October 4, 2009 92 Comments

Get Your Email Answered

I just hit a new milestone, but not one that I love. I’m getting over 600 emails a day on average now. I did some really rough analysis and found that over 50% were people asking me for some amount of my time for their needs, 25% were “really nice people,” 20% were business opportunities, and 5% were people who really matter to me personally. A quick bit of math: if I answered 1 email a minute, 600 emails would take me 10 hours to answer. (1 minute is pretty decent unless I have to do some work, like fill out an email interview).

The thing is, we’re all busy. We all have tons of email. We have no time to get it all handled.

But what will you do to get your email answered (for the most part)? I’ve got a few thoughts, and this relates to some of what Julien Smith and I talked about in Trust Agents. If you want to improve your chances of an email being answered by someone (like me), here are some thoughts and ideas. I’m hoping you add yours to the comments.

This applies more to the business sense of email, not personal. If I know you, it’s okay to email me. Just forgive me that I’m having trouble drowning.

Get Your Email Answered

Brevity. I have no time for huge rambling emails. Lead with what you need from me. Fill me in on the backstory (if you feel you must), and then end again with what you need from me. (Most imporant part: lead with what you need from me).
Connectivity. If you talk with me on other platforms (like comment on my blog or talk with me on Twitter or Facebook), then I’m much more likely to know who you are.
Skip the flattery. PR types: starting with “I love your blog” and then pitching me something I could care less about is a bit of a mismatch. You clearly don’t understand my blog if you’re pitching me stories that don’t relate to what I’m doing.
Get right to it. Most emails have about 200 words of throat-clearing. Feel free to just be brief and to the point.
Make it mutually beneficial. It’s very nice that you want me to help you get attention, but it’s rare that this does anything for me. Is there anything you’re going to do for my community to make this more worthwhile for them to care about you?
Make every email about resolving to a close. I hate open-ended emails. Examples: “what would you like for lunch tomorrow?” Instead, how about, “I’m thinking about either tapas or Korean BBQ tomorrow. Do you have a preference?” One makes things close faster. The other makes the message linger.
Give the right lead time. Asking me for something today is probably not going to happen. Asking me for something in three months is going to be forgotten. Think more in terms of two weeks for a typical response, or two or three months for something involving travel. Make sense?
Equip a trust agent. It’s easier to get some kind of response by having someone who knows your target person introduce you.

What else? What else do you think will help?

By the way, since I started my contact form, I’ve found that I *love* responding to information that goes through it. It resolves to a Google spreadsheet, and I can bang out several dozen answers a minute on the form. Just a data point.

I look forward to your thoughts.

Photo credit bobster855

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http://ww.grassshackroad.com mike mcallen

Stop the excuses and answer my fucking email.
m
maryeulrich

loved “200 words of throat-clearing.” It made me think of those commercials with the green mucus germ guys, who move in and take over your throat and life.

I'll never again look at my inbox the same way.
http://twitter.com/mousewords Christine Taylor

Chris, in a post a while ago you also advised putting questions/needs in bulleted form. I've been doing that ever since, & it's awesome. :-)

Thanks for this!
doncopperman

Thanks I use some of the tips you mentioned here and will adopt some new ones. If I want an answer, the subject heading of my email gets them to open it. I also use a lot of audio and or video in my emails. If I have to add test, I keep it very brief.

When was the last time you got a video email that would play on your smart phone and on your PC or Mac? The video and audio are also tracked so I know when you opened it and how long you watched it for and who you forwarded it to.
http://www.kherize5.com Suzanne Vara

Chris

Hi, my name is Suzanne Vara and I can be a rambler.

Thank you for pointing this out as so many times we try and be courteous, friendly apologize for not being in contact when really we should just say: Hi, free for lunch on X date at X place? There are times that emails need to be longer but straight and to the point always works.

600 emails – I do not suppose that it includes blog comments. Ok, on that part, I do not want to be you.
http://www.facebook.com/senderok Senderok Allen

Hi Chris,

Ironically, I sent 2 Emails to you over the summer asking you to review our plug-in that sorts Emails by priority according to how you've treated specific senders in the past (and you can manually set certain people to be VIP, Important, Routine or No Priority). Your executive assistant, Kathryn, wrote back after the 2nd Email saying “Chris won't have the time to review your product next week”.

That is really ironic. Please try SenderOK and you'll be able to answer the most important stuff first, followed by the regular important stuff, etc. If you've already corresponded with someone before or their website is in your browser cache, they get a higher priority over someone totally unknown, unless you mark them No Priority.

