How To Send And Receive Less Email

This year most of my email training clients have had the same main request; they want their employees to learn how to email effectively so that they send and receive fewer email. And no wonder since the average business person sends and receives over 100 email every day… many over 300 every day.

Email was once seen as a tool that would increase efficiencies and competitive opportunity. Today email is a great business tool we can’t do without. But more and more we’re using it as a crutch instead of as a catapult.

Email Icon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The challenge is that the way we write email is decreasing our efficiencies, easily costing companies $3,000 or more PER employee every year in loss of productivity and opportunity lost… not to mention the loss to their personal and professional reputation.

How much time we spend emailing every day is astonishing. For example: if a person sends and receives 100 email during an 8-hour day (not accounting for lunch, breaks or meetings), they use email every 4.8 minutes.  If they send and receive 300 email they use email every 1.6 minutes. imagine…

Thankfully there are a easy steps we can all learn to use that will reduce email volume and be more efficient at work; here are just a few.

Use The Phone Or Walk Down The Hall

Sometimes even the most professional email is not the right solution. If we’re wondering how to email, the best strategy may be to pick up the phone – especially if there are issues that need to be brainstormed. The bonus is that conversations often build better business relationships and usually take less time.

Consider All Of Your Needs – And All Of Your Readers Needs

Too often we write email as a single thought – not a complete need or objective. Over an extended period of time (and countless email interruptions), we send email messages back and forth until we finally have discussed or shared (perhaps with some frustration), all the important points. When you write email, learn to bottom line your objectives and stick to the important issues – but cover all of them at once.

Write Great Email Subject Lines

Email subject lines are used as a primary resource readers use to determine if they will read your email now, later or never. Subject lines are also the first opportunity for you to make an impression. If you leave the subject line blank – or use a universal word like ‘Sale’ or ‘Meeting’, you risk being overlooked – all the time.

Value Your Values

Employees should know without hesitation the corporate and department values. They should also know how they can use these values to differentiate the company and themselves every time they write email or speak with clients, suppliers or their co-workers.

Conclusion

Email training is a fast and efficient way to turn email back into a catapult for your employees and business. When you know how to email, it’s a powerful business tool and a very sound investment.

Happy communicating.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is based in Toronto and facilitates business writing, email writing and email etiquette courses.

We are… Strategic   Branded   Relevant

Other Interesting BMC Articles: What Is Communication?, Measure Training Effectiveness, An Email Style Guide; Should Your Company Have One? and Effective Business Email Writing Training.

Give us a call at 416 462 1473. We’ll listen.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Please like, share, subscribe and/or comment on this blog.

My Business Email (a rhyme – not a poem)

If someone told me yesterday I would be posting a business email rhyme I would have thought that they were off their rocker. Then last night happened.

To be very clear, I am not a poet. However last night I awoke at 11:30 PM with a pile of words rhyming around in my head. I learned long ago sometimes destiny needs to have its own way so I got out of bed and put fingers to keyboard. Soon after I crawled back into bed and was fast asleep having purged the words from my mind.

Long story short… with only a sparse attempt at editing, here is my business email rhyme (out of respect for all poets and poetry readers I refrain from calling it a poem).

My business email
Get to the point
They answer Who, What, Where and When first
Then Why and How last

My business email
Are easy to read
My ‘Action Items’ found easily
For the reader and me

My business email
Use a ‘Subject Line’ that’s clear
There’s no question of purpose
So they’re read first and not… last (at the rear)

My business email
Use To… and Cc… proper
To… means ‘Read This Now Please’
Cc… means ‘This Is Not A Show Stopper’

My business email
Are short not abrupt
Care is important
Email can cause a reader to erupt

My business email
Consider customer service as key
Clients, suppliers and co-workers
Deserve quality attention from me

My business email
Let my values shine through
I remember to do
Everything I can do

My business email
Are used to confirm fact
I use the phone or my feet
When I need to brainstorm or chat

My business email
Know grammar’s a friend
I use bullets and commas
And periods to end

My business email
Use Hello, Please and Thank you
Young family lessons
Are business tools also

My business email
Address people by name
I build trust in my promises
And that trust is my fame

So there you have it my friends and followers. I hope this has brought you a smile… and perhaps an email writing tip. And if you get woken up in the middle of the night by a thought, know you are not alone. I may also be awake. Mine might be the other light that is on down the street.

