This is the email I received from a web design company today:
We have not received any reply yet. You are receiving this email because we wish you to use our web design service.
We are web design studio from China. We are specialized in web page design, website development, graphics & multi-media design, flash website design and other relevant services. We pride ourselves with our technical strength, professional vision, unique style, and most of all, our highly devoted professional designers. We are in position to offer website solution, graphics design, e-commerce solution, online promotion and other medium and small business oriented services.
Core offerings
Business website design
Business website redesign
Flash website design
Flash website redesign
Ecommerce website design
Ecommerce website redesign
Company website design
Company catalog design
Company logo design
Graphic design
Google search engine optimization
ERP SolutionsPls check our website to see portfolio.
Yeaaaaah. Let me get right on that.
My favorite part: “We have not rceived a reply yet. You are receiving this email because we wish you to use our (…) service.”
See… if these guys had actually gone just a little further with that a threatened me, maybe that would help me get off the fence. 😀 (“If you do not use our service, we will have to take immediate action. Do not make us come over there!”)
Yeah, they’re going to go far.
Brand Building and Online Marketing Blog 
I receive emails like these frequently and I agree, they’re probably not going to get very far, BUT… maybe they can do a pretty decent job. They may have all the technical skills, and possibly the creative skills, necessary, but lack the ability to sell themselves in a foreign market. They lack the ability to engage the potential client. If they had one person here in the states that could do that for them, they could become competition for a lot of small firms (hypothetically). How many firms here position themselves with”We pride ourselves with our technical strength, professional vision, unique style, and most of all, our highly devoted professional designers”? Probably a lot. If that’s your value add, this Chinese firm is one salesperson away from taking your business. Getting the work done, professionally, isn’t a differentiator anymore. Knowing and engaging with your clients and prospective clients is increasingly the only thing that sets you apart.
Having worked with the Chinese for many years in the technology sector I see these clumsy, incoming mails as an opportunity. These are usually very smart, very enterprising, talented people going the extra mile to sell their services abroad.
They just need a little help with the translation and structure of the campaign.
Isn’t that the same thing we do for companies and brands here?
China is a behemoth of a market. When somebody pitches you from China, instead of just hitting the delete button, you may be well served to check them out and pitch them right back. You might wind up with an excellent, low cost partner for any number of services as well as a new client.
I get a ton of these emails, too Olivier, but had never considered them in the light that Keith is mentioning, as good service providers with not-so-great US marketing capabilities. Interesting to consider the POV, as my own developers in Pakistan are great, reliable people that I knew personally, so I did not ever have the “cold contact” via an email marketing campaign.
Keith, you said something BRILLIANT and oh-so-true it’s not even funny… “Getting the work done, professionally, isn’t a differentiator anymore. Knowing and engaging with your clients and prospective clients is increasingly the only thing that sets you apart.”
More and more, there are “machine-oriented” shops out there that want to take and process your order and give you what they think you should have, and be done. That’s not how I run my company – it’s very client interactive partly due to my personality, but I am hearing things from prospects about how much they need THAT. There are thousands of great creatives and developers out there – but the client wants to feel cared for and like they truly matter to you. I’ve just reshaped my company with a new brand and that tenet is the foundation of all we will do – your comment there is so validating for me personally at this moment. I really thank you for it!
Brilliant, wow! Thanks…I just think that those of us in marketing/sales/PR/etc. need to start applying all of that wisdom we provide to clients to our own businesses. A few do it, but not enough.
I think these are more like SPAM emails. They’re just slightly more easy to be read.
Ack, hit submit before I finished….I also got this email (why I say Spam)
Keith and Donald: I agree with what you guys are saying… and the fact that they happen to be a Chinese firm has nothing to do with my snarky reaction here. 🙂 The point is, if their business chooses to use these types of tactics to drum up business, guess what: It doesn’t matter how great they are at building websites. They simply aren’t someone I want to work with.
Perhaps a link to an online portfolio might be a good idea, assuming they even have one. Chinese, French, American or Russian, it doesn’t take a genius to incorporate a link to a portfolio. Especially if you’re a great web design company. 😉
As far as I can tell, this is the same kind of SPAM I get from bogus online pharmacies.
I’ve received the same e-mail. Four times in the past week. And no, “Don” hasn’t received a reply from me, either. He’s a persistent one, that feller’.
I found your site on google, great site, keep it up. Will return in the future. Submitted this post to Google News Reader.
Didn’t know about it. Very nice information. Submitted this post to Google News Reader.
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Vance, did you just spam me with cookie-cutter marketing copy?
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