This is like Plaxo but with the smarts to prioritize.

By testing you could hopefully solve your problem and do a review for us at the same time.

BTW, Kathryn seemed very talented, having done a Sarcastic Wednesday video with the blogger Orli.
http://suzemuse.wordpress.com suzemuse

I'm with you, Christina – I have over 80 students and the influx of email from them at this time of year gets a bit overwhelming. I tell the students at the beginning of the semester that I only check email on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. I also ask that if it's something that can wait till the next class, to come talk to me before the next class in person.

It's all about setting expectations.

What I find kind of ironic is, that the more one shares things online (i.e. Chris shares a LOT), the more people have the expectation that he's got even more to give away (hence the 50% of emails from people who want something). Personally I find that number incomprehensible – I find that people tend to take advantage of others' generosity online – and that doesn't sit right with me.

Perhaps the writers of these blatant “solicitation” emails should think twice about what they're asking for and why.
leader4hire

1) Subject lines that identify purpose of email. Ex: Chris Brogan Book Pitch
2) Bold or underline the few meaningful points so a power scan will still connect the points and the reader can go back and read the surrounding text for context.
3) Emails get read like websites in the “F” pattern, be mindful of this http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html
4) Use a short (10 words or less) sentence as a stand alone paragraph at the end of your email that states the need: Ex: Confrence09 NYC needs keynote speaker, can you do it?
5) Not sure any of these points matter if they are being read in a spreadsheet, but they are important for “real email viewing”.

Just because you get a lot of email doesn't mean they are less important (especially in the senders mind). With popularity comes attention and admiration. The best figure out how to give something back to every contact to keep the 'feel good' train rolling. You never know when a fan will reveal himself to be a publisher or CEO with an offer. Don't turn into a robot responder, you'll loose the love.

Regards,
Justin McCullough
http://windmillnetworking.com/ nealschaffer

Chris,

I am starting to get upwards of 100 emails a day and I'm in the midst of trying to figure out a system to not drown in social media myself… and with the announcement of Google Wave, I am beginning to view Twitter as another type of real-time email, thus doubling the amount of “email” communication I get everyday. With that in mind, I cannot imagine what you go through everyday looking at your Inbox and Twitter @Replies when you wake up in the morning…

More and more, as we all get much better connected on social networking sites and six degrees of separation becomes more like three or four, we are ALL going to be hitting the wall of having to manage volumes of emails sooner or later. The earlier we all recognize this and work hard to streamline our communications as you suggest, the better off we will all be.

With all of this in mind, just wanted to send you a “Thank You!” for these guidelines and the timeliness of your blog post.
http://scanningmarketing.blogspot.com/ Joachim Schulz

Great tips, thanks for posting!
http://scanningmarketing.blogspot.com/ Joachim Schulz

Great tips, thanks for posting!
http://www.leader4hire.net Leader4hire

1) Subject lines that identify purpose of email. Ex: Chris Brogan Book Pitch
2) Bold or underline the few meaningful points so a power scan will still connect the points and the reader can go back and read the surrounding text for context.
3) Emails get read like websites in the “F” pattern, be mindful of this http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html
4) Use a short (10 words or less) sentence as a stand alone paragraph at the end of your email that states the need: Ex: Confrence09 NYC needs keynote speaker, can you do it?
5) Not sure any of these points matter if they are being read in a spreadsheet, but they are important for “real email viewing”.

Just because you get a lot of email doesn't mean they are less important (especially in the senders mind). With popularity comes attention and admiration. The best figure out how to give something back to every contact to keep the 'feel good' train rolling. You never know when a fan will reveal himself to be a publisher or CEO with an offer. Don't turn into a robot responder, you'll loose the love.

Regards,
Justin McCullough
marianschembari

Agreed. A note on emails that are “secretly” press releases: read the damn blog! I'm in PR and my dad's a journalist and he forwards me (really hilarious) emails he gets from publicists pitching a book, story, interview etc. Many are actually addressed to “New York Journalist”. Seriously?
It doesn't take that long to personalize. Get a name. READ a post or two to double check what you want to pitch is relevant and then TIE IT BACK. When I first started in my current position I'm ashamed to admit I just cut an pasted our pitch letter – which, of course, resulted in zero responses. As soon as I started tailoring my emails to the actual person (gasp!), that's when I started hearing back. Yes, it takes longer, but the response rate is significantly higher.
That being said, I can obviously work on my brevity ;-)
http://internetmarketing101.blinkweb.com nthomas00

600 emails a day? Wow! That's hard to manage on a daily basis.
http://www.obsessedtv.com/ Samantha Ettus

Brilliant. Love it. Thanks Chris.
http://www.twitter.com/nwjerseyliz Liz

My problems is that I subscribe to far too many email newsletters than is healthy for my Inbox. The ones that I receive monthly or twice/month I read while other sites send you several a day. It's hard to weed through them because they “might” contain useful information. It really helps if there is an appropriate subject line that describes the main topic.

