into the “mysterious” online world. Their ending, to gain my trust, was to offer their personal cell phone number and Skype ID.
They are probably contacting me not from jordanhardy.net, but another Website I had worked on in past years where they somehow found my contact info on a cached page.
If really this person is legit, I see some problems in their offering.
Personal Issues With Hiring this Person
- Generally when I’ve hired marketing, sales, and other team members, it has never been from unsolicited emails like this one. It has been from posting an ad on Job Websites, sorting through a huge number of applications, and finally interviewing up to 20 people to fill each open position. Or it has been through networking.
- They’re the expert? What about the fact that it has taken me a huge amount of experience and training to do this so well myself? They just happen to be gifted? How come it is so difficult for me to find high quality sales and marketing people when I hire? Just this one person will do it all for me? Wow! When I hire people, to get them very good at what I need them to do, it usually takes a lot of training, coaching, and experience.
- Where are they? What proof do I have they are really one person?
- Why is there no portfolio URL in their email letting me know I can contact them from their Website as well?
- How would I know they are actually getting me linked out there in a good and not bad way? Can they provide links that show a human has done marketing work, or will it have been that a cheap Web tool submitted automatically with many errors or submissions to low quality Websites therefore affecting Google Pagerank?
- Do they know who I am? In other words since they did now know my name in the email, what would happen if I used a technique I use with telemarketers? I’d say, well since you’re alluding to me and my Website, what is my name and what is my domain?
Professional General Issues with Hiring this Person
- It needs to be clear how they will go about their work. They need to be clear what kinds of Websites they work with, how they work, and how many of each task will be done. When work is done, they need to track it to provide to the client.
- Although in rare instances someone can find an employee like this, it would be much better finding the person from online research, a reference, or digging up their resume online.
- Spelling errors should always be corrected.
- Although there is some special magic that comes from extensive experience in online marketing, most is smart, hard work. This needs to be clear.
Although this was a bit of a long post, I had to do so to have a bit of fun.
Filed Under: Google, Online Marketing, Sales, Websites
