外贸英语函电：EMAIL联系客户的使用(原版)

The Internet - Where the Customers Are

E-mail can be a very effective tool for marketing your products to buyers around the world IF you know what you are doing and follow certain rules. The important word here is -IF-. Those who do not know what they are doing or do not follow the rules quickly get a bad reputation and rarely have successful campaigns.

Some of the companies on the Database List of USA Importers and Wholesalers () have included either their e-mail address or their web site address.

Our Exporting to the World Using the Internet () database list has the email addresses and/or web site addresses of companies around the world (including the USA)

Why is e-mail so popular? First of all it's easy to get. When you register your URL web address with the internet service provider (ISP) as mentioned above you automatically get several e-mail addresses. It is important that you have at least three basic e-mail addresses. Buyers are looking for them and if you donÕ;t have them it raises suspicion about your company.

Your e-mail address after the "@" sign will be your URL that you registered. For example if the URL is www.goldentextile.com, this companyÕ;s e-mail address including the "@" sign will be Ò;É;[email protected]Ó;. Buyers want to know where they are sending their messages. For this reason you should be very specific about where the message is going. [email protected] is a poor e-mail address. It does not give any indication what department the message is going to.

Every export company should have at least these three e-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] , and [email protected] . The three e-mail addresses for the company above would be [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected] By using the first two e-mail addresses the buyer knows that the message is going to the sales or export department. Having the [email protected] address tells the buyer that there is a department that can help them if they should have a question or problem after the order arrives. Having these e-mail addresses at your company greatly improves the chances of a buyer taking your company more seriously. Not having them means that the buyer may not know how to contact you.

Free E-mail Addresses = Many Lost Orders

You should never, never use a free e-mail address (like yahoo, hotmail, netvigator) for business. Never. Buyers do not trust these e-mail addresses. Always remember that image is more important on the internet than it is face-to-face. When you send an e-mail message to an importer the first question the importer asks him/herself is: Does this look like a serious offer or is this person trying to cheat me.

Having a free e-mail address like yahoo or hotmail is like using a public coin-operated pay phone for your company telephone. Using a free e-mail address says to the buyer "We are not serious enough to get our own telephone, but if you call this pay phone number located in the street near our office we will run out of the office and try to answer it." Free e-mail addresses are bad news.

Another of the many reasons you should not use free e-mails addresses is because of security. Buyers will often send confidential information in an e-mail message. This might include credit card information, bank account information, or confidential company information. If this message is sent to a dedicated e-mail address (like [email protected]) the message goes from the buyer's computer to the buyer's ISP, to the exporter's ISP and then to the exporterÕ;s computer. The chances of this message being stolen are reduced.

If, however, the buyer sends confidential information to a free e-mail address (like [email protected]) it goes through several ISPs on its way to the exporter. The chances of the message being stolen are greatly increased. For this reason, buyers do not like to use free e-mail addresses.

Having an e-mail address like [email protected] shows that the buyer has registered the URL with the local internet service. If there is a problem the buyer can be found through the internet service. Companies that try to cheat other people use free e-mail services ([email protected]) because they do not have to officially register. If you complain about this company there is no address on record for follow up.

The bottom line is this, if you have a free e-mail address get rid of it now. Register your company URL address with a local internet ISP and get a dedicated e-mail address. You will notice a dramatic increase in the number of buyers that will contact you.

The second reason that e-mail is so popular is because it is cheap. It costs nothing more than your time. No paper expense, no postage, no envelope expense.

The third reason it's popular is that sending e-mail messages is relatively easy. Yes, you must keep a database and make sure it is up-to-date. Yes you must compose the message. But anyone who can use a word processor can also write an e-mail message.

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