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Email Is Making You Stupid

August 30, 2010

tlfheadshot_web — Thomas Fox is president of Tech Experts, southeast Michigan’s leading small business computer support company.

“The research is overwhelming. Constant email interruptions make you less productive, less creative, and, if you’re emailing while you’re also doing something else, just plain dumb.”

That quote – and the headline – comes from an article by Joe Robinson in Information Week magazine. When it arrived in my inbox, I was compelled to read it.

The fact is, as business owners, our lives have gotten incredibly more complex as we become more and more connected. Smart phones keep our email in front of us 24 hours a day, seven days a week – which compels us to be available on the same schedule.

The study Robinson sites was conducted by the University of Minnesota. It found that managing “peripheral tasks” – those things we do while we’re also doing something else – triggered twice the number of errors, and increased levels of annoyance by anywhere from 31 to 106 percent.

Time Is Money
Given our constant state of “connectedness” to clients, employees and prospects, it’s easy to think that we have to respond instantly to a request. I get caught in that trap: Thinking I’m being efficient when I handle something immediately.

Interestingly, Intel conducted a study of employee productivity, and found that email overload cost the company almost $1 billion a year in lost productivity. Each day, a typical office employee checks email 50 times, and uses an instant messaging application 77 times.

Interruptions like this not only sidetrack employees from their jobs, but also lower overall attention spans and increase stress by measurable levels. Job satisfaction and creativity also suffer.

Myth Of Multitasking
Again, from Robinson’s article: “Human brains come equipped with two kinds of attention: Involuntary and voluntary. Involuntary attention, designed to be on the watch for threats to survival, is triggered by outside stimuli – what grabs you.

It’s automatically rattled by the workday cacophony of rings, pings and buzzes that are turning jobs into an electronic game of Whac-a-Mole. Voluntary attention is the ability to concentrate on a chosen task.”

As your attention span is bounced around by constant interruptions, your brain changes: Interruptions erode an area called effortful control, and with it the ability to regulate attention.

In other words, the more you check your messages, the more you feel the need to check them – an urge familiar to BlackBerry or iPhone users.

The cult of multitasking would have us believe that compulsive message-checking is the behavior of an always-on, hyper-productive worker. But it’s not. It’s the sign of a distracted employee who misguidedly believes he can do multiple tasks at one time. Science disagrees.

People may be able to chew gum and walk at the same time, but they can’t do two or more thinking tasks simultaneously.

So, how do we crawl out of the attention void? Interruption management. Here’s some things I’m trying:

Turn off all of the alerts that let you know you’ve got mail.

Pick a few times per day – four maximum – to check your email. Outside of those designated times, keep Outlook closed.

Don’t let email be the default communication device. Communicating by phone or face-to-face saves time and builds relationships.

Respond immediately only to urgent issues. Just because a message can be delivered instantly does not mean you must reply instantly.

Severely restrict use of the reply-all function.

Put “no reply necessary” in the subject line when you can. No one knows when an e-conversation is over without an explicit signal.

Resist your reply reflex. Don’t send emails that say “Got it” or “Thanks.”

Use automatic out-of-office messages to carve out focused work time, such as: “I’m on deadline with a project and will be back online after 4 p.m.”

Please email me at tfox@expertsmi.com and tell me about your interruption management methods. I’ll let you know in the next few months how it goes.

Choosing An Email Marketing Service Provider

June 23, 2010

Once your business has decided to invest in online marketing, the first service you’ll be considering is probably an email marketing service provider (ESP).

Basically, an ESP is a hosting company that runs email marketing services on their servers for you to use. The servers and Internet connections are optimized to send email. You use a web interface to compile and send your email to the ESP.

Then, the ESP’s servers and Internet connections do the hard work. If you tried to send bulk emails through your regular Internet provider, your campaign could be blocked, as most regular Internet providers prohibit bulk mailings.

Good reporting helps you measure the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns, and your ESP should also provide very detailed reports. You should even be able to see which of your subscribersopened your email and clicked on your links.

An ESP will also automatically include an unsubscribe link in every email sent through their service – and automatically remove these addresses from your lists – to make sure you comply with federal SPAM laws.

What should you look for in an ESP to make sure you choose the right one? Here are some criteria to consider:

IP Addressing
The IP address from which an email is sent is like a phone number – it tells the world where the email came from.

Just like you’d not want to share a phone number with a large group of strangers, you do not want to share an IP address with other customers at your ESP.

If your ESP uses shared IP addresses, too many spam complaints against another customer could get your shared IP address blacklisted by a major ISP. This would prevent your emails from being delivered, and it can take time for your ESP to get the IP off the blacklist.

Heavy Duty Systems
Make sure your ESP has multiple, high-speed connections to the Internet through more than one source, and that they have redundant hardware and servers.

