Organize your e-mail

If you're active online you get a fair amount of e-mail, and you probably respond as necessary. But when was the last time you thought about your mail beyond simply responding? Ordinary marketers let this mail pile up on their hard disks in one disorganized heap. It sits there until they can't remember what each message was about, and then at some point they toss the whole pile out. But guerrillas know better. They know that each piece of e-mail is a potential business opportunity, and they take steps to organize all incoming mail so it becomes a weapon.

To get organized, create separate directories or mail folders for mail on your hard disk, and (after you respond to incoming mail), and sort mail by its marketing purpose as you receive and respond to it. To track responses from your marketing efforts on various online services, for example, you might have separate directories for each one. Or if you're marketing in several discussion groups and you want to tailor your attack to each group, you might sort mail into directories by discussion groups. Or you might organize mail by the type of opportunity it represents: consulting opportunities, product sales opportunities, fusion marketing potential, and so on.

The organizational scheme is up to you, but having a scheme lets you build a series of powerful marketing weapons a day at a time. And when you're ready to send that new brochure to your contacts in a particular online service, or those people who asked about a particular product line, the addresses you need will be ready to go.