InfoBusiness 2.0

Email is currently the most efficient way to communicate and collaborate with peers and colleagues.   It’s faster than a letter, requires less effort than a fax, and is less intrusive than a phone call.  It’s everywhere – most people have one, or even multiple email accounts set up.  And best of all, it’s free!

 

However, your company’s reputation, brand equity, and image will be greatly enhanced if you set up a dedicated email account for your specific domain (www.yourcompany.com).   This will make the emails your employees send instantly recognizable (john_smith@yourcompany.com) to recipients, and allow you to host all of your corporate email addresses on a single email server. 

 

Your corporate email server can be hosted and maintained by your third-party Internet Service Provider (ISP), or on your own premises.  There are a number of server settings that can be tweaked, to make your solution more robust and productive.  For example, you can automatically delete any executable email attachments such as .exe, .com, .pif, .bat, .MSI, or .cab files, as well as java script or visual basic script.  You can also automatically remove large music and video files, to eliminate email server clogs.  These two modifications alone can save you countless hours of downtime, and free up gigabytes of valuable server space. 

 

You can also improve the efficiency of your email interactions by implementing an Email Usage Policy.  You can modify any standard policy (check out the ones posted on KnowledgeLeader or Free Management Library), or have your attorney create a custom one from scratch.  This policy should be automatically attached to every single outgoing email sent by your server.  This will help decrease your liability for the content of emails sent by your employees.  You can even further protect yourself by monitoring and checking email usage on a weekly basis, to ensure compliance with your usage policies, and immediate identify any unusual or inappropriate activity. 

 

With software packages like MailMonitor, you can identify your top 10 email traffic generators, see who is emailing whom, determine if your competitors are getting emails from your employees, and identify the kinds of attachments that are being sent back and forth. 

 

Spam, or unsolicited email, also poses a major problem.  To prevent an avalanche of spam from clogging up your email server, you’ll need to install anti-spam or spam filtering software.  Spam filters work in three ways.  They can automatically delete any unsolicited emails or move them to a specific folder.  The newest spam filtering technologies can even automatically ask any suspicious sender to manually confirm their identity, to ensure that they are not a “robot” sending bulk emails blindly to millions of addresses.  Because many anti-spam setting are too restrictive, legitimate emails often get blocked.  So, I recommend using a spam filter that moves suspicious emails to a folder, where they can be retrieved if needed. 

 

If your email server does not contain an anti-spam filter, you can use anti-spam software on your desktop to block unsolicited emails.  And, in order to prevent spammers from using your email server to send out bulk emails to millions of users around the world, you can configure your email server to accept emails only from verified users with passwords. 

 

Email Response Management

Many companies have a generic mailbox for sales inquiries, support issues, or general information.  The amount of incoming emails to these boxes can be overwhelming, particularly if follow-up, responses, or history log maintenance is handled by more than one person.  Fortunately, there are a number of email response management software solutions that can help simplify this process.  There many different types of packages available, ranging in price from free to quite expensive.  Check out the ones offered by emailtopia, Talisma, and Right Now Technologies.  Or, you can search for other solutions online, and choose the one that’s best for your business. 

 

Email Auto-Responders

Marketing teams are often challenged to stay in constant contact with potential and existing customers.  I’m not talking about spamming to uninterested parties with useless ads, or sending out blind bulk emails.  This is about keeping the lines of communication open with current clients, or prospects who have given you permission to send them information about your products and services (note: putting an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of every email, and removing all those who “unsubscribe” from future distribution lists, will help you avoid breaking spam laws).  Studies show that the more you reach out to your audience with news, special offers, discounts, and promotions, the more likely they are to buy from you.  In fact, it takes, on average, at least 21 outreach attempts to convince a prospect to consider purchasing your products or services.  But time and budget constraints can prohibit you from making daily, weekly, or even monthly contact. 

 

So how can you efficiently and consistently stay in contact with your prospects and customers?  With email auto-responder software.  These solutions are available for desktop installation, or can be rented as a service through many third-party providers.  Email auto-responders work by allowing you to easily set up email lists and distribution schedules.  When new subscribers sign up to receive newsletters or other information, they are automatically added to the mailing list and will begin receiving emails at the pre-determined intervals. 

 

Auto-responder solutions are available through a variety of vendors and service providers, including AtomPark Software, Xtreeme, and AutoResponsePlus. 

 

Email Marketing

No chapter on email would be complete without mention of email marketing.  Several years ago, email became the preferred method of campaign distribution because it was faster and far cheaper than hard copy direct mail.  But, anti-spam laws, which have been in effect for quite some time, have since made it difficult to market effectively using email by preventing the distribution of unsolicited bulk email.  However, many companies will rent their opt-in lists, and even handle distribution for you.  Email lists can be rented through InfoUSA, EXM Marketing, InfoCore, LIST Incorporated, and other brokers. 

 

I also highly recommend checking all incoming and outgoing emails by using an anti-virus solution.  You can install it on each individual computer within your company, or centralize it on your email server. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 13:11 and is filed under business, it. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.