This ensures reliability if one ofthe Internet connections fails or there is a hardware failure. This is important because the ESP’s click-tracking tools require that the links go to the ESP first, and then it is redirected to your website (that’s how it can track the click).

There would be nothing worse than sending an email to your prospects and customers and having the ESPs servers go down. The people reading your emails won’t be able to click through!

Support and Training
Your ESP should offer both online and phone customer support and training.

Good reporting
The ESP should offer a variety of user-friendly reports: deliverability success, open-rates, and click-through rates.

CAN SPAM compliance
Your ESP should require customers to comply with the CAN SPAM Act and make it very easy to do so. The last thing you want isa fine from the federal government for not complying with the law.

Free trial
Most ESPs offer a free trial. Do a test drive to see if the service meets your needs.

Tech Experts uses iContact for all of our outbound email marketing. The company is reliable, and the services are priced very
inexpensively. For a free trial, browse to http://www.icontact.com/?cobrand=310189.

Do You Know What Junk Email Costs Your Business?

March 23, 2010

I used to think of junk email (spam) as just minor nuisance. Not so anymore. Today, spam is a major problem that costs businesses more than $100 billion a year in lost productivity and mitigation and prevention measures.

Spam used to be sent primarily by small time hackers trying to sell hair restoration, fake university degrees, and of course, anatomy enhancement pills.

The junk mail to real mail ratio was small, and spam didn’t take up a lot of room in email boxes. Spam didn’t place a huge burden on email servers, and they were easy to block.

Today, small time scammers are still responsible for some of those spams. The majority, however, are the work of organized criminals who use spyware and botnets to flood inboxes with an unprecedented amount of junkmail.

Spam profits can be huge. Hot stock tip scams, where criminals use spam to artificially create interest in a stock and raise the share price, can net the spammers millions of dollars.

Phishing scams, designed to steal your identity, can provide criminals with access to a mass amount of credit card data and sensitive corporate information.

Estimates put the cost of phishing alone at more than $8 billion in 2009.

With so much money at stake, spammers are constantly looking for new ways to get their junk emails past spam filters and to make their scams appear more convincing.

It has also drove an increase in the volume of junk mail. More than 2.8 million emails are sent every second – over 247 billion per day. Over 90% of that is junk email.

The cost to business
So, how does spam cost your business money?

Lost productivity: Experts put the labor cost of deleting each junk email at around four cents. By itself, that’s not all that significant. Multiply that, though, by perhaps 20 employees, each deleting 50 junk emails per day, and you’ll be spending over $14,000 over the course of a year.

Computer and network costs: Spam sucks up Internet bandwidth, and server storage space, both of which are significant costs to your business. This is especially true since a lot of spammers are using attachments to get around spam filters.

Security breaches and infections: Most malware and spyware infections are distributed via hacked websites. Even so, email has become more and more popular for infecting innocent users.

If your network becomes infected as the result of spammed spyware or malware, you’ll be facing a potentially expensive clean-up operation.

Phishing emails can lead to the exposure of sensitive corporate or financial information.

What you can do
The most effective way to prevent spam is to block it before you see it. We have dozens of clients with several hundred e-mail accounts currently utilizing our e-mail filtering system. We eliminate over 98% of the junk mail you normally would receive before our clients ever see it.

Our Experts Total Defense spam filtering system lets only the relevant and important messages come through.

You’ll have a clean inbox every day, and your Blackberry won’t ring all day with junk emails. You and your staff will become much more efficient and e-mail will be more useful again.

Plus, Experts Total Defense offers email archiving and off-site storage, saving valuable drive space on your servers.

You can use our filtering system if you have email hosted with us, or if you have your own in-house e-mail server (like Microsoft Exchange and Small Business Server). Give me a call if you’d like more information.

Should Your Company Be Archiving Your E-Mail?

February 25, 2010

For companies under the jurisdiction of HIPAA, SEC, SOX, or any of the other alphabet soup regulations, email is considered “work product” and must be retained and protected from misuse or theft.

Even if you’re not under the government’s microscope via one of these regulations, you should still be concerned about e-mail archiving.

E-mail archiving is now mandatory
FRCP – The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are a set of recently revised rules for managing civil suits in all US District courts and in thirty-five state courts that require you to archive your e-mail (with no exceptions for company size, organizational structure or nonprofit status).

The rules are specific, non-negotiable, and apply to e-mail generated and received by the business, its customers and vendors.

If you sue or get sued in civil court, you may win or lose your case based on compliance with the procedures regarding e-mail archiving.

HIPPA – Safeguarding the privacy and security of patient information is not limited to clinics and healthcare providers anymore.

Any organization that sends, receives or stores paper and electronic personal health information (PHI) must comply with this legislation. A recent survey revealed that compliance failure is around 50%.

