Some offline business owners don't reply emails no matter what.

I don't find this surprising at all. Most web sites have a contact email address as we all know. However, just looking at this as a potential customer I seldom get a response back. I don't know if the UK is the worse but I can assure you the US is pretty bad. The bigger the company the less chance of a return email.

Getting attention, well I'm not sure. But most offliners seem to think putting a statement about looking for X product in Y location seems to work the best.

It always amazes me how businesses ignore potential buyers so readily. Might as well lock the front door too!

I don't know what your open rate was, but a 10% response rate seems pretty good to me.

Most (well, a lot of) small offline businesses are just that...OFFLINE. They run their business in their store and do not spend all day on the computer checking emails.

Then after a long day at the shop they go home to their family and try to rest for the next day at the shop and have no time for email. Maybe they check it once a week if that.

They have their kids or kids brothers, cousins build their website just so they have a site, but even though their is a contact form, they don't know what that is or where it goes.

All they know is how to run their shop...at the shop.

I tried too the last few days and send over 300 emails by hand to us businesses found on G Places, one by one using some strategies found here and some of my own but all i got were 5 responses.Why :?? I really don't know ...
Does anyone know any method to send bulk inbox emails? i would try to scrape some thousand emails and do it that way ...
All i am trying to do is to get get my first customers and go from there, working on referrals offering free services in exchange.

Offline business owners are usually don't use their email addresses. Because an offline business owner donot need to have an online coverage. This is because his customers are also in offline world.

I have personally experience that a shopkeeper or a whole sale dealer will not indulge in online business world. Because his customer will meet him offline. So he will never like to get in online activity.

pre qualification rocks, sod them, move on to those that understand and already partly harness the power of the internet etc . dont waste time and energy trying to bring laggards into the 21st century.
Every business can benefit from using online methods to communicate with and grow their client base , the fact many cant even use their emails or contact forms to talk to a potential client/ supplier tells me theyre behind the times (in the online sphere) and much like Woolworths wont be around as long as those embracing the technology and welcoming change.

Sure you can try to educate them, but jeez theyve had 15 years to learn the mere basics already (email) so if they havent then leave them to their little offline world where theyre happy

I think the problem is they get so many emails from SEO companies that they just hit the delete button as soon as they see any type of sales pitch.

I know from experience after setting up hundreds of maps listings that i rent out how many phone calls you get from people trying to sell you face book advertising, email marketing etc so i think that is where the problem is.

I find getting off you back side and get out to see them face to face converts much better.

I started by calling a plumber who was advertising in the local paper. I told him I had a listing on the first page of Google I couldn't use. I got him to come to my office to discuss him using the listing. I asked him that if I gave him the listing for free to introduce me to other small businesses in the local area. I have had at least 20 new clients just from this one plumber and more from the people he introduced me to.

I have just finished a contract for a London based company who were getting 300 junk emails a day - the problem for them was that they were using a standard response form so we set them up with flash form, new email address and the problem went away.

They can now conduct business normally, unless they get IPad customers

Thanks for all your input warriors, today I discovered one more thing about offline business owners. The email I sent was a question about the business and I got a reply from their web design company instead of the owner himself. This proved me that some of the business owners give control of their email address to their web design company and they even don't hear about our questions/offers/etc.

Did you follow up the emails with a phone call?

I am in the UK and had a very similar experience. What I found when I followed up with calls was that many people weren't even getting them because most businesses have pretty sophisticated spam filters these days. Also if you are sending them to businesses that have a 'gatekeeper' such as doctors, dentists, accountants and solicitors they are probably getting deleted as well.

The only time I got a decent response rate (about 35%) was when I offered them a free video up front.

Neil

Some of them might separate their business and personal emails. Most people do this. Or they might simply be computer illiterate, LOL.

Try other method of contacting them like calling to get an appointment.

Even better if you can meet them in some sort of community activity. This is where I usually get clients.

-Andrew

Not really a surprise to me (now).

Start of 2010, I began asking my existing offline local clients how frequently do they even check their email.

I was prompted at least in part by the fact, I would send a client a file and he would say he never got it....in one case I found out later, he simply did not know how to open an attachment and save it!

In another case, I found out he thought I meant I was going to print something out and mail it to him. :-)...so he never checked the email.

