I get between 100 and 200 emails a day. In the past I would have thought that would have been a problem. Although I have to admit that some days it keeps me on a treadmill of responding, I find it so much better than using the phone or switching between various media.
Besides, I can eliminate a good deal of it without reading the email because contrary to what companies think they have learned, I do not need Viagra, and I am not about to help out someone from some African nation, I do not know, and who is on the verge of coming into a lot of money. Unlike snail mail in which I am afraid not to rip open the envelope just to make sure it is nothing important processing email is not as time consuming. Lately, I almost through away a settlement check from a credit card company because the envelope looked like those I get with credit card offers. My client would not have been at all happy about that. And, I almost trashed my daughter's tax refund not long ago. So eliminating unwanted emails is easier and quicker than eliminating unwanted mail. But, I digress.
It was because of this that I found interesting Kevin O'Keefe's post on the use of blogs versus email as a communication tool. Read the post, but in short he states that people should use email for communications that require a response, and leave to blogging to communicate what others need to know but do not necessarily require a response. An email inbox should not be a content management system.
I tend to agree, but I have also got to admit that I am guilty of both sending email that does not seek a specific response and, at least by default, I use my email inbox as a content management system.
As to the former, one of my marketing tools is to send broadcast emails to my referral sources. I have written about it extensively. The emails most often promote my practice blog. I send one out about every two weeks. I try to keep it keenly relevant and short so bankruptcy attorneys actually want to read it. Now, maybe I should just rely on my practice blog. The problem is that many of my referral sources, although most use the Internet, do not maintain blog readers and do not follow blogs regularly. Or, at best it is hard to say how an attorney get his or her information within his or her own organization. So, I do not take changes. I send reminders and information to my referral sources in any format that works be it, blogging, email, fax, or mail.
As to the latter, the truth of the matter is that many of my referral sources, and most attorneys these days, use their email inbox as a content management system. I wish they would read O'Keefe and the others and change their mode of practice. It would be a lot easier on them -- and me. But, they do not and they will not. As such, I am stuck as well using my inbox as a content management tool.
Not that I have not tried to stop it or at least manage it better. At one point I set up various email accounts in which court notices and pleadings would go to one address, communications from attorneys to another address, communications related to my blogs to another, and the like. What a mess that was. I have learned that similar to dumping the mailbag out onto my desk so that I might sort through it by hand, I much prefer all of my email going to one spot or email location so I can catch it, deal with it or discard it, as it arrives.
Too all of those that prefer to email me instead of posting a comment on my blog, I would prefer the comment, but more importantly I would prefer the communication whether it is asking me to respond or you just want to make a point or express your opinion.
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