When you're first starting your business, you are naturally small. There's nothing wrong with being small, but looking big can help you grow faster and build your business. A few simple techniques can help you make your online presence known and give a "big-business feel" to your email marketing campaign.

First, either use a professional email list service, that specializes in email lists and autoresponders, or set up a professional software package on your server. If you manage your email campaign from your desktop, and users only receive a response when you're online, you'll look not only small but very unprofessional. Using a service or dedicated software on your server means your customers can interact with your email server even when you're not around, to subscribe or unsubscribe from your list.

Second, create an HTML newsletter template and use it for all of your email. Send your email in both HTML format and text format, to give your readers a choice. Many people prefer to read text messages, while others prefer HTML. If you create your email in HTML with a text option, you'll look like a large company with a professional template, while still providing information to everyone who wants to hear from you.

Third, write professionally, or hire a professional writer to create your newsletters and other emails. Make sure your emails are well-organized, well-written, grammatically correct, and thoroughly proofread before you send them out. This is a very important piece of looking professional; it is hard for your readers to respect you if you don't take the time to make sure your writing is correct.

Fourth, when you write about your business, do not refer to or emphasize your size, unless being small and offering personal service is a selling point for your company. Don't try to imply that you're a large company, either; don't talk about size unless it will help your position.

Fifth, take the time to think about specific things your readers and customers might want to communicate about, and set up email addresses for each function. That might include editorial, sales, customer service, and advertising. In fact, if you're very small, all of those addresses might forward to you, but by setting up email addresses for each function, you've made your company look more substantial.

Everyone understands that you have to start somewhere. Being a small company is not a handicap, in most cases, unless you "look small." Even large companies look small when they don't take the time to build their image and brand and appear professional.

Looking big, on the other hand, means that your company looks professional, people believe you can and will do what you say you will do, and you have the confidence of your newsletter readers and customers. They won't care how "big" you are in size, because they will know that your company is big enough to handle whatever they may need, and that you will behave in a professional manner and meet their needs as customers.

© 2008 EZ-ine - All Rights Reserved