The Startups.co Guide : Hacking Your Inbox For Maximum Productivity (Part 6/6)

Don’t miss out! Check out the previous chapters here:
–Chapter One
–Chapter Two
–Chapter Three
–Chapter Four
–Chapter Five

CHAPTER SIX (Bonus): Leverage Your Email Footer

In This Chapter:

• Leverage every inch of the emails you send
• Use your footer as a way to share important details

Before we bid adieu—We would love to share something that could really help you and it takes literally 15 minutes to implement, and will save you countless hours of time in the future.

Email footers are generally one of the most poorly utilized pieces of daily communication.  Think about it for a second. How many emails have you sent and received? Of the received emails, how many footers have you paid attention to?

None, right?

That’s because most people either just put their name at the bottom and maybe their company info.  We aren’t suggesting that there is anything wrong with doing that—but why stop there?

If you find yourself answering the same common questions or providing the same responses over and over—try letting your footer do some of the work.

→ ACTION: Use the Footer to Address Common Concerns ←

If you are feeling a little lost—Here are a few ideas for sprucing up your footer:

• Use a mini-FAQ. Keep getting asked the same 3 questions every week?  Try answering them with links to more information in your footer.  This works best when you can combine the question/answer into a very short piece.  The long answer should be addressed with the link you provide.  Extra bonus – giving people good questions with answers often makes them realize they should have asked those questions.  Why isn’t this at the bottom of every sales receipt and customer service email you’ve ever gotten?  Who knows.
• Show “Best Practices” for responding to you. Hate getting long emails?  Ask folks to be brief.  Can’t respond immediately all the time?  Let people know you typically take a few days.  No one is excited about communicating with you in a way you hate, so give them an opportunity to show some love.
• Intro your VA as a better alternative. Kind of a no-brainer here.  Add something like “For a faster response (who doesn’t want a faster response) please also directly email my VA.”  This also works if you have a colleague that handles common inquiries too.
• Offer alternate contact info. Show how people can contact you by phone, assistant’s email, twitter handle, snapchat avatar, what have you.  This becomes particularly helpful in emergency situations like when someone is late to a meeting and they are scrambling to figure out how to contact you other than email.
• Use Horrible 1995 Clip Art. Totally kidding, please don’t do this.  If you already are, unless you’re being seriously ironic, just let it go back to the happy Windows 95 folder it came from.

These are the most common uses of managing your footer—but, just think of what you could be providing that will give you enough ammunition to make some meaningful changes.

Key Takeaway:

Maximize every part of the emails you send by leveraging your email footer to answer any questions, provide best practices or loop in your VA.

We’ve given you all the tools and have laid out the most effective techniques for mastering your inbox.

It’s easy to slip into old habits, so be sure to stay focused on “why” you need to change your relationship with your inbox—Most likely you want to “up” your productivity and get your your personal life back. (Finally!)

If the system we’ve shared doesn’t work for you—switch it up so it does, and let us know what changes you made! Whatever you can do to ensure that you are processing your email correctly—so you are only focusing on the big stuff.

Go ahead! You’ve got things better than email to get to.