In the last week and a half I've had a handful of messages show up in Outlook that serve as prime examples of how not to approach another business via email. The notes vary in purpose from seeking links to seeking business partnerships to seeking donations. Every last one makes the same exact mistake.

They tell me about how much they enjoyed meeting me at an event last week. An event that I didn't attend. These aren't random spam messages either, they're simply messages from companies that didn't take the time to think before they hit the send key.

See, last week there was a large national conference. While I didn't attend the conference, one of my side businesses served as a high level sponsor of the event. As such, I had marketing materials included in the conference packets and would have had space as an exhibitor if I'd had the time to attend. Thus, most of the emails I've been receiving start a little something like this:

Now, there are a few things wrong with this email. First, I know she didn't visit my booth, because I didn't have one. Second, if she didn't visit my booth, she obviously didn't tell me about this event. This makes her lose credibility in my eyes. It also lets me know that I'm getting one countless emails being sent to every last company listed as a vendor, sponsor or exhibitor.

I'd love to give the benefit of the doubt and assume this was a simple screw up. However, based on the number of emails I had after the conference that made this same mistake, I assume they are working off some type of master list of exhibitors. I also assume that if I'm getting emails like this, these same companies are probably making the same mistake in their communications to other sponsors of the show.

This mistake is simple to avoid. Simply make sure that you operate off of business cards rather than a default list provided by someone else. At the very least, take the time to visit each business's web site to see if you spoke with them or even noticed their booth. Yes, it takes a little more time, but the payoff in terms of credibility is worth it.

To note, this isn't the first time I've seen this mistake. For more than two years, the PR firm that represents a large search related company has sent me emails addressed to "Loren." (Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal) The first time it happened, I sent a reply back pointing out that Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Guide are not the same site. It was no big deal, even I sometimes have trouble keeping all of the SEM related sites straight. The PR rep wrote back to apologize and said he'd get it fixed. Two years later I still get emails addressed to Loren and I still ignore every last one. After all, if you can't take the time to correct my name when I've pointed out the error, I can't take the time to consider writing about or linking to your offering.

In fact, roughly a quarter of the press releases and announcements sent to Search Engine Guide are addressed to Robert or to "Webmaster." Silly really, when it only takes a few minutes to see who the editor of the site is and to find my contact information. While I quickly skim every media release I receive, you can bet that the ones from companies that can't take the time to find out who edits the site don't tend to get mentioned near as often as the ones from people who take the time to send me a personal email.

Taking the time to make sure you've addressed your email to the most relevant person is a good call no matter what your intentions, but when it comes to asking for things, it's essential. Likewise, if you aren't 100% positive you met someone, don't email them to say how nice it was to talk to them. If you lose your credibility in the first line of your email, you don't stand much chance of achieving the outcome you were aiming for.

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