Be Social, Get Success

As a small business owner, you receive a ton of email. Keeping ahead of the messages in your inbox can sometimes feel like a full-time job. Generally, small business owner faces lots of issues related to business.

Email is such a quick and easy way to communicate, but along with the convenience of speed and ease, comes more spam and email that you must deal with.

Has This Happened To You?

It is Monday morning and you log into your email and find you have another hundred messages.

You are afraid to mass delete for fear there is something of importance, but you don’t have time to look at each message. So you let them sit in your in-box for another day or two till you have time to go through them.

Before you know it, you have thousands of messages and feel totally overwhelmed. You know you have missed important messages because they are mixed in with all the rest.

Dealing With an Overflowing Inbox

At some point you need to bite the bullet and handle your overflowing inbox. Here are some tips to help you deal with the overload and take control of your inbox:

1. Create a File

First of all, you need to deal with the problem at hand or at least get it out of your inbox. I suggest you create a file titled “Sort” or “Old Mail”. Move everything currently in your inbox into that folder. Then when you have some free time (if that ever happens!) you can start going through the folder and deleting the trash. I schedule a half hour on Friday’s to do this till you get it down to nothing. Now your inbox is empty, and the goal is to keep it down to 10 messages or less sitting in your in-box. The next 6 tips will help you keep it manageable.

2. Subject Line

When you create an email to send to someone, make sure you put an accurate title in the subject line. If emails go back and forth and the subject changes, be sure to make the change in the subject. This will come in handy when you need to search for an email for any reason.

3. Keep it Short

Keep your messages short and to the point. People won’t read a long email message. They will either delete or skip over it.

4. Yes or No

If your message requires a reply, make it a yes or no type question or one that a short answer is all that is needed. This will make the replies easier to read and take much less time.

5. Separate Emails

If you have multiple questions, put each in a separate email so you don’t hold up the correspondence if they need to research one or two for the answers. Or list the questions by number in a list and not in a paragraph form. A list is much easier to read.

6. Separate Files

For messages that you may need to keep, create a file. Some examples, if you have several clients, each could have a file to keep messages in that you may need to refer to in the future. Other files you may need include “business receipt” for online purchases, “invoices” if you send bills to customers online, “personal” if you mix your business messages in with your family messages, “follow-up” for messages that you need to follow up on in the next week or so.

7. Act Quickly

As you go through your inbox, act immediately on all messages that will take you a few minutes to complete. Then you can quickly move messages to the appropriate folder if they need to be saved or delete. Junk messages can be quickly deleted. If there are messages that you need some time to research or you need to check with others, put them in the follow-up file.

8. Schedule Time

While it is great to take technology breaks and not check email. Remember to schedule an hour or two on your calendar when you return from the break to deal with your email inbox.

9. Make it Part of Your Routine

Don’t forget to routinely go back to your “Sort” or “Old Mail” file and deal with those messages.

If you do these steps consistently, you will find your email inbox is much more manageable. There are many other tips of things you can do to streamline your time spent on email, but these will get your started and relieve your stress.

So start now to tackle your inbox and feel confident that you are not missing important messages.

Three Principles For Engagement

According to this Brisbane digital agency, understanding these three psychology principles will help you post content that will engage your followers and increase your traffic. It is for the best that you can definitely check it out to formulate the best marketing strategy.

Appeal to Knowledge Seekers

People are seeking explanations to get a PPC audit from Local Brand Advisor. The word “why” is a trigger word you can use in your own social media marketing. Use “why” to ignite the desire to search for the answer to a question. You can check out this how to guide to learn various tips to do social media marketing efficiently.

In your posts, explain to your followers why they need something and how they’ll get it by reading your content or using your product.

Focus on a Desire

You can get more engagement from your social media posts if you your target audience believes that they can easily implement a solution to a problem they are experiencing.

By offering content in a simple, straightforward way that your followers can connect with, they will be more likely to engage and continue to show an interest in your posts.

Guide readers through the hard stuff and break it down in easy-to-understand chunks of information so they can take action quickly and easily.

Tap into the Fear of Missing Out

It’s human nature to be uneasy about being left out. We always want to be in the know and be where the action is happening. We want to feel included. If we say no to something, we’re afraid that we’ll miss out on something that could benefit us.

When you start including your followers in what you’re doing, you’ll see an improvement in your social media engagement. Don’t allow your customers to be afraid of missing out with your business. Give them every opportunity to join you.

It’s all about the inclusion. Start implementing this into your marketing strategy; involving your audience in what you’re doing will make them feel more connected to you. It will create a sense of ownership with your brand.

A great way to connect with your audience and build your following is to incorporate these psychological principles when creating your content. You will notice your customers and prospects engaging more, clicking on more links, and altogether being more interested in what you have to offer.