A social media fanatic and internet enthusiast.

Recently, I was going through my unread messages in my gmail inbox and found one that was out of the ordinary. Typically, I’ve got my social networking emails from Twitter, Facebook, etc., various newsletters that I’m subscribed to, and things that I’ve sent myself. This one, however, was a reply to a message I had sent about an apartment for rent on craigslist. I’ve been living in my new place for a little over a month now, so I was curious as to what was going on with this one.

The title of the email was: ‘RE: $1025 / 3br – Upscale House with an Amazing Master Suite (Portland).’ This seemed reasonable enough- like it might have actually been something I had inquired about -so I opened it to see what was inside.

It started out by apologizing for taking such a long time to get back to me, but quickly took a turn for the worst. First, there was little reverse psychology in play with the ‘You’ve probably already found a place, but I’ve still got this awesome thing still available’ line; just a line, mind you- not a full personal response working to build some kind of rapport with me for the upcoming sales pitch.

It went right into:

Just to let you know, a friend of mine was renting someone’s house and he accidentally started a fire. He lost a ton of his belongings, including expensive furniture. He didn’t have renter’s insurance, which I’ve told him numerious times that he needs. I just want to let you know to be careful and maybe consider some renter’s insurance for your own protection. I’m fairly certain most of them cover fires, flooding, burglaries, etc. As a landlord I always refer people to this company as it seems to be the best value-

I’m not going to put the company’s link up because I was not impressed with the pitch. I did not click through. To me it was very impersonal and ‘markety’ sounding, as you can see. Also, I still wasn’t sure that I had emailed about this supposed apartment in the first place.

In fact, while I was writing this post, I noticed that at the bottom of the email it had the ‘original message’ that I had sent. Take a look:

From: floydhartford@gmail.com

Sent: 8/1/2010 8:55:45 PM

** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY — AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY ** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home ** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping ** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html Hi, Is anything included with the $1025. Do you have pictures? Pets ok? -Thanks http://maine.craigslist.org/apa/1759012306.html —————————————————————— this message was remailed to you via: hous-3pzzs-1759012306@craigslist.org ——————————————————————

At first glance, it looks pretty legit. It’s got my email and it’s got some general question that I asked to many of the apartments I inquired about. Remember, though, I said I have been living in my place for a little over a month now? Look at the date in my ‘original email.’ It’s August 1st. Today is August 11th. I know for certain I did not ever send this email.

So, not only was this email ‘markety’ and too ‘salesy’ sounding to get me to click through, but it’s also a thinly disguised house of lies. I applaud this person’s efforts of mining emails from craigslist to market to, but I can’t imagine that he (they?) will have much success doing it how they are. (Or maybe one of the rental management companies I applied through sold my email to a third party? Shame on them if so.)

My advice to them, and to you, is if you’re going to pitch someone through email you’ve got to build trust and sell benefits, not products- not starting your ‘relationship’ out with lies is always a good one, too. Benefits, testimonials, and building an initial rapport will help to create that trust with your potential new customer and when you’re trusted you’ll have an easier time closing the sale.

I hope my advice is helpful to you and that you find yourself having better luck than this person if you find yourself pitching through emails.