If I got 600 personal email messages, I'd simply have multiple email addresses, one posted on my blog (for people I don't know but might want to), one for business interests (on business cards for people I'd met), and a separate one for close friends & family.

There's always a danger that you'll focus on one account & miss regularly checking on the others but I've found having multiple addresses helps me not miss the email messages from people I really want to stay in touch with.
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prosperitygal

I am so with you and glad I am not to 600 but 397 is enough to make a girl pull out her beautiful hair.

That's why I tell folks to STOP emailing me. If you want something from me tweet it or send me quick skype message and SHAZAM we are done, capiche.

Love your to the pointness (new word)
Bobster

Can you actually answer your emails in the spreadsheet? I just built a form/sheet as a test, but didnt get further.
Bobster

How I am suppose to know your a heavy email recipient. There needs to be a flag or something, that says “Im a heavy receiver, to the point emails only!” or “Im a low email receiver, please elaborate so I can understand everything that your talking about – so I can answer properly”……. I receive maybe 10 emails a day – an I try really hard to get more, but it doesnt work.
http://blog.steffanantonas.com Steffan Antonas

Chris, #5 is particularly important – I almost wish it was in 48 font and underlined. If you're asking for help from some one, give them an incentive to help you and make it mutually beneficial. I don't know why so many people don't get that. People who want to guest blog fail at this a lot IMO – they start with a request to put a post on your blog that isn't related to your content and effectively acts as advertising for their content/services/products elsewhere. I'd be interested to see a post from you on potential win-win scenarios that people like you could suggest to marketers and guest bloggers etc (people who typically ask for value without providing any of their own) when the value proposition seems out of balance in their favor.
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http://StanDubin.com standubin

Knowing that most of the people I'm emailing are also dealing with an enormous number of emails, if I don't hear back from them in 3-4 days, I resend the entire message with the following at the top:

(Hi Bob, I'm resending this as I'm not sure it got to you)

95% of the time, a response comes back same day.

I do this with a variety of publics: existing clients, prospective clients, business associates, vendors, etc. I'll even sometimes use this with someone I'm “cold emailing” if I feel it's important to establish a relationship.
mariannesnow

Nice to see you at IMS09 this week….

Two thoughts:
1. Use your message greeting wisely, it's the start of the communication and sometimes it drives the decision to open or not open.
2. Tailor your communication so it conveys respect for the person on the other end – to Chris' point, it's never about you.
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I can't agree more.
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http://123recipes.com/Recipes/Soups/Main soup recipes

I am a strong believer in brevity when you are trying to get an email answered from someone who probably gets a ton of emails a day. They do not have a ton of time to read your long story and try to figure out where you are going with it.
http://www.zoombits.fr/jeux/ jeux

Hey what a nice idea to get the Email answered.. I really like this tips & now i do this in my life.. This post is really an informative, thank you so much for sharing this awesome tips..
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http://doug-caldwell.blogspot.com/ Doug Caldwell

Aren't we using GMail and it's filter app, Chris. It would do wonders for your inbox, like by-passing it in the first place. Or read the book YouTube – Tyranny of E-Mail Jan 2010 http://bit.ly/5bJ92b

Another shortcut for a busy guy who others want to meet/talk. Tell them to use http://timebridge.com/ or similar app to get on your calendar. Can cut down a lot of the average of seven emails/phone calls between just two parties trying to get together.

New subject: Appreciate the suggestion to become more horizontally networked, not just vertical in one's industry/career that you made to Social Media Club of Dallas visit on 1/21/10.(#smcdallas)
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I often busy people contact them with interview requests, and an approach that worked for me is the large open little closer. I open ended individual (an interview, giving an indication of long-term relationship to gain publicity), but I near the end with a simple (yes or say no to the interview). I have time to interview them or can choose one or anything before they will add other tips can I do not want anything respond.A grammar and capitalization. Basically, anything that makes me less likely to respond to are concerned. All lower case letters or emails look like it really obvious grammar problems was not important to you.

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Get Your Email Answered

Get Your Email Answered

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