Email is an essential tool in the work and everyday life of a marketeer or public relations professional. It allows you to reach – still as no way other – your various stakeholders, from journalists to clients, to suppliers and clients’ customers. However, in order to be a useful and effective communication tool, we should try to avoid inboxes filled with unopened mails, “maybe one day, to read and respond or delete,” or messages sent with less assertive or seductive titles, less clear or with no relevance to its recipients.
As for the massive accumulation of emails in the inbox, there are several techniques to manage the chaos. Above all, it is important to value and “decide” at every moment what to do with the emails that keep coming in … read, save, reply, forward or, quite simply (without sorrow or liturgies!), delete. As suggested by Val Geisler in the article 3 Lessons From An Email Guru For Taming Inbox Chaos, the lesson #1 goes through seizing the “3 Fs: forwarding, folders, filters”.
Regarding the outbox or sent boxes, the responsibility for its arrangement and effectiveness is clearly on our side. There’s no other way to put it. And one thing is for sure: whenever we do not meet the essential rules of communication or push them to the limit, clarity, accuracy and relevance, we risk that our mails and communications fall into oblivion – or spamming – of those who receive them.