Happy communicating.

Imagine work being easier. Imagine work being more productive.

Click here to join our priority list of people who receive our latest Business Communication blog posts.

If you enjoyed this post we think you’ll like: Email Writing Training, Core Values and Good Email Bad Email.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting facilitates email writing, email etiquette and customer service courses.

Give us a call at 416 617 0462. We’ll listen.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Communication Skills: How To Write

We work in a communication age where we have remarkable tools that all but guarantee we can communicate with anyone at any time and at any place.

Do you remember when the promise was that these communication tools would improve our productivity so we would have the time to build valuable relationships with our customers? These deep customer relationships would also lead to long-term corporate profitability and employee satisfaction.

How is that working out?

I bet you and your teams are busier and have more pressure at work (and unfortunately frustration), than ever before… and there’s good reason.

At one end of our pressure at work problem is global competition, which is greater than ever (you and I can’t do much about global competition). At the other end of our pressure at work problem is that we have never received training on how to use the technology our employers have invested in (heavily). The result is that most of us are using writing skills we learned to write essays at school to build and manage professional relationships (you and I can easily fix this in as little as four hours).

Lets Look At Two Email Examples.

Instead of building relationships based on mutual trust, understanding and need we default to writing unnecessarily long or surgically short messages that often frustrate and confuse our reader. Also, our messages are interpreted as abrupt and (unfortunately), self-serving.

Original Email Example 1: It’s Surgically Short

Please set an appointment to bring your car in for its Spring Service. We’ll also check your air conditioner. Your cost is only $15.95.

Revised Email Example 1: 

To maintain optimal fuel economy and save money on gas, please set an appointment to bring your car in for its Spring Service next week. This appointment includes an air conditioner test so that we can help you stay cool this summer. Your cost is only $15.95.

Original Email Example 2: It Lacks Important Information

Below are the orders that I need a status on. Please reply as soon as possible. I am trying to prevent the customer from cancelling.

Revised Email Example 2:

I would like your help to prevent the customer cancelling the following 5 orders.
Please confirm today if it’s possible for us to receive all 5 orders at our Galt Ave location by next Wednesday, July 13.
My mobile at 416 617 0462 if you have any questions or if I can help.

Questions:

• Which manages your businesses expectations and makes the receiver feel cared for and respected?
• Which manages the receivers’ expectations and builds long-term relationships?
• Which makes the receiver want to take immediate action?

The Original Email Examples are both accurate – but they are cold and seem to be only about the reader. The Revised Email Examples are about the writer as well as taking care of and / or partnering with the reader.

The Solution

To be successful you have to focus on both a micro and a macro business solution.

It’s important to know your audiences aren’t sitting around. They’re busy trying to get what they need. So when you make contact you have to show them you are looking after their best interests… every time. To do this your messages have to fill their needs first.

Macro: Your marketing and advertising messages have to be honest, up front and uniquely yours. This includes all communication to prospects, customers, suppliers, and to each other. Everyone at your company has to act as a cohesive team and support the corporate brand.

Micro: Your one-on-one conversations (with prospects, customers, suppliers, and each other), have to be honest, personalized and relevant to your readers needs. Nothing fancy – just focused on their needs.

If you clearly care for your readers needs:

• They will be impressed, do what you want and come back… and likely tell all their friends about you, your service and how happy they are.
• Your stress, frustration will decrease. Your workload and email inbox will also decrease as you become more efficient and effective writing better business email.

You can’t just say you are customer focused; you have to live up to your brand promise all the time. You have to think different and act different to be different.

Happy communicating.

Click here to join our priority list of people who receive our latest Business Communication blog posts.

If you enjoyed this post we think you’ll like: Bruce on Canada AM, Build Client Trust and Effective Business Email Writing Training.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting facilitates business writing, email writing and email etiquette courses.

Give us a call at 416 617 0462. We’ll listen.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Related articles

• Be Amazing… At Work. (brucemayhew.wordpress.com)
• Organizational Behaviour; Impact On Customer Retention (brucemayhew.wordpress.com)

4 Reasons You Don’t Get What You Want When You Email.

Have you ever sent an email that has been misinterpreted? Have you ever asked someone to do something and instead they did:

• Something very different from you expected
• A lot less than you expected
• A lot more than you expected

You don’t need me to tell you this is a large drain on time / resources; a drain that’s exponentially compounded because now you also have to follow-up and correct the situation with your customers and/or co-workers. What a brand nightmare. It’s like tying an anvil to resources throughout your company including customer service, employee satisfaction, productivity targets and of course your companies revenues.

