Step #1 – Establish a Filing System

The key to developing an email management system that’s effective and efficient lies in determining how you’ll handle storing the messages you receive.  Although leaving every message you receive in your inbox is – technically – a filing strategy, failing to find a proper home for each email can add to your stress level and cause you to misplace important information.

So before we can even begin discussing how to handle email messages on a day-to-day basis, we need to lay the groundwork for our new organizational system by putting a filing system in place first.  Of course, the specific folders that you’ll want to make use of will depend on your unique business needs, but you can start by considering some of the following options:

• Create email folders by client – Directing messages from your customers to client-specific folders can be a good way to group relevant emails together and make it easier to access information quickly when working on client projects.  If your email system allows for multiple levels of folders and sub-folders, you can even create folders for active and archived projects within each client folder.
• Create email folders by task – Alternatively, you may find it easier to group email messages according to the specific tasks they relate to.  For example, if you prefer to batch process your tasks and handle all writing projects at once, a “Writing” folder (with client-specific sub-folders, when possible) will make it easy for you to quickly see which items can be done at the same time.
• Create email folders by priority – Another possibility for managing emails is to create folders based on priority level (for example, “High priority”, “Due within a week” or “Never gonna get around to it”).  You can even set up separate priority folders next to a client- or task-based folder system so that messages can be archived in the correct location after action has been taken on them.

Depending on how you work, one of these options may intuitively make more sense than another, but don’t be afraid to experiment with your specific folder system as you go.  It can take time to understand how to manage email effectively, but if you’re diligent about sticking with your system and making improvements as needed, you’ll ultimately find that your organization will pay off in the long run.

Step #2 – Practice Making Email Decisions

Now that your email filing system is in place, it’s time to put email management rules into place!  According to most productivity and organization experts, the best way to avoid email overload is by making an immediate decision on how you’ll handle every email you receive.  That is, instead of glancing through your inbox every hour or so and opening up only the messages that look interesting, you set aside a chunk of time to determine what “next steps” should be taken on each message.

In the “Getting Things Done” world, this is called “processing time” and it plays a vital role in keeping you organized and productive:

“Processing is not doing, it’s deciding. The only “doing” time recommended during processing are those items that will take less than 2 minutes to complete.”

To set your own email processing rules, first think of all the different ways you could handle an email message:

• Deleting it, if the information isn’t relevant to you and your business
• Forwarding it, if the actions that must be taken from the message are best handled by another person
• Acting on immediately, if the resulting follow up will only take a few minutes
• Filing it, if the needed follow up will take a larger chunk of your time

With each of these possible outcomes in mind, set up a system that will allow you move through these email decisions quickly and efficiently.  For example, you could decide to only check your email once an hour, at which time, you’ll set aside ten full minutes for processing messages (you may need more or less time, depending on your usual email load).  If you choose to check your messages less frequently, you may want to make use of an autoresponder that tells senders what your email availability is and how to contact you if a response is needed sooner.

When the time roles around to check your messages, commit to going through every message you’ve received and taking the above actions immediately.  You may find it useful to set even more specific parameters to manage your inbox – for example, you may decide that actions that take fewer than one, two, five or even ten minutes will be completed immediately, while tasks requiring longer follow up will be filed away into one of the folders you created earlier in Step #1.

Step #3 – Make Use of External Email Tools

Once you have your incoming email messages under control, you can begin to add other external tools to your inbox processing method to take your email skills to the next level.  Check out any of the following options to make your email work for you (not the other way around!):

Advanced Email Spam Filters – Although most email programs come with default spam blocking installed, these tools often let messages slip through the cracks.  Advanced spam filtering programs, like GFI MailEssentials and Spam Bully, give you even more control over the messages you deem irrelevant and protect you from dangerous phishing or malicious content messages that threaten the security of your business.

In-Email CRM or Task Management Programs – If you work with a standard email platform like Microsoft Outlook or Google’s Gmail, there are a number of tools you can integrate into your inbox to make customer tracking and task creation even more efficient.  Many of these tools – YesWare and Rapportive, for example – integrate with existing CRM software programs and “to do” list managers to track information and centralize action items from within your inbox.

Email Template Creation – If you find yourself writing the same email messages over and over again, email template creator programs like TextExpander can help you to set up email templates and insert them, as needed, into messages with a simple script.  Even something as simple as using this program to set up automatic email signature insertion can save you time that’s better spent on the projects that will advance your business!

Of course, don’t go so crazy integrating these new tools that you no longer have time to maintain the email management rules you established in Step #2!  Add these tools only when you’re confident you can do so without compromising your business productivity and email inbox integrity.

