the Portal

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I must be crazy! Anyone who’s ever worked with me will find this post at least mildly amusing if not ironic. My emails tend to be strongly worded and free with unsolicited opinion. I’ve occasionally hurt people’s feelings and certainly talked down to them.

I also tend to know when I’ve done so. And, like any repentant sinner, I’m working to remedy my shortcomings. Who better, then, to suggest ways to make email simpler, more effective, and more humane? And so, without further ado, my best research and business wisdom on how to use email more productively and how to know when to walk away . . . or pick up the phone.

Set Up an Account (Address) That’s Strictly Business

Don’t use your employer’s email address, or your personal one. If you blog, and have your own domain, you can set up an extra e-mail and give it unique name (dissimilar from other ones in use at this same URL). In lieu of your own domain, ISP providers such as GoDaddy or 1&1 also offer email-only plans. Even cheaper, and just as effective, is Gmail. The point of this exercise is to set up an address that handles, separately, any new business you generate via social media or your own email marketing campaigns. Your email address is an important part of your brand.

Use Your Branded Address to Generate and Track New Business

Unless using Gmail, choose an email application for sorting your contact list and creating special groups or subgroups of recipients. Part 3 of this series described email applications in some detail. Create a signature for yourself, with your full name, business name, and links to social media. You can even insert your logo, with a hyperlink to your homepage or blog. Check out Personal Branding Blog‘s great post on how to create an email signature.

Look for Opportunities to Mail to Your List

If you’re not quite ready yet to publish a regular e-mail newsletter, at least make an effort three or four times a year to send something useful to everyone you’re in contact with. Perhaps a series of links relating to developments in your field of interest — or, alternatively, theirs. Learn the ins and outs of your email application of choice and, if possible, personalize to each recipient. At a minimum, place all your addressees in the blind cc field, so you’re not revealing other people’s identity to people they don’t know. Save all your mass mailings in a folder, with the date or subject of the mailing so you can check later to see who you mailed to. Pay attention to the “bounce backs.” Validate and correct the addresses you can — delete the others, or move to an “inactive file.” The second best reason to mail regularly to your entire list is to keep up with the people you’re following.

Make Every Mailing the Best It Can Be

Whether a mass mailing, or an individual, purpose-driven one, here are some tips to make it as effective and considerate of your reader as you can make it.

• Punch up your subject line — try to make it descriptive and enticing to the reader. Don’t ever leave it blank, and avoid generic lines like “important news” or “that file you requested.” Give them a clue why you’re writing and what you hope their response will be. For example: “Decision Needed. Cover design selection due Tuesday.”
• Write “pyramid style,” with the most important information at the beginning, lesser supporting in diminishing order of importance. TRY to keep the message to three or four paragraphs. Break long emails into smaller ones, grouping your topics, or at least number each topic and bold the key point so the reader can scan.
• Avoid attachments — particularly for unsolicited mailings. Paste the content into the body of the message or insert a link with description of the content.
• Never write while you’re angry. If you feel you’ve been wronged or misunderstood, take a break from it (for at least 24 hours when you can) and, if possible, follow up with a phone call next. Sometimes we misconstrue a tone or “hidden agenda” from the written text that was not intended. Try to clarify the issue in person or over the phone. At a minimum, give it some time. If you find yourself going back and forth with someone over the course of two or three messages, take it from me: the medium’s no longer working for you.
• Break the bondage. If your profession or workload allows it, set two (no more than three) times a day you’ll check email. Ignore altogether the ones you get on your smart phone — unless you’re away from the office when you normally check. I’ve found I get a lot more done during the day, and once you tell your senders what your typical routine is, most will be fine with it. In some cases, in the midst of a deadline perhaps, this may not work all the time. But it’s worth a try.
• Auto-sort your messages. Most of us receive lots of different kinds of mail: RSS feeds, work mail, personal or organizational etc. Email applications let you create rules so that all mail from a particular sender or URL gets posted to the folder of your choice. If you set up rules for everyone you normally hear from, you’ll be able to see (and check) at a glance only the ones you expect are “short fuse.” And read the rest at a more convenient time.

This ends the Optimize Your Small Business series. Take a look at the other topics, below. Let me know what tools you’re using in your own practice, or what you think of the advice.

• Part 1, a Backup System That Works
• Part 2, Best Basic Apps
• Part 3, Rethink Your Email System
• Part 4, Build a List and Check it Twice