You are not alone… and fortunately you can economically cut that anvil loose.

This waste of time and resources happens to most people… most companies… everywhere… and here are 4 good reasons why. Most people:

1. Read email by skimming – hoping to find a nugget of information or an action item they can act on… quickly. In essence they speed read email.
2. Write email based on our own perspective, knowledge and needs – not our audiences. This is a huge problem.
3. Read their email through a ‘Preview Screen’. Studies have shown that close to 60% of people do this.
4. Write and read almost all their email on a Smartphone or PAD which:

• Restricts our ability to absorb information – especially long messages
• Causes us to be very too brief when writing messages – see points one and two

Based on this, when you write an email a large number of your email will not be understood and / or acted upon as you wanted. Is this acceptable?  I say no. It isn’t for me. But if half of the problem is how people read your email, can you as the email writer help them understand so you get what you want? I say yes. You do have almost 100% control.

You Have Control.

You have the ability to manage the outcome so it works in your favour – and that means you make a very good impression and you get what you want:

• When you want it
• The way you want it
• In less time (because you get your answer fast and correctly and with only one email)

If you’re managing people’s expectations and are considering your readers needs and environment, and using email etiquette techniques you can manage your readers expectations. You can help your reader understand your message so that you get what you want when you email. Trust me – that is something I know.

Imagine the amount of time lost if 10% of your email are not understood (received or read). Imagine the time it takes to send a follow-up email and to correct the situation. Imagine the impact it has on employee morale and customer satisfaction.

I’m serious – stop for a moment and think about how much is being lost across your job and across the company.

Conclusion:  Don’t let email be a drain on resources and productivity

Email communication doesn’t have to be a drain on time, resources or productivity is going to change – in fact pressures for all of us to do more with less time and fewer resources… even though this is causing individuals stress and company’s money in lost productivity and therefore ROI. We should be trying to do more with more… like the Apple Store. And in that case customers are lining up to buy their products.

Make sure that when you are writing email (or leaving voice messages), you don’t give away your power. You have control; don’t give away your ability to be relevant to your audience and therefore get what you want. The best way to satisfy your needs it to be careful to address the 4 reasons why your email are not understood.

As an email author it’s in your best interest to write in a way that will help you message be clearly – and easily understood so you meet your objectives. Your next goal when you communicate is to build relationships with your co-workers, customers and suppliers than your competitors.

Imagine work being easier. Imagine work being more productive.

Happy communicating.

Click here to join our priority list of people who receive our latest Business Communication blog posts.

If you enjoyed this post we think you’ll like: Bruce on Canada AM, Build Client Trust and Effective Business Email Writing Training.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting facilitates business writing, email writing and email etiquette courses.

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Be Amazing… At Work.

We are all amazing in our own way.

In this post lets discuss some of the workplace advantages and opportunities to impress ourselves, our bosses and to improve customer satisfaction so that customers will never think to go anywhere else.

Why should you be amazing… at work?

Being amazing is very attractive… to your customers and your boss. By being amazing you will FEEL GREAT and Proud. You will also:

• Be more creative, innovative, adaptable, and therefore efficient
• Provide enviable (and hard-to-copy), customer service
• Save time (yours and your customers)
• Reduce costs (yours and your customers)

All of these benefits also make being amazing financially rewarding. However, if you hold back there’s no way you can be amazing and show your passion for your work. There’s no way to give yourself AND your company that competitive advantage.

What can you do to be amazing… at work?

Leave behind your hesitations. It doesn’t matter if you are an introvert or an extrovert; some of the common workplace hesitations that may be holding you back are as follows:

• Being amazing is the same as showing off – which is VERY different
• Being amazing takes more time – it often saves you time
• You don’t have the corporate freedom – in many cases I bet you do
• You don’t know how to be amazing in a respectful way – that can be fixed… starting here

A friend of mine would be quick to point out that this is a list of reasons and fears. He would also say, “Leave them behind. Overcome them” Instead of thinking of all these negatives, think about all of the possibilities where you can embrace creativity to create the future you want. Just go do it!

