Someone mentioned today that a few of my e-mails went into her spam folder.
That got me digging in my settings, and I quickly learned that I had not configured something called DKIM properly. Which, yes, sounds like some sci-fi acronym – but is really just a sort of verifying system for e-mail.
Basically this is an encryption – two random strings of characters are generated, a private and a public key. The public key is then added to the domain for all to see and a private key is called on the end of the e-mail sender in order to “sign” the e-mails, confirming that they did indeed come from that domain.
To make a long story short: for the couple months I didn’t have this set up, any internet schlub with proper tools could sign their e-mails as if they came from alexpartin.com. Now this is not a thing that can happen. Cool stuff.
For those of you who follow the Blockchain and cryptocurrency sphere, you may already know about how private and public keys work – they are practically the same for crypto wallets and transactions.
Which got me thinking:
Running a business, and digital marketing specifically is kind of like deciphering an encryption.
You have your private key as a customer, with your needs and preferences
And your public key as a business, with your product or service.
We run dozens of messages by each other every second, trying to unlock your encryption and make a deal happen. Most of these never go anywhere. When the two keys finally match, though, we get a sale.
Even if the two keys match (the supply and demand), there is still a process to it.
And that process is kind of like the algorithm used for decryption. It’s the same for most industries, with very minor variations. It’s a combination of what we in human terms call “communication” and “management”.
I don’t claim perfect understanding of this (beware anyone who does), but I do help folks get a better understanding of this in my own practice.