Everyone who runs a business deals with a deluge of email messages each day. Coaches and Consultants also use email to keep in contact with their clients, sending them content and offers. Whether dealing with emails coming in or your marketing messages going out, it will be a great time saver to automate your email processes.
Streamline Your Workflow with Email Automation
There are several ways automation can help you deal with your daily incoming emails. If you have a task list integrated with your email system such as Google Tasks and a Gmail account, you can turn incoming emails into tasks. Any email that requires some form of action from you can be turned into a task through the Gmail system. Another method is to create a label called ‘New Tasks' or ‘Task List' and move these messages to that label.
I use Nozbe as my task manager and it integrates with Gmail. So whenever I have a email that needs to be turned into a task I just forward it to my Nozbe account and the task is automatically created.
Another option is using a Chrome Extension called Sortd. Sortd turns your Gmail into a drag and drop board where you can track to dos and so on.
Microsoft Outlook has a tool that allows you to automate daily email tasks easily. In Microsoft Outlook 2010, this is called Quick Steps. It just takes a few clicks to turn an email you need to take action on into a task. You can also create customized email macros (a macro is a task that needs to be done on a regular basis).
These are specific tools for specific email systems, but you can do something similar no matter what type of email you have. Create a folder for tasks to be done and simply move those emails to the folder.
Automated Email Marketing
If you're marketing to an email list, automation is essential. In fact, it can't be done without automation. There's a certain type of software program that's used for email marketing called an autoresponder.
Autoresponders automate all of your email marketing tasks including:
- Signing up new subscribers
- Sending a welcome message to new subscribers telling them what they can expect from your email list
- Managing and organizing your list of subscribers
- Sending broadcast messages to your list for you
- Allowing you to schedule follow-up messages so they don't need to be sent manually
- Providing you with detailed analytics so that you can monitor your progress
When you use an autoresponder, you only need to write your messages and load them up into the program. The program takes care of the rest for you. I use Activecampaign for my autoresponder and email marketing software. You can grab your free trial here. I also highly recommend Convertkit.
Keeping It Real
Another point I stressed was staying real as much as possible. Automating your daily emails and email marketing frees you up to take care of other things, but when you need to communicate with your clients, you should always send them personal messages. Don't create canned responses. It's important to be real with your audience.
Hi