An example of a small safe step

Get your team together (or get a blank piece of paper by yourself). Your goal is to brainstorm amazing ways you can provide great customer service – there are likely hundreds. Let all ideas be good ideas. Then prioritize your list. When you’re done, choose one or two ideas to implement. Don’t try to implement them all at once.

You might need some help or some training to accomplish your idea(s). You might need to create a few new templates. You might have to move furniture around your office. Don’t let those things hold you back – Just go do it! As soon as you have the confidence to show your strengths there will be no stopping you and the financial and personal payback will be many times your time and / or monetary investment.

If you have read many of my blog posts you’ll know I often give practical applications. So, since I specialize in Effective Business Writing I’m going to show you two practical email examples of how you can be amazing (without being egotistical).

Since 90% of our business communication is via email – polishing your email writing is an easy win where training can have a large impact on your whole team.

Email Example 1:

Before…

Yes, we have the latest iPhone in stock.

After…

Yes, we have the latest iPhone in stock in white and black.

We only have two in black so I have put one aside for you. Is that the colour you wish?

Email Example 2:

Before…

Here is the latest report for Mondays meeting.

After…

Here is a pdf. of the latest Sales report for Mondays meeting. Our October and November sales are 22% above last year’s volumes. Lets explore ways to continue this growth.

In the After… messages you have managed expectations and found simple ways to be amazing by thinking about what your audiences needs. By being amazing you have:

• Made your expectations clear
• Managed everyone else’s expectations
• Saved YOUR time
• Saved your audiences time

That’s how you build relationships and create loyal customers. Take a look at your email messages. Do they say you are amazing? Do they say you are taking care of the people who depend on you?

Conclusion:

Let flexibility, creativity and innovation happen. Being amazing is the only sustainable strategy to create long-term value. Anything less can be immediately copied by your competitors.

How can you encourage everyone to be amazing? By always looking for creative ways to delight. Being creative for the sake of creativity only satisfies your needs. But, if your main goal is finding new ways to delight your customers… being amazing (being creative) will bring you much success.

Happy communicating.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is based in Toronto and facilitates business writing, email writing and email etiquette courses.

We are… Strategic   Branded   Relevant

Other Interesting BMC Articles: What Is Communication?, Measure Training Effectiveness, An Email Style Guide; Should Your Company Have One? and Effective Business Email Writing Training.

Give us a call at 416 462 1473. We’ll listen.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Don’t forget to share this blog.

Create A Team of… Director of First Impressions.

I was inspired to write this post after reading an article in Fast Company©. The article reminded me of a conversation I had a few months back with a past co-worker.

He was excited that the staff he hired was more educated than ever before – but frustrated because his budgets were cut so his ability to help these great new people learn the culture of the organization and be productive team members was near impossible.

So, to all of you in the same boat (as my dad would have said), I offer you this perspective.

Your employees are your most valuable – and probably your most expensive asset. They are central to every customer experience.

Your employees are busy:

• Finding your customers
• Answering questions / concerns
• Conducting marketing research
• Designing new products / services
• Invoicing and collecting
• and more…

Yet your financial success is hanging by a thread. To be successful your employees have to find a balance between doing their jobs and always making good first impressions.

Customer Relationships Are Built On Customer Experiences

Successful reputations are no longer created only by marketing strategies. Your brand is determined by how each customer / prospect ‘feels‘ after they have contact with your employees. Then they decide if they will do business with… your employees / your company.

First impressions are made in 1 to 4 minutes and people make these judgments as soon as they:

• Meet your employees
• Read an email from your employees
• Sit through a presentation by your employees
• Visit your website… designed by your employees

So it’s important all your employees know how to be Director of First Impressions – no matter what their job is.

Yet training to be a great Sales Person, Advertiser, Product Developer or Accountant doesn’t include how to manage expectations or make good first impressions. When did any of us receive communication training?

At university I learned a skill but not how to write a short, to-the-point email or to create and deliver professional presentations. At home my parents taught me about values and work ethics… but not business etiquette or email etiquette.

And the problem is getting worse. An associate of mine is teaching a college course and was instructed by the college to grade his class on how well they seem to understand the material – not their writing or presentation skills.

