By Carl Lennertz

Huh? How does that work?

Two ways:

#1) I get a lot of e-mails from you all, obviously, and a surprising amount don't have any store information in a standard signature area at the close of the e-mail. It doesn't affect me much; I can just write back for more info. BUT, are your e-mails to customers and publishers leaving out a chance to promote your Web site and other services?

The best e-mail signatures I've seen include an address and phone number, store hours, an offer to sign up for the store's e-newsletter, the store Web site URL, and, yes, of course, go to the head of the class for the many that also say: "Proud to be a store with Book Sense" or " We have the Book Sense Gift Certificate -- Good at Independent Bookstores Across the Country." All these things are easy to program once, and then EVERY customer and publisher gets to see how great your store is.

#2) As for incoming e-mail, I know you're getting barraged from all corners, but a) Are you at least getting BTW each Thursday -- and have you asked your booksellers to sign up to get their own copy? And b) Are you getting your daily Book Sense juice, from the bestseller "On the Rise" tips on Tuesday, Advance Access on Wednesdays, and other regular reminders/offers/tips -- especially bestseller list reporting reminders?? Hint, hint.

To sign up for a free subscription to BTW, go to http://news.bookweb.org/read/56 [5].

To make sure you or the right person in your store is getting the Book Sense info, e-mail me at [email protected] [6] … with a nice "store info/Web site/Book Sense plug signature," of course.

Carl

[For a related article about using e-newsletters to reach your customers, go to http://news.bookweb.org/read/595 [7].]