Aligned Marketing Blog

In Chinese philosophy there’s a concept called yin yang, which was later westernized into yin and yang. Yin and yang is used to describe disjointed or opposing forces that are in fact connected and interdependent, one, in turn, gives rise to the other. Loosely applying this concept to a relatively new phenomenon, email, I came up with the following ways to improve your productivity.

The yin: Increase your email effectiveness:

1. Use the subject as a Headline. In a few words tell your reader what the email is about and the reason they should open it.
2. Keep your email content clear and concise. Strive for brevity because the shorter-the-better rule applies. Emails that begin with, “We were talking at lunch…” are deleted immediately, so get to the point.  
3. If the issues can’t be addressed in a few sentences then it’s a phone call and not an email.
4. Proofread your email for clarity and grammar before sending. For example, check your pronoun agreement: Using “he,’ “she,” and “they” (etc.) is fine as long as it’s crystal clear who you are referring to and both the gender and the number (singular or plural) are in agreement. Yes, this is one of my pet-peeves.
5. Marking your email as “urgent” doesn’t mean it’ll be opened and read immediately. In fact, if you click the urgent button frequently you’ll be labeled a spammer or worse, a drama-queen, and find that your emails are being deleted unopened.
6. Avoid jargon, acronyms, especially those popularized by the web like LOL (laugh out loud) and OMG (Oh my God!), unless you are emailing a close friend and/or that communication style is appropriate for the message.

The yang: Reduce your email activity:

1. The surest way to reduce your inbound emails is to reduce your outbound emails. I set a goal to reduce my outbound emails by 25% once and, even though I didn’t keep precise records, having that “goal” reduced my output significantly, which led (I'm convinced) to significantly fewer inbound emails.
2. Create a “four-, five- or six-week” folder and dump all your unimportant or non-critical, in other words all those CYA (cover-your-arse) emails, into that folder. Then set up your email system to automatically delete those emails after the prescribed time.
3. Similarly, create a “Review later” folder and deposit all the emails you want to review later into that folder. I drop a lot of newsletters and marketing materials into my “Later” folder and review them while watching television. Setting them up for auto-delete is optional.
4. Schedule email time. Let everyone know you “do email” for one hour in the morning and then catch up after 5:00. The message you’re sending is don’t call at 2:30 and say, “I just sent you an email, what do you think?” This is extreme but it seems to be a big productivity booster.
5. Similarly, turn the email notification setting on your mobile device off during meetings. All the buzzing and vibrating is annoying and only adds to your (and everyone’s stress). Trust me, you’ll have plenty of emails to play with when you get back to your office. And don't even ask about sending emails while in the meeting...please.
6. Reserve the use of Reply-to-All to rare occasions and then, use it only if everyone in the thread works for you or you are instructed to reply-to-all (by a higher-up). This, grrrr, arrrr…is also a real bugga-boo for me.

I bet there's a bunch of email productivity tactics I missed. What are some of yours?

Wrapping up 2009 has been an interesting process. In order to determine where I want to go I thought it wise to see where I've been. To keep things simple I'm going to use three individual words to describe where I've been in 2009 and three different words to describe my focus for 2010. Each of these words has numeric measurements behind them but that information is too details and private for this venue. The purpose of this blog is to share an approach, the three word approach, that I picked up from Chris Brogan and modified to my liking.

I think using three words to describe the areas I'm going to focus on will work better for me than my traditional approach of having several project plans. Project plans are fine, I've used them successfully in the past, but they take a lot of time to develop and manage so I'm going back to broad goals with quantifiable objectives and estimated timelines behind them. A less maniacal approach to help me combat my compulsive tendencies. LOL.

2009:
Education: Much of 2009 was a learning experience. On the business front I learned (in Q4) to balance time between promoting my business and actually doing client work. That was a biggee. I also expanded my knowledge on search engine optimization and social networking tremendously, did my first real interview and, just for fun, taught myself a little HTML programming. The purpose of education is action and the results is growth. I love both. How many of us get to learn new skills and plant new seeds after the age of 45, much less 55. By that time most people are harvesting old skills and old crops. That's crazy. All the fun is at the beginning of the learning curve. By the way, at the end of Summer I was playing the best golf of my life. I finally learned to chip!

God: I'm not going to get religious or too spiritual here but can tell you from experience that being an entrepreneur is not for anyone with a weak heart. You are making significant bets daily with limited information, your income takes wild swings and the whole health insurance deal is a friggin' nightmare. You are learning by doing constantly so you need faith in yourself and a lot of Faith, period. The funny part is several of my executive friends thought I was taking a huge risk by starting a full-time business at the dawn of this brutal recession. I understood their thinking but knew the carnage was just beginning and had more confidence in myself than any new employer.

Inertia: As I talk to more and more companies it amazes me how many are unwilling to change or even recognize the degree of change around them in the marketing arena. Gang, it's all about the net. If your marketing isn't slanted 60%+/- toward online activities and accelerating then you're being left behind. If you're still killing trees and relying on expensive one-to-one selling well, ok, but that should be a smaller and smaller portion of your budget going forward. I could write pages about this subject, and often have, so I'll leave it there...No I won't. If your waiting to see the changes clearly then you'll be looking in your review mirror - you're waiting too long.

2010:
Value: Through my client services, blogs and other activities I will add more value to my clients and my respective networks; several thousand read my blogs every month now, which is stunning. 2010 will be the year of giving more value because I enjoy helping others and, frankly, it's good business. I expect to get more as a result. I'm not looking for a one-to-one, give-to-get, relationship. I know I may have to give ten units of blood to get one back. That's ok. In 2010 I will focus more on audience needs, take more ownership for my clients' success, write more, and expand my web presence. I'm launching a new, separate, website in January.

Structure: I need to be more productive and that means more organized and structured. For example: After compiling my three main contact lists I 993 contacts complete with email addresses and phone numbers. That does not include my 2,000 Followers on Twitter, my 600 "Friends" on Facebook or those I've connected with on other social media. By the time 2010 arrives I'll have those lists organized into A-B-C classifications and an action plan with each group as well as a plan for growing my list. It's too easy for "A's" to get treated like "C's" and be relegated to Christmas only communication and C's to get lost altogether.

Courage: The race is not always won by the fastest, sometimes it is won by the most aggressive. Courage isn't always an easy choice but it's a Darwinian world and I intend to survive. In the end, I decided long ago to live my life pursuing my aspirations and not reacting to my fears. Too many do the latter. Merging into the crowd is easy. I get it. It's just not me. So I've decided 2010 will be not only about adding value and more structure, it's going to be a year of bigger bets and more excitement. I can hardly wait!

Steve