Communication Challenges Cause Customers & Employees To Leave

Our most valuable assets are trying to be their best to make the company profitable using their education and skills… but are being frustrated because they are having trouble building relationships and getting their work done. They might even be creating enemies along the way.

For both employees and customers this frustration begins soon after their professional relationships begin. Feelings of not being appreciated and of not being given the service or opportunities promised. This frustration starts your customers looking for a new service provider and your employers looking for a new employer. This means a drain to your ROI as the investment you’ve already made in your customers and employees will be lost.

We all know it’s more profitable to keep an existing customer rather than to find a new one. Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company reports that acquiring a new customer can cost 6 to 7 times more than retaining an existing customer. A stat I’ve seen many times during my career.

It’s also more profitable to keep a talented employee than to find, hire and train a new one. William G. Bliss estimates the cost of losing an employee is 150 – 250% of their salary. He calculates that for a company with 10,000 employees the cost of turnover equals $75 million (or $750,000 for a company with 100 employees)!

Investing In Your Employees Is An Investment In Your Company

If these last two calculations are even half true, it’s clearly economical to invest in employees and help them learn the skills they didn’t learn in school – as we’ve discussed: How to be Directors of First Impressions.

The benefit is that employees want to be productive, fulfilled and they want some stability. They also are fully capable of building the relationships customers want. Employees just need a bit of help to know how to communicate well in this electronic world they do business in.

Happy communicating.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Email Writing Training, Measure Training Effectiveness and Good Email Bad Email.

Give us a call at 416.617.0462. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is based in Toronto and facilitates business writing, email writing and email etiquette courses.

We are… Strategic   Branded   Relevant

bruce@brucemayhewconsulting.com

Don’t forget to Subscribe to this blog (upper right side). Your email address will be confidential and well-respected.

An Email Style Guide; Should Your Company Have One?

Since over 90% of most business communication and relationships are managed via email, now might be the right time for you to have an email Style Guide. In other words… create a policy guide that will do many positive things like:

• Establish e-guidelines and expectations that help employees provide consistent professional service
• Empower everyone to demonstrate your company’s unique style, products / services, brand
• Unite your employees in a Team Building exercise
• Support all levels of your company and your customers

And to add even more benefit, an email Style Guide is also a powerful orientation tool to introduce new staff as well as suppliers / contract employees.

As you consider this path, your first few questions will likely be, “What is the process?” and ”What will we end up with?” Well the answer to both questions is quite simple. You can focus on policies that outline:

• “What People Can Do”  Or
• “What People Can Not Do”

Because we live in a judicial society (more stick than carrot), the more common approach is unfortunately the later. My advice as a Toronto based consultant who provides email writing training, is that you choose the flexible approach and create a Style Guide that will be a positive influence and act as a guideline – not a rulebook. By focusing on “What People Can Do” you benefit by empowering your employees to make the right choices in many different situations.

Should Your Company’s Email Style Guide Be Custom?

Another question you might have is “Can I buy an off-the-shelf solution?“

To answer that question you need to look internally. Your products / services are unique. Your customer service is unique. Your mission, vision and values are unique. The way you do business and your unique value proposition is different from your competitors. Your customer mix and their needs are unique. So, should your email Style Guide be unique?

The way I am positioning this you already know I believe your email Style Guide should be unique to your company. Here is more detail why.

Your brand reputation is one of your most valuable assets – and because you and your employees communicate 90% of the time via email, it’s one of the most visible ways to live your brand… every minute of every day.

Using another company’s Style Guide is like moving into a neighbours home. Even in Toronto that just isn’t done. In a business environment, if you use policies that are not your own you force a disconnect between your core competencies, your customer service and your customer expectations. That disconnect will be felt every minute of every day by your employees and your customers… and that will result in you losing both employees and customer from frustration (both of which negatively impact ROI).

With virtually no more work this is also your opportunity to define your companies unique style for all electronic based communication be it email, email marketing, presentations, websites etc. Because they are all in the electronic world – they all pretty much follow the same guidelines.

By building your own email Style Guide you will also get maximum team-building benefit by seeing this process as a unique organization-wide opportunity. The benefit is to let all employees have impact – to allow everyone to join together and build a document that represents all that is best about your company / employees / product / service. That said, most companies will want to establish a design team, (a body of people who will collect and evaluate employee feedback with the corporate culture and corporate mission and vision for the future).

