Man, I love computers!Today I manipulated some photos one of my clients sent me, massaging them in Photoshop to make a background for a business card. I created the business card, with all the lettering.
I printed out a color flyer I’d created in InDesign. I wrote a marketing letter to prospective clients in MS Word. I typed out a mailing list in Excel with 40 addresses I got out of my local Chamber directory, then used Word’s mail merge feature to merge the addresses and salutations with the letter. After that, I used the Avery Wizard on the same list, to create mailing labels, which I printed out on several sheets of Avery labels I had on hand.
I rewrote the letter slightly to make it into an email, then opened my email program and tinkered up 40 separate emails. I turned the original flyer into a PDF and attached it, then cut and pasted the email text into the bodies of the email windows, also pasting in an appropriate Subject line and the correct email address from the body of the letter.
Now all I have to do is fold the letters and flyers, attach a business card, stick on the address labels and stamps, and I’ve made the initial contact – both with email and snail mail – with 40 possible future clients.
In fallow moments in the midst of doing all this, I checked my own email, responded to a couple of them, visited favorite blogs, read the news, and even checked a few of those possible clients’ websites, just to make sure I had their information right. I added a post to my own blog (what you’re reading now).
Oh, yeah: Also meanwhile, I had iTunes cranking out a favorite playlist in the background.
In years past, all this would have taken me two or three days to accomplish, including trips to either a copy center or, earlier, an actual printer, to get the flyer done, not to mention the hours of hand-addressing the envelopes. (And that would have been only for the regular mail contact.)
I would have had to shave! I would have had to dress! I would have had to drive!
I say again: I love computers!