Can you imagine business today without email? It has become so much a part of what we do in business you might wonder how we managed before its invention. Some people love it – some hate it, some regard it as distraction, but whatever your view, email needs to be managed properly to make the most of it.
This two-part article will show you how your emails can contribute positively to your business. It offers a couple of ways to help you better manage your in-coming mail and show you how to use your everyday out-going mail as a free marketing tool. With a little work you can turn email into a real advantage.
Go on – clear out!
Ask yourself this question – “Is my email software slow to open and use?” If the answer is yes, this could be due to all the old emails and attachments your system is trying to cope with – time for a clear out!
Take a look at your in-box. Count how many emails are there (do a select all and look in the status bar) – does it number in the thousands? Around 5,000 upwards, is not uncommon – unless it’s a relatively new account. Check your ‘emails sent’ box too. Imagine if this were paper in your office, how would you ever find anything? That’s what filing and waste bins are for and email is no different.
First you need to address the quantity of old emails. Delete where possible, any you absolutely must keep can be filed in appropriately named email folders (one for each client, supplier or project). First, view all emails by name, date or one of the other identifiers, then select as individual groups and transfer to the relevant email folder. It can take a bit of time at first but if done regularly, it will be easier to manage.
Alternatively, I offer here, an approach that worked for me when my email threatened to take over but I take no responsibility if you lose any valuable emails whilst using this. You have been warned!
Start by viewing your email in-box by order of date. Go back exactly a year and without looking at them individually, select and delete all emails older than this, Then, look at what’s left and choose to remove old attachments – especially photos. Repeat the process with your ‘emails sent’ box and any other directories or folders you use to store emails. Then, empty the ‘Deleted’ folder to finally remove them from your system.
Immediately you will be surprised at the difference this will make. Go further still if you can and try it with anything older than six months. The more you can get rid of, the better.
At the end you should have a much trimmer and more responsive system with fewer emails to file. I’m willing to bet you will not miss anything you’ve ditched. If there is an odd phone number or email address you need you can probably find it again by other means.
Spam, spam , spam (without the Monty Python)
Sooner or later, we all receive it. Each day, valuable time is wasted sorting out the wheat from the chaff as we try to find the mail we really want to read. Did you know though, that much of it can be avoided and that most of it is of our own making?
One of the best ways to avoid spam in your business email in-box is to only use your main business email address with people and other businesses you have confidence in.
Websites that ask you to register before allowing access usually ask you to submit your name and email address. Whatever you do, DON’T use your regular email address! Even if the website states in it’s privacy policy that they do not sell addresses on to third parties – DON’T – they could be lying!
For transactions on the internet, set up a secondary email address. When it starts to attract spam, simply ditch it and set up a new one. Try using your name plus a number which can be easily changed, e.g. dave001@whatever.com becomes dave002@whatever.com and so on.
Most email software can be set to automatically detect much of the spam for you. With some, it’s just a matter of dragging a piece of email spam to your ‘Junk Email’ folder (that the email system sets up during installation). Thereafter, any mail coming from that sender will automatically be transferred to the Junk Email folder too. The Junk Email contents can also be set to self-delete at the end of a predetermined period.
Warning: Sometimes mail you do want can end up in this folder. If you find this happening you will need to add these senders to your safe list which is a list of trusted senders that most email software will allow you to create.
Email – a tone of its own
Everyone seems to be in a rush these days and sending emails is no different. We quickly dash off a new message or a response to one sent to us, often without regard to how we could make it more effective for our business. How much thought do you give to how it will be received and viewed at the recipients end (something I’ll cover Part 2 of this article)?
Every email sent to a client is an opportunity. Try to view it as such.
To our suppliers, we are clients, but you might not think it if you could see what passes for business correspondence in the form of emails. I don’t wish to seem uptight about this but if you choose to speak to clients via email, you must treat it with the same diligence you would apply to your other marketing communications.
Would you allow your staff to send your marketing messages hand scribbled on a bit of paper without any forethought? No – so why allow staff to do the equivalent by email?
Ten top tips
Make a difference now – here are my top ten email marketing tips you can employ straight away and better still, they won’t cost you a penny to implement!
DO list your services, offers etc. somewhere in each email. Simply list a few of your services at the foot of your email? E.g. “Thanks you for taking our ‘xyz’ service, however, did you know we also do …”
DO set up your ‘From’ line to start with your company name. We all want to keep our company name in front of our existing clients whenever possible? By placing it at the start of every ‘From’ line when your client looks at their email in-box your name will constantly be in front of them every day – rather than your competitors. (Great ‘persistence marketing’ and it doesn’t cost you a penny.)
DO use the power of the ‘p.s.’ at the foot of your emails. This is an excellent way to draw attention to an important point particularly if you use it as a marketing tool. E.g. “p.s. Oh, by the way, did you know we’re having an open day on….”
DO include your details somewhere within your emails. Name, address, phone number, company email address and most importantly – your website address set up as a link. To make sure people can click on your web address as an actual clickable link, always remember to include ‘http://’ before the ‘www’ part. Set all of this as an ‘Email Signature’ so you don’t have to do it for every new email.
DO start your emails on a friendly note. Don’t just launch in with the details. Keep this in mind especially when sending an email to a client.
DO avoid fancy HTML formatting in your everyday emails. You never know what software the recipient will use to receive them – boring I know, but plain text survives best. Reserve HTML formatted emails for your email marketing campaigns where you can set them up to cope with the vagaries of other people’s email systems. If you do insist on using it, then switch it off after having composed your email to see what it looks like as plain text – the way you client may see it.
DO avoid waffle. If it looks too long then it probably is! Edit it down or pick up the phone instead.
DO avoid using email as a way around speaking to clients you consider difficult. Also, do avoid becoming an email coward! Only cowards deliver bad or awkward news this way.
DO pick up the phone if you’ve got something that’s technically difficult to explain in an email– you’ll experience fewer misunderstandings.
DO be aware of your email tone or rather, the lack of it in messages. It may sound okay in your head but without your nuance of voice behind it, it could be misunderstood so always re-read it before sending.
Finally, if you’ve got the time, its much more pleasant to talk to clients in person so why not pick up the phone instead?
In part 2 of this article, we’ll talk about making sure your email looks okay at the recipient’s end and how to avoid a few of those email annoyances and bad habits.
Jon Dalrymple
Studio 9 (Scotland) Ltd.
121 Giles Street,
Edinburgh
EH6 6BZ
T: (0131) 553 1000