SOX – The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 states that all public companies and their accounting firms must sercurely retain all business records, including electronic records and messages, for not less than five years. Failure results in fines and imprisonment.

E-mail archiving keeps you up and running
Just a few years ago, the average size of a user’s mail box was 10MB. Today the average size is 50x larger (500MB)! This causes many servers in small businesses to overload, slowing down speed and performance dramatically. While a third of this bloat are messages that should be deleted, the rest need to be retained, searchable and available on demand. Most mail server software has built-in features that move “old” e-mail off the server, but doesn’t allow for easy access to the information.

You can also buy bigger server hard drives every year to prevent a bog-down, but this can be cost prohibitive. More often than not, email archiving is the most effective and economical choice for retaining messages and staying compliant with regulations.

3 Things You Need To Know About E-mail Marketing

February 8, 2009

It’s everyone’s favorite application. Since its introduction, it has revolutionized the way we communicate, both personally and professionally. It has had a major impact on how companies market themselves, communicate with vendors, send out press releases, rally employees and alert clients to their latest and greatest promotion. The ease, low-cost and speed of e-mail in marketing is the biggest reason why our inboxes are overflowing with spam.

In response to the ubiquitous outcry, “I hate spam,” governments have crafted new regulations surrounding the use of e-mail; and if you are one of the millions of companies using it for marketing, then it’s important that you familiarize yourself with these laws. But the danger doesn’t stop there…

Even if you don’t get caught by the authorities for violating the rules of e-mail usage, you can still end up on a blacklist with the major ISPs such as Yahoo!, AOL, and MSN. Once you get blacklisted, you are considered guilty until proven innocent, and ALL the e-mail you send won’t get through, even to people who want to receive it—a consequence that could end up hurting your business more than a fine.

So what are the basic guidelines of e-mail marketing?
First and foremost, make sure you are only sending e-mail campaigns to people who have solicited (requested) to be on your distribution list. This is called “opting-in” or subscribing, and e-mails sent to these folks are considered “solicited e-mail.” You are perfectly within your rights to send them messages; but if you got their e-mail address by any other means and they did NOT specifically request to be on your list, that is “unsolicited e-mail” or spam.

Sending promotional e-mails to people who have not requested it can be illegal, but certainly annoying…so don’t do it!

Next, make sure you provide directions on how a person can remove themselves from your distribution list in EVERY e-mail. The best place to put this information is at the very bottom of your message. You should also include your full company name and contact information at the bottom so no one can blame you for cloaking your identity—which is in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act.

Finally, when sending mass e-mails, we recommend using a web based service such as iContact (www.iContact.com). These applications will help you manage your e-mail distribution list with automatic opt-out and opt-in tools and will keep your e-mail server off an ISP’s blacklist. Naturally, you want to make sure the information you are sending is interesting and relevant. No one wants more junk filling up their inbox so the better you are at marketing, the better your results will be.Email is not a magic marketing bullet that will solve all your marketing problems, but used correctly, it can help you reach more customers and build stronger relationships with the people you already do business with.

E-Mail Trouble? Here Are Some Things To Check

January 21, 2009

Have you ever wondered whether someone got your email? You send a message, you wait to hear back, and…nothing. Did it arrive, or did it get lost along the way?

One of modern life’s greatest conveniences and frustrations, all in one, is email. When it works, it’s near-instant communication. But when it doesn’t, you’re left hanging.

How is it possible for such an important form of business communication to be so unreliable? Sadly, spam is to blame – I long for the good old days of reliable e-mail! As companies work to combat junk e-mail, chances are your mail may have some problems getting delivered. Fortunately, a little knowledge will increase the odds that your message gets through.

Bad Address
A common problem is simply an out-dated or mistyped email address.

With hard-to-remember addresses, frequent job moves, and changing internet service providers, your contact list should be updated regularly.

If you send something to a bad address, you usually get an error message sent right back to you. This is called a “bounce-back message” because the email was sent (“bounced”) right back without getting through.

Check for typos in the address line; if it looks right, pick up the phone instead. Be sure to update your address book with the new email.

Blacklists
A more serious problem occurs if your address is added to a blacklist. These are lists managed by a variety of spam-prevention services that flag people, websites, and servers that are known spammers.
Many anti-spam programs rely on these lists to filter out bad email. If you are caught on one, you will undoubtedly have problems delivering your message. Since different email servers rely on different lists, you may find most email gets through and only a few people have problems. Get on a big enough list – or several lists – and the number of issues will increase.

Even the innocent get blacklisted. For example, a spammer may “spoof” your email, making it appear that you are a spammer even though messages come from a completely different source. If you start getting bounce-back messages as mentioned above, that make it appear you sent large batches of obscene or get-rich-quick emails to people you don’t know, that’s the most likely cause. There’s no way to prevent this; wait a couple of days and it will usually subside.

