I discovered an effective alternative to use when I don't have a person's real name. It's hidden in every email address. It's part of email address to left of "@" symbol. For an email address of "AB6@yz.com", it's "AB6" portion. I insert this part of email address where I would normally put person's first name. It's not as personal as real first name but it attracts more attention and produces a higher response than no personalization.

Make a habit of collecting and storing real name of each prospect in addition to their email address so you can use it to personalize your messages to them. Look for it in header of email message when sender doesn't "sign" message.

TIP: You'll automatically get more real names in email messages by revealing your real name first. I do this by using my real name as my email address. Over 75 percent of email messages I receive include sender's real first name.

DON'T OVERDO IT!

Use a person's name no more than 2 or 3 times in a communication. Inserting it too many times annoys reader and broadcasts that message is part of an automated mass mailing.

Sometimes you don't need much more than a prospect's name to get results. For example, I send a lot of prospecting postcards by postal mail to targeted lists. The only message on postcard is recipient's name followed by a benefit statement plus a phone number, email address or web site address where prospect can get more information. I always get a high response because each recipient is attracted by their name and can't resist reading rest of my brief message. None of these postcards get tossed without being read.

Start personalizing your communications to prospects and customers. It will substantially increase response you get -- without increasing your costs.

A few final words to summarise... You DON'T have to be a writer to write articles. It doesn't matter whether you have never written anything before . Just make a beginning.

"Be bold and unseen forces come to your aid."

(that is one of my favourite quotations- story of my life!).

Progress in life is accomplished by doing basics right - "little chores day by day". Success is never instantaneous - in any field of endeavour. For a while it may appear as if you are not making a noticable difference through your substantial efforts (in time and dedication put in ). However, just keep "chipping away" at your online marketing long enough and I can assure you, you WILL get noticed... even though it may take awhile. This whole business of internet marketing has been one long learning curve for us over past four years - seeing what works and what doesn't... like lessons of life itself.

Just make a beginning. As ancient Chinese proverb so wisely said... "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step".

Craig Lock

Creative Writing Course http://www.nzenterprise.com/writer/creative.html