How To Revitalize Your Firm’s Internal Use Of Email
Every aspect of your business needs to be functioning at optimum levels. That principle applies to everything, from long-term KPIs to even some of the more minor aspects of your company.
Email is typically an area of company operations that can wane, particularly as new and immerging technologies come to the fore. Many people may also prefer instant messaging software over more traditional communication methods.
After all, we’re living in a world where the very relevance of email is being questioned in mainstream media outlets. Still, you shouldn’t be ready to buy into this naysaying. Email still has its place in the enterprising world for many reasons, ensuring all correspondences with people inside and outside the business are formal and well-managed.
If your firm’s use of email has diminished recently, it’s important to revitalize these efforts where you can. Here are some good ways to make progress in that effort.
Explore Video Email Onboarding Procedures.
The potential of video email is somewhat untapped by many firms out there today. However, it has many distinct advantages, particularly when incorporated into onboarding procedures.
You can embed videos into the body of an email by utilizing aptly named video emailing systems. The content of these videos is up to you, of course, but incorporating training and onboarding assets into them can be an impressionable way to launch your new hires’ careers at your business. It can be engaging, unexpected, and unique.
New starters may act like training and onboarding are riveting irrespective of how it all goes down. After all, they will hardly critique these processes to your face. Nevertheless, why not take some extra time to ensure that they’ll enjoy what can otherwise be a monotonous process? Email isn’t always associated with ‘fun’ and ‘learning’ either. Kill two birds with one stone and spruce up both areas with video email capabilities.
Of course, another huge benefit of doing this is that your fresh hires will quickly understand the prominence email has in your firm. They’ll carry that forward with them from day one and perhaps open up their email with greater enthusiasm knowing that a range of content could await them.
Review File Sending Procedures
It’s generally understood amongst many email users that some files can’t be sent over email. Assumptions can be misleading, however.
Email can be brilliant, but there are external resources that can embolden its efficiency too. Such is true when it comes to sending files over these systems. Once improved, the wider implications for firms can be astounding.
For example, you can use a PDF compressor to shrink these files and make them easier to send over email. Your PDF files can also be merged and converted too if you wish to send them in other formats. Whatever the situation, that flexibility can ensure your emails are utilized more dynamically. The files that have been altered won’t lose quality through these processes, either.
Remember, smaller files are also downloaded more quickly. If you attach a smaller-sized PDF to an email and send it, the recipient can instantly access the data in seconds. It means email doesn’t slow things down or create frustration in the workforce, as it can sometimes be used as a scapegoat.
Track Email Engagement
Workers may view their emails to varying degrees. Some may check them too often, while others may need to review their correspondences more.
These attitudes are all relative initially, but today they’re also trackable! You can use email engagement monitoring software to track the internal use of these accounts. With these systems, you may be able to review the following:
- Whether or not users have opened certain emails.
- How long the contents of the email were read.
- If specific links were clicked on and who by.
Capabilities can vary depending on the tools you use to attract these activities, but many insights can be gleaned here. Still, if you use these systems, it’s best to inform your workers beforehand for transparency. That way, they’ll be aware that this data is being sought after and be more aware of your intentions. If they need to change their email usage best practices, then giving them notice will give them time to do that too.
Set a Good Example
Much of how your employees conduct themselves at work can correlate back to you as a leader. They will want to do a good job for you, and part of that in their minds may involve emulating some of your attitudes and behavior.
In late 2019, shocking studies revealed that 69% of business leaders were uncomfortable communicating with their employees at all. It’s hard to imagine a rosier outlook today, either, given the rise of remote working and economic hardship. There can be a wedge between employer and employee, which email optimization can promptly remove.
Utilize your email regularly. Send company-wide updates, have a presence during email marketing campaign planning, and respond to queries that come your way promptly. The more you’re seen using these systems, the more inclined your colleagues might feel to use them too.
Promote Encouraging Best Practices
Email isn’t perfect, especially if users aren’t savvy. Therefore, it’s a good idea to promote some best practices so your colleagues can get more out of these systems.
You could advise your workers to:
- Unsubscribe from unwanted promotional materials and newsletters.
- Tinker with the settings of their spam folders and inbox filters.
- Not CCing irrelevant colleagues into correspondences; managers don’t need to snoop on every message their underlings send out.
- Keep sentences short, well-structured, and generally easy to read for the recipient’s convenience.
- Avoid jargon where possible.
- Explore possible task management options (e.g. integrated calendars, to-do lists) within the email system rather than use the email inbox itself as a checklist.
- Schedule emails to send during working hours instead of out-of-office hours, ensuring no correspondence is intrusive and unwelcome, allowing workers to switch off.
A 2021 survey suggested that 38% of workers may quit due to email fatigue, so best practices are undoubtedly worth reviewing. It might seem like a while ago, but these facts don’t come out of thin air, and they’re worth keeping tabs on for years to come.
Request Feedback
We’ve listed a range of usual measures to help your business get more out of its internal emailing capabilities. However, there’s only one way to ensure success: asking your workers how things are going.
As mentioned previously, there can be some polarizing attitudes to email communications. These outlooks may not change overnight. And even the best strategies for improvement can be botched when it comes to implementation. Growing pains could occur depending on the changes you’re trying to make.
So, requesting a constant influx of feedback about changes in email infrastructure is highly recommended. That way, you can all agree on how best to utilize emails, and everybody can feel progressively more confident in familiarizing themselves with these systems.
Conclusion
Revitalizing your firm’s use of email is a multi-step effort. There are numerous strategies to consider; some may be more relevant to your company than others. Regardless, you’re not without options, and it’s a good idea to have multiple communication strategies for your firm so that it’s not wholly dependent on any one of them. Reflect on video email, file sharing, monitoring software, and your own conduct. Remember best practices and be open to feedback. All of these measures contribute to revitalizing your firm’s internal use of email.