What Should Your Email Style Guide Include?

There is no definitive email style guide rulebook that must be followed to the letter. Every company is unique and as I suggested I believe your email Style Guide should be designed to match the unique corporate culture.

But, it’s nice to have a starting place, so the following offers a sample of email etiquette categories to be addressed.

1. Support The Visual / Readability:

• Agreed upon email signature structure
• Social Media references and graphics
• Agreed upon fonts, colours and layouts

2. How to Support Your Brand:

• Tag line
• Demonstrate corporate values and customer service promise
• How to treat ethnicity, gender, religious or racial references

3. Structure /  Composition:

• When to use To, Cc… and Bcc…
• How to quickly address the essential information (get to the point)
• How to manage multiple topics and / or multiple audiences

Conclusion

As you plan your email Style Guide and who will help you with this important project I offer you this one last tip.

In most cases when someone reads your email they are making a choice to invest their valuable time and talent. In almost every case the decision to read or not read your email is based on your email etiquette and the following:

• Your past email reputation (for being relevant, to the point, well written and polite)
• Your subject line
• What they see within the preview screen  (which is usually only the first few lines of your message). In fact – many people even answer based on those first few lines only

Make sure you create a helpful guide that everyone at your company uses to demonstrate they respect their audiences time as much as they respect their own time. If they do, your employees – and your company will be rewarded with respect, loyalty, better work relationships and greater ROI.

Imagine work being easier. Imagine work being more productive.

Happy communicating.

Click here to join our priority list of people who receive our latest Business Communication blog posts.

If you enjoyed this post we think you’ll like: Email Writing Training, Measure Training Effectiveness and Good Email Bad Email.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting facilitates business writing, email writing and email etiquette courses.

Give us a call at 416 617 0462. We’ll listen.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Out Of Office Reply = Customer Service

Your out-of-office reply is often the last thing on your mind and the last thing you do (if you do it at all), when you go on vacation or attend a conference.

That’s unfortunate since your out-of-office message is an important part of customer service and client management while you’re away. It’s also likely going to impact how relaxing your vacation or how rewarding your conference will be.

Manage Expectations: Client Respect and Co-worker Respect

Other people are relying on you. A simple, clear out-of-office reply demonstrates client management and co-worker respect. Keeping clients informed is also great customer service and business etiquette. And, it means it’s less likely something will go ‘critical’ because you are out-of-office.

The bonus is that if your respect your clients and co-workers you’ll also protect your brand and reputation. Here are three steps you can take.

Step 1. Four Suggestions To Prepare Early

• Make your pending departure part of your email signature and voice mail ahead of time. Why wait to the last-minute? All of your clients and co-workers are busy; this also serves as a gentle reminder
• Write your best out-of-office reply ahead of time. Follow the voice and email  guideline I’ve provided below
• Identify your back-up person and prepare them for your departure. Follow the work with your back-up guideline I’ve provided below
• Update your ‘at work’ calendar so it shows you are out-of-office

One approach I often use when I’m going to be away for a week or more is to block my calendar as out-of-office one day earlier – and in the office one day later. This helps me prepare and manage critical / last-minute things at the back-end and sort through email and phone messages and get caught-up on the front end in a controlled – focused way.

Risks of a bad out-of-office reply (or no message at all), is that your mind and energy will keep focusing on work-related ‘stuff’. This isn’t fair to you or the people you are with. Especially on vacation, everyone needs to get some time-off.

Step 2. How To Create An Out-Of-Office Reply

What should you include when creating an expert out-of-office reply? The following provides some business etiquette guidelines – but also consider your audiences specific needs.

Make your message relevant for your audience – and useful. Example: It should include:

• Your name, position and company
• Day leaving / returning
• Your back-up’s name and position
• Your back-up’s email address and phone number
• Still invite them to leave a message
• Invite them to press 0 for the operator (if appropriate)
• Will you be checking messages?
• Will someone else pick-up and respond to your messages?

Give the people calling all the information they need to act or to find your back-up. Don’t make them hunt for an email or phone number – they have already spent time trying to call you. Hunting down your back-up will only frustrate them… and your back-up is going to be the one getting an earful.

