What follows below are excerpts from a promised follow-up email I sent to a columnist with a national newspaper in Lagos-Nigeria (after speaking with her on phone) regarding a piece she did on “Email Marketing”.

In it, I suggested possible perspectives she could adopt in informing and educating here readers to make more successful use of the web for their businesses.

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Re: Our Phone Conversation About Your Email Marketing Column Piece in The (name removed) Newspaper…

Hi (name removed),

It was great speaking with you earlier today.

Like I told you when I called, I believe VERY MANY business owners in our part of the world are shortchanging themselves in the way they use their online presence.

By this I mean NOT just their websites, but the other web based resources they periodically make use of in a bid to promote the products and services they offer.

Your write-up in The (name removed), in which you shared tips for using an Email Signature told me you possessed insights that indicated you would appreciate the bigger picture of web marketing that I paint for clients I work with.

Before I go on, let me state CLEARLY here, that I am NOT trying to sell anything to you or your readers.

Instead, my purpose for reaching out to you (and others I’ve connected with in the past) is to point out other complementary tools, techniques and strategies that can be used in an integrated self-sustaining manner to generate a continuous stream of quality pre qualified prospects/leads, that one can convert to buyers/sales.

To address your request for details about me, I’ve included links below to some of the generic resources I use in my work…

1. Below is a link to an article on my blog that offers prospects insights into what I mean by a Web Marketing System (WMS):

http://tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets/what-you-need-to-achieve-web-marketing-success-4-tips/

2. Click the link below to view a 2 page PDF that uses a mind map to provide an overview of who I am, and what I do – with links to related resources including a resume that describes my background from a past life over a decade ago, in paid employment.

http://tayosolagbade.com/uploads/WhoIsTKS.pdf

3. Here’s a link to a PDF speaker-one-sheet for a talk I’ve recently begun offering, following my observation that so many CEOs still do NOT get it:

http://tayosolagbade.com/uploads/wms-talks-offer.pdf

The contents of the PDF highlight additional ways I advocate more business marketing decision makers THINK, and ACT if they want to reduce their Cost Of Sales/Cost of Customer Acquisition (COCA) – which is a useful way to BOOST PROFITS without needing to raise prices of one’s products/services.

As I noted when we spoke, I’m hoping you’ll find something useful in the materials relating to web marketing that I’ve referred you to, that may help you better articulate other ideas you decide to share with your column’s readers.

The results I get from using this approach, at zero cost, convince me many African business owners are denying themselves TOO MANY zero cost opportunities to make the most profitable use of the Internet access and websites they PAY good money for.

If you have any queries or need clarifications, let me know.

With kindest regards,

Tayo

PS:

a. By the way, I should add that I came up with most of my own ideas/concepts from YEARS of trial and error trying to apply what I learnt from studying some of the top web marketing minds in the world.

What I now call a Web Marketing System is the condensed version of what I found worked for me, as a business owner in Africa’s peculiar market, dealing with Africa’s peculiar buyers (whose web based buying behavour is VERY different from that of counterparts in developed markets/economies.)

To achieve the above, I had to become comfortable with BREAKING the rules and coming up with my own ways of getting the results I wanted. It is, for instance, why my signature is often VERY long (I have several signatures, for different target audiences).

I mention the above because of the tip you gave in your write-up, about the length of an email signature. The one I’ve used here is the generic version that goes out with ALL my website contact forms’ auto response messages.

b. Once again, I must emphasize that there are no strings attached to this offer of mine. I’m NOT trying to sell anything to you. You do NOT even need to mention me. My purpose for reaching out, is to influence MORE information and education being given out to readers from informed columns like yours, so that more African businesses can get better results using PC and Internet technology.

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