Image: Keegan Jones

If you’d like to get started with email marketing but aren’t sure how to move forward, check out the following guide on how to choose the email management provider that best suits your needs and your business.

Criteria #1 – Deliverability

Not all email management providers are created equal.  In fact, there’s a huge amount of variation in terms of the quality of different providers’ services, which means that choosing a ‘fly by night’ provider could result in your messages getting stuck in your readers’ spam boxes – or not delivered in the first place.

There are a number of factors that go into email deliverability, both on the part of the email management provider and from within your user account:

• Provider quality – Because the larger, more established email marketing programs (like Aweber, Mail Chimp, Constant Contact and Infusionsoft) implement strict quality standards that prevent the use of scraped email addresses or other unethical behaviors, they’re able to work with the major email providers (including Gmail, Yahoo Mail and others) to ensure that messages sent from their users’ accounts wind up in recipients’ inboxes – not their spam folders.
• Provider size – In large part, the ability of these top-tier providers to negotiate with email programs comes from their size and clout within the industry.  Working with a smaller, lesser-known provider may result in lower deliverability rates, as these services don’t have the bargaining power to negotiate directly with email management programs to ensure that messages get where they’re supposed to go.
• Internal tools – Another important consideration when it comes to email marketing message deliverability is the spam score of the email’s content.  No matter what provider you use, packing your messages full of spam words and links to junk websites will result in a high spam score being assessed, which could prevent your message from being delivered.  The best email management providers offer tools that help you estimate the spam score of each message you send out, enabling you to correct issues that could otherwise result in your email going undelivered before you queue up the message.

In general, though, the most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to email marketing message deliverability is that the established providers typically have an advantage in terms of high deliverability rates.

Criteria #2 – Testing tools

On November 1st, we discussed how split testing different elements of your main website can help you to improve your conversion rates and increase your sales.  As you might expect, gathering this type of information about your email marketing campaigns can be just as valuable, which is why some email management providers offer testing tools that allow you to generate data to help guide your efforts.

For example, two of the different split tests you could conduct through your email marketing campaigns include:

• Open rates – Some email management programs allow you to split test your broadcast or follow up messages to determine which subject lines result in the most “opens”.  This information can be extremely useful when drafting future messages to your subscribers to increase the number of people who respond positively to your subject line and open your message.
• Web forms – Many email management providers give you the option of creating multiple versions of each  web form you deploy on your website, enabling you to find the most effective combination that results in the most new subscribers.

Be aware, though, that not all email management providers offer these tools.  If you feel that this type of data would be useful to your business, be sure to confirm that your chosen provider offers testing before you sign up.

Criteria #3 – Email template options

When it comes to sending email messages to your subscribers, there’s a huge range of stylizations you can employ – from simple text-based messages to full graphics-based HTML messages.  While there’s no set rule as to which type of message is best for any given industry, you’ll find that the most successful campaigns in the ecommerce, retail and professional services fields make use of the more visually appealing HTML campaigns.

Of course, if you plan to implement this type of campaign on your website, you’ll want to be sure that your chosen email management provider offers good looking HTML message templates that will complement the look and feel of your website.  While you can always hire a graphic designer to build a template for you, your costs and time invested will be much lower if you’re able to work off a template provided by your chosen email management program.

Criteria #4 – Cost

While cost shouldn’t be your only consideration – as  mentioned earlier, choosing a cheap but disreputable provider can result in wasted money if your messages aren’t delivered at all – it certainly is a factor for most business people!

Fortunately, even the highest quality email management programs are generally very affordable, although you’ll need to do some comparison shopping to understand how each program stacks up, as you aren’t always comparing apples to apples.  Most email management providers price their services in tiers based on the number of subscribers you sign up, but since the tiers don’t usually line up between programs, you’ll want to estimate the number of subscribers you plan to enroll in the future to choose the program that makes the most financial sense for you.

Criteria #5 –Training Tools

Email marketing has a learning curve, so finding a provider that offers free support and training resources can be a big plus.  To get a feel for the tools each email management provider offers, navigate to its “Help” section.  The best providers use this space to offer video training, knowledgebase articles and a host of other learning materials designed to improve their customers’ email marketing skills.

Of course, a lack of training tools shouldn’t be a deal breaker – after all, there are plenty of free articles and resources online that can help you hone your email marketing skills independently.  However, keep in mind that any training tools provided by your provider represent their best practices as determined by actual user data, making these resources much more valuable.

So before you sign up for an account with a new email management program, be sure to take these factors into consideration.  Although most email list managers don’t require lengthy contracts, switching between providers because the one you had chosen doesn’t have all the features you need is a time-consuming hassle.  Get your email marketing campaign off on the right foot by choosing the program that’s right for you from the start.

Image: Micky.!