The following message is not helpful: “Hi, I’m on vacation and will have limited access to email and voice mail.”

Example Email / Voice Mail Structure Variation (to one line):

I’ll be out of the office on Friday December 12 and will return Monday January 2. While I’m away I will have limited access to my email. I’ll be checking email (once a week, every morning, etc).

Step 3. Work With Your Back-up

If you have a back-up (like Ben), make sure Ben knows he is your back-up and also that Ben will be in the office (and not on his vacation).

Then, spend time with your backup to review your accounts / projects. Set them up for success – not failure. Review critical clients and expectations with them. This will help prevent emergency phone calls and email to your while you’re away. Make sure your backup is managing tasks – not putting out fires.

Oh – and when you are away I recommend you turn roaming off your smartphone. Often your App’s (Blackberry, iPhone, Android or other), will keep ‘pinging’ the service server and updating. Turning your phone off will save you from a large bill.

If you’re looking for how to set up an out-of-office vacation auto-reply check with your email or voice mail service provider. Each program has variations both within the program application as well as each version.

Bonus Tip

If you’re planning to be reachable while you are out-of-office so that you stay up-to-date, be sure to set parameters around your contact. I personally try to avoid staying in touch when on vacation – everyone needs a rest.

Imagine work being easier. Imagine work being more productive.

Happy communicating.

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If you enjoyed this post we think you’ll like: What Is Communication?, Measure Training Effectiveness and Effective Business Email Writing Training.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting facilitates business writing, email writing and email etiquette courses.

Give us a call at 416 617 0462. We’ll listen.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Email Marketing: Direct Marketing In Action

Email is part of an evolution that started in the 1960’s as an inexpensive solution to instantly send messages between networked computers. While email wasn’t designed as a direct marketing tool, email marketing is certainly a natural evolution considering how quickly our lives and communication styles have changed since the 1990’s when email became popular.

It’s no surprise email marketing also has some unique challenges.

Get To The Point

With the widespread adoption of email many of us lost our ability to get to the point. Back when we had to invest in hand writing or phone communication, getting to the point was more natural. Who had the time to hand write a page or two of background or meandering thoughts?

But email helped make typing lots of copy quick and easy. Soon abundance became a common error of email writing as well as web writing, brochure writing and proposal writing. We started to write down everything and hope the reader found a reference to something they liked, related to and/or needed.

Not much changed when businesses started to use email as a marketing tool. Lots of email marketing did… and still does look like a child’s cereal box. The problems were too much detail, too many photos and as much attention grabbing hoopla as possible.

And for a while people paid attention… because email marketing was new. It’s not new anymore.

Email Marketing Is Often An Interruption

Today email marketing is more competitive and our target audiences are jaded from being over stimulated and/or taken advantage of. There’s been so much bad email (even regular business email), that when you get a good message it really stands out. Customers notice.

Remember the Mini Car ad’s when the car re-launched? They stood out – they were fun. They were never seen as an interruption because they were relevant and to-the-point. Even if we didn’t want one we wanted to learn about them.  They were so to-the-point we would read them and instantly know why it would be great for us.

So in the end the Mini Car ads were good for the customer… and good BMW who own the Mini brand.

Strategic   Branded   Relevant

Return To Basics: It’s About Need And Offer

To improve the overall quality of email campaigns, marketers need to return to basic. Businesses need to focus on the ‘What’s In It For Me’ (WIIFM) message for their client. What’s the client need? By creating messages and content that solve their clients’ needs (not pushing only an offer) businesses will also build trusting respected relationships.

Even back in the 1960’s ads showed housewives and husbands ‘What’s In It For Me’.

Being successful in email marketing isn’t about creating a grammatically correct copy with pictures and flashy layouts. It’s also not sending your campaign to everyone you can get access to or by renting your ‘ideal client wish-list’.

A successful in email marketing campaign is about sending a short, clear, relevant message and offer of value to your segmented, targeted audience.

This is especially true when connecting with existing relationships. If you keep sending them mindless irrelevant junk they are very likely going to click the unsubscribe button, or even worse, mark your message as spam… which causes you big problems in the future.

Delivery / Execution

You have a great message and great creative – you’re almost finished.

