How NOT to Market

Here is an email I received....

Dear Sir/Madam,
How are you? This is Jet, a supplier of makeup brush located in Yiwu city, our main market is USA and Europe, quality and style is popular. We learn you do business on makeup brush, right? As a professional supplier, our production line include makeup brush set and kinds of individual brush like powder brush, blush brush, foundation brush, bronzer brush, eye shadow brush, lip brush and so on, here please kindly find our picture and website www.abcacl.cn for more details.
We are looking forward to hear from you soon, have a nice day.

Warmly regards
Best RegardsYours Jet

Now I suspect they bought a list of emails for say $1000, with the idea if they send out 100,000 to USA businesses, they are likely to find 2 or 3 potential customers.  And there is some wisdom in that, for to be hugely successful exporting into the USA market from China, one needs only 2 or 3 USA importers who have a USA distribution network set up.

Note a few things: the letter does have the word "you" in the first three words, but not to any effect, especially when addressing me anonymously. Yiwu is that incredible marketplace in Zhejiang outside of Ningbo and south of Shanghai.  Let's just say it is renown for inexpensive.  He learns I do business in make-up brush, right?  I don't know, did he learn that or not?  That would be for him to tell.  But perhaps he bought a list of importers and is worried he bought a pig in a poke.

What Jet will get for his 100,000 emails is zero legitimate importers and 30 or 40 flakes, who will confirm they are in fact in the business (which is not true, but the listsellers can count on such liars confirming putatively the list quality) and will esteem a full set of samples fedexed (hopeful before Christmas so they can be wrapped and gifted) in order to make the next trade show.  In about three months Jet will realize he has been had.

A real buyer does his bona fides and goes to the best source in the world, which is probably not Jet.  If Jet really wanted to sell to USA properly, he would do his research and find out the 5 or 6 companies in USA who should be buying from them, and write letters directly to the decision makers.

Mass emailing is no way to market.  It is an excellent way to rip people off, for example, here is another email I received recently:

Dear Sir/Madam,
We Hope this finds you well. Please we are interested in purchasing some items from your company ,we do hope to establish a long term relationship.Kindly extract attached file to view our PDF  picture and Quotation and give us good and affordable price list, However, please we would like you to send us some of your company's latest catalogs with the;(1) Order Quantity,(2) Delivery time/FOB,(3) Payment terms warranty,
We hope to hear from you soon.Regards,
Purchasing ManagerMrs Fishers
B-17 , Sector - 59Noida - 201301, Uttar Pradesh, India

And this is classic...

Mrs Lillian Mcquillen Email:lillianmcquillen@aol.de Hello Dear, My name is Lillian Mcquillen,i am a dying woman who has decided to donate what i have to you. I am 59 years old,was diagnosed of cancer about 2 years ago immediately after the death of my husband,who has left me everything he worked for. I have been touched by God to donate from what i have inherited from my late husband to you for the good work of the Lord,rather than to allow my relatives to use my husband's hard earned funds ungodly. I decided to WILL/donate the sum of $3,000,000(Three million dollars)to enable you help the motherless,less priviledged and widows. I have adjusted my WILL and my lawyer is aware that i have done so,you and my lawyer shall arrange the transfer of the funds from my account to yours. I wish you all the best and may the good Lord bless you abundantly,please use the funds well and always extend the good work to others. Contact my lawyer (Barrister.Edwin Clarke) with this email:edwinclarkeesq@inbox.com and tell him that i have donated $3,000,000 to you.i have also notified him. Thanks and Godbless you. Regards, Mrs.Lillian Mcquillen N.B:I will appreciate your utmost confidentiality in this matter until the task is accomplished as i do not want anything to jeopardize my last wish.

You know why so many people send these?  Because they work, often enough, to make it worthwhile. Internet marketing is no way to do business.

If your plan is to market on the internet, then test test test.  If it does not work out, then try what works.

Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.

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