Topic: “5 Proven Methods To Reduce Email Time And Regain Productivity” Since billions of emails are sent daily, it’s not surprising that many of us feel like reading and responding to messages makes us stressed out and less productive. Email is a big and important part of how we talk to each other daily. They help us with everything, from working with customers to working with each other.
But there’s no denying that, on average, emails are a reactive task that can sometimes keep us from doing more important things. Email marketing automation software has made it much faster and easier for marketers to deal with emails. But how can we spend less time communicating with customers, clients, and coworkers through emails? Let’s look at five tips that you can use to get more done with emails.
Set limits on checking email
If you’re always getting sidetracked by your emails, you’re not the only one. A recent survey found that 30% of remote workers were more distracted by getting work emails than by checking social media or being at home. It’s easy to lose track of your time on email. Use the tips below to try setting some limits and being more self-disciplined.
Create Templates
Some emails we send over and over again. Why not make email templates, so you don’t have to write these emails from scratch every time? Businesses use templates all the time as a way to write copy. For emails from coworkers, you can type up one of your standard answers and save it as a template.
Make sure to give your templates good names and categories, and update or remove them as needed. Searching through a templates folder that is not well organized can take as much time as writing messages from scratch. Making email marketing templates is also a great way to save time. A recent Litmus report says that email design is one of the tasks that take the most time in email marketing.
You can use many free email themes and plugins to save time when making newsletters, promotions, and other things. The best email-building company tools let you change everything about their email templates, which helps keep your brand consistent and reduces the time it takes to make emails.
Keep your emails short.
Emails are not the place to write long, flowery sentences. Blocks of text with many words are hard to read and can lead to misunderstandings. Most likely, you’ll have to go back and forth a lot. Keep your emails short and to the point, and tell people what you want them to do next in a clear way. This makes it less likely that they will email you back to ask for more information. Even so, it’s still important to personalize your emails, so don’t forget to be kind and friendly.
Reduce Email Messiness
Inbox blindness isn’t just something that consumers deal with. If you get a lot of irrelevant work emails, especially if you don’t read them and don’t file them, you’re more likely to miss your important emails. Also, as the number of emails in your inbox grows, it gets harder to find the one you need.
You have to look for emails individually, and sometimes you have to dig deep into your inbox to find what you want. Mail Manager found that 73% of people seem to think they devote too much time looking for specific emails. 56% of people find it frustrating to find emails, and 70% think it’s one of the biggest time-wasters. Try some tips for organizing and cleaning your inbox to reduce stress and get more done.
Promote other ways to get in touch.
Look, there’s a reason that so many businesses are turning their call centers into cloud contact centers. One way to get in touch is no longer enough. Um, you ask, what is a cloud contact center? It’s a full set of tools that lets businesses talk to customers easily through many channels, like phone calls, email, text messaging, SMS, and more.
Email is a great way to get in touch with people, but it does have some problems. The biggest problem is that explaining complicated ideas or detailed instructions doesn’t work as well. You end up confusing the person you’re writing to and getting into long email conversations with them.
If you need to write a lengthy response to an email, use another way to talk. This could mean that you need to enhance your omnichannel customer service so that customers can contact you through different channels without having to tell you the same thing repeatedly.
Calls and video chats are great ways to explain complicated ideas. On the other hand, quick fixes are best done through live online chat or social media messaging. Research by Commbox shows that customers would rather use chatbots, Facebook, Whatsapp, and SMS than email.
Promoting other ways to contact you should be something you do consistently across all channels if you want to keep optimal volumes. For example, putting your phone number in your email signature can make a customer more likely to call you.
In the same way, if your business phone is constantly being used to ask about shipping or return policies, you can use IVR software to send them to your website’s FAQs instead. When you have more ways to get in touch with someone, you spend less time dealing with emails.
Conclusion
Responding to emails may be an important part of your workday, but if you don’t set limits, it can cause you to put things off. When you combine this with a full inbox, you might feel overwhelmed and unable to get anything done.
But once you have a routine, managing your emails has become an important part of your work. Using some of the above tips, like keeping emails short, using layouts, cleaning out your inbox, and using other channels, you can spend fewer hours on emails and much more time doing the work you love.
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