Now you need a trusted system to deliver your messages. This often means hiring a eMarketing / Digital Communication supplier to help you make sure your campaign gets to the people on your list (and not in a junk folder or identified as SPAM). Professional eMarketing / Digital Communication companies also have easy access to proven tactics they can use which mean further success for your campaign… and ways to measure your success.

Do it yourself is risky to you, your business and your brand reputation. For example, one important step is to notify your email host that you are about to send mass email (which is likely out of character for you). If you don’t do this your host may perceive your sudden spike as SPAM and shut your whole email system down… and I mean all of your email.

Conclusion

Email marketing works because it can drive direct sales to a targeted audience in a controlled manner that builds relationships, loyalty and trust. It’s also a natural fit in a Drip Marketing Program.

So, start thinking how you can get out there and create an awesome package and offer as part of your overall marketing strategy. Go ahead – it can be a great opportunity for you to try something new. Whether you hire a professional or try doing it yourself, you’ll need:

• A relevant offer
• Creative… creative
• A clean organization list (opt in preferably)
• Clear execution that doesn’t look (or act), like SPAM
• To measure your results

Happy communicating.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Unique Value Proposition Definition, Measure Training Effectiveness and Effective Business Email Writing Training.

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

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Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic Branded Relevant

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

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The Banker And The Ex Banker On Communication. Now There’s A Conversation.

Please indulge me. This will not be a typical Bruce Mayhew blog post.

I was walking my dog Lex (my inspiration for Business Lessons I Learned From My Dog), a few nights ago and at the end of the walk I joined a new nieghbour on their front porch.

Like most Torontonians, we were soon talking about work: his is the banking industry. I know that could mean anything, and as an Ex Scotiabanker I understand that. But anyone who has ever worked in the banking industry will tell you that it’s something special.

Soon he’s asking me what I do. So, I told him I’m a marketing consultant and also provide corporate training to improve corporate communications between individuals, teams and most importantly how to speak and send email to clients. In a nutshell, my communication training shows staff how to:

• Get to the point quickly
• Build and protect the corporate brand and reputation
• Create messages that are easy to read, easy to understand and easy to act on
• Stop frustrating, irritating or annoying the people you speak to or email

I’ve heard my new neighbours next words a hundreds of times. ‘Wow, we could use you at the bank.’

Thinking ahead (he’s a cleaver guy), his next question was:‘Do you ever teach people to consider the needs of their audience and to address those needs immediately?’

Clearly, he was remembering the many times when he’s read long email and at the end was confused about:

• What the topic was?
• How it impacted him (WIIFM- What’s In It For Me)?
• Was he expected to do anything? (Did he have an action item?)

Let’s face it – he isn’t alone.

A Plug: How My Training Is Different

Now, as a personal plug, many large organizations like banks and insurance companies offer communication training / email writing / business writing programs. But my competitive research tells me they focus quite a bit on grammar and spelling. I believe nobody over 20 years old wants to sit through hours of training on adverbs, adjectives and pronouns.

As a marketing consultant what I do differently is focus on using ‘needs’ as the primary focus of a communication. Therefore, I help people learn to identify their needs (pretty easy), AND the needs of their audience (not often done when communicating). Then I help them clearly address those needs.

So, What’s The Take Home?

Just by reading this post you have a few pointers on how you can start communicating differently today.

On a larger scale, it’s not just a bank or insurance company problem. Every company needs to help their employees work with each other – at every level of the organization. The beauty is that it’s starting to happen – and it starts by helping employees:

• Know the corporate (or even department) vision and values
• See how to represent that vision and those values – with every conversation, phone call or email
• Spend a moment to consider the needs of your associates, suppliers and most importantly customers
• Spend a moment considering how your associates, suppliers and customers work. How do they do business? Then use that knowledge to meet their needs.

To succeed individually (personal brand), or organizationally (corporate brand), we have to align our goals and act as partners every time we communicate. If we make our top priority our customers’ needs (and then our needs), we’ll actually reach our own goals.

What are the challenges you face with the email or phone messages you receive? Comment to this post or send me an email at bruce@brucemayhewconsulting.com

Happy communicating.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Unique Value Proposition Definition, Measure Training Effectiveness and Effective Business Email Writing Training.

Give us a call at 416.617.0462. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is based in Toronto and facilitates business writing, email writing and email etiquette courses.

We are… Strategic   Branded   Relevant

bruce@brucemayhewconsulting.com

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