Anyway I was surprised then, to hear answers like, "once every few days", once a week," "whenever I get a chance/remember/expecting something", "I have my wife check them", "once a day", "just depends" ...and many similar responses.

I realized email is not GOD to these men and women.

They do much more by phone, personal visit, and do at least look at their regular old-fashioned mail. I took this into account and mostly use regular mail and occasionally postcards. It does have a cost, but it also has a value: much higher readership, and more authority.

I do think, there is a tendency in many of the wso's to focus on email prospecting to the wso buyer, since that is free and makes the wso more attractive. ...but you really have to look at actual readership and results to say which is better.
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Bruce

A friend of mine has been testing a different approach. He sends the email offering a FREE corporate video (1 Minute slideshow made in Movie Maker with business pictures + Logo) IF they sign his Newsletter - opt-in, of course.

Then he puts them on "buy mode" along next weeks with targeted content (benefits, benefits, benefits...) and sales pitch.

I know he's been making some sales BUT he says it's hard to put them on list - even with a freebie.

Just a idea, I never used it.

That's another selling point, you know. How many businesses have lost out on business because they don't bother to check their email or let their web designer manage it? That's not very responsible, and it's certainly no way to do business.

I've had this happen to me before as a customer. But, the surprising fact was that their web designer replied to my email trying to sell me THEIR services. That's not good, and who knows how much this type of thing is happening. Of course, I didn't bother contacting them again, and I didn't even bother to call after that. Although, I should have....

Here are my thoughts:

1. They get literally hundreds of these emails a day.. and even if you're pretending to be interested in their services, they just simply don't have the time/attention span/care to reply... so it gets deleted.

I worked in a loan modification office for a month setting up all their online marketing, and at the end of the month, I checked the info@domain.com email that I set up for them and there were so many emails that I had to just clear them out... Literally...

Meanwhile, the only thing I gave the business owner to do that whole month was answer the emails that they got.

I found that he pretty much didn't give a crap unless it was an obviously hot lead. I think a lot of this has to do with the mentality of "low hanging fruit". Replying to emails from "potential clients" is perceived as much more work than sending out a batch of mail to make the phone ring so they won't even reply to potential clients let alone sales messages.

2. They're tired of getting spammed... Seriously.. just in this forum alone there are probably 100 people sending out 100 emails a day to different businesses. That's not counting the many many many many many many many other SEO consultants that are spamming business owners at their whois email address.

3. Ever heard that if you want to sell someone something to GO FIND OUT WHERE THEY ARE AND GET YOUR MESSAGE IN FRONT OF THEM? Hint: Offline business owners ARE NOT in front of their computer checking email..

Kick and scream all you want about how you want to use email to contact business owners, but the bottom line is that it's not even close to as effective as picking up the phone, or God forbid, walking inside the door.. Sure, there are a small percentage that are on email all day.. but the lions share are standing right there waiting for you to walk in the door.

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Didn't mean to come off like I was talking directly to you, just kind of a rant that I had to get out there.

B*S*..you are annoyed because we do not reply to spam? I get 6 emails a day telling me how much easy and free traffic i am missing by not being top of Google etc...do I bother to even fully read it never mind reply. And i am being discourteous? LOL

I have not done email marketing as of yet. However I have invested some money in it already because I want to try it out. I throughly research everything before I do it. I do believe that there are ways to run very successful email campaigns and you do not have to be a genius to do it, nor do you have to spend thousands of dollars either. The key is really do your homework. The Warrior Forum is great, but let's be honest most people who surf the Warrior Forum are in the elementary stage of IM. There is tons of free information out there, you just have to find it and I think you will find success no matter what you are trying to market.

I'm not surprised by the lack of response from the initial emails that you mailed to these people. I'm thinking you could put up a fairly easy, direct mail campaign that will get their attention. Have you ever considered?

IMO I think it seems really unprofessional and spammy if you are making your first contact through email. Email marketing should be used after you have made initial contact and you want to remain on there top of mind awareness. Maybe try Direct Mail its an underused resource which can be very effective if used right, and yes you will have to spend money!

Offline business owners are usually don't use their email addresses. Because an offline business owner donot need to have an online coverage. This is because his customers are also in offline world.

UPDATE:

Many thanks to all of you. Today I got my first offline client just by email. You can read the details on this new thread here.