Greylists
A less serious but equally frustrating list is the greylist. Many large organizations will use these to filter email from senders they haven’t seen before.

As long as your message isn’t spam, this will more likely delay your message than completely block it. However, if you need quick response and the email doesn’t arrive for a full day, it creates a significant communications obstacle.

When the delay is a one-time occurrence and your next message gets through, there’s no need to do anything. Keep in mind you may encounter delays with several recipients; it’s only cause for concern if you run into multiple delays with the same person, or even the same company.

Other Spam Filters
There are a number of additional triggers that can flag your message as spam. Excessive use of the word “free,” for example, is commonly associated with spam messages.

Google “spam checker” and you’ll find a variety of tools (free!) that will scan your message and tell you how spammy it is. Use these tools when you have an email you plan to send to a large group.

Info Overload
Human error is also a factor. With the sheer volume of email coming into our computers each day, it’s challenging to keep email organized.

If your message has been missed, it’s always a good idea to follow up with a phone call. Perhaps it didn’t arrive, but more likely it came in at a busy time and was accidentally overlooked.

A Convenient Excuse
If you take all these precautions and still your email doesn’t get through, and there’s no bounce-back message, you may be the victim of a convenient excuse.

If your email isn’t rejected, isn’t in any spam filter, and yet doesn’t show up despite a “careful review”…and all your subsequent tests work just fine…well, let’s just say technology may not be your problem.

Free E-mail Accounts? You Get What You Pay For!

December 22, 2008

We’ve all been told there is no such thing as a free lunch; yet it’s hard to resist the siren’s call of “FREE.” That’s one of the reasons why so many people have free e-mail accounts through Hotmail, MSN, and Gmail.

And while you might not be paying out of pocket for these services, there IS a cost. Here’s the price you pay when you use a free e-mail account:

An Extra Helping Of Spam: And loads of it. Are these free services selling your e-mail account? Do spammers have ways of gleaning your e-mail account? No one seems to know for sure (or at least they’re not talking). But the bottom line is you’ll end up with a lot more ads for Viagra than you bargained for.

Your E-mails Aren’t Guaranteed To Be Delivered: The majority of spam messages come from free e-mail accounts. Even though you aren’t sending them, spam filters look at the server sending the message and, if it’s a known source for spam, will block the e-mail from going through. That means your emails might be getting blocked before they even reach the sender.

Customer Service? Non-existent! See you DO get what you pay for! If you have a problem, you’re on your own to figure it out.

Difficulty In Moving, Forwarding, or Downloading: Free e-mail services require that you read your e-mail through their web interface. If you want to move, forward or download your e-mail, contacts or other information, the process is cumbersome and sometimes impossible.

No Archiving: E-mail archiving, or storing old emails in a searchable, retrievable format has become very important (even a legal requirement) in some industries like medical and financial. Email is considered a form of communication and if you use it to support customers, order products, or to negotiate any type of deals, you want to keep a record.

So while these free services are okay for chatting with friends, they are NOT recommended for business purposes or for anything important.

Here’s a question to ask yourself: If your e-mail account was erased tomorrow and all your messages, contact information, and history were gone, would it be a slight inconvenience or a catastrophe? If it’s the latter, then you need to get a “real” e-mail account.

And, while you’re at it, you should also get an account that reflects your own URL, like cbogedain@expertsmi.com. The only reason for keeping a free e-mail account is to provide certain web sites with an e-mail address when you don’t care about getting communications from them, or that may spam you later on – that way, you can simply get rid of it and get a new one when you start to get too much spam.

10 Easy Ways To Eliminate E-Mail Overload

January 10, 2008

E-mail driving you crazy? Every time you delete one, do ﬁ ve more show up? Are you ﬁ nding it impossible to answer every e-mail you receive? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you’re not alone!

Some people are even declaring e-mail bankruptcy — they dump every e-mail in their inbox and start over. If that’s not an option for you, then here are 10 tips to reduce e-mail overload.

1. Get a good spam ﬁlter.
Even if it saves you just 10 minutes a day, that adds up to over 59 hours a year.

2. Cancel subscriptions to unwanted mailing lists, and opt-out of LEGITIMATE e-zines.
But be careful! Trying to opt-out of spam e-mails will only alert the sender that they have a LIVE address. Also, make sure you are careful to check the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” box when purchasing items online.

3. Ask your friends to remove you from joke groups or chain messages.
Simply explain your situation and, if they are good friends, they’ll take you out of their message group.

4. Don’t post or publish your e-mail on websites.
Spammers will steal it and put it on their lists.

5. Don’t respond to every e-mail you receive.
Yes, it’s okay NOT to respond to some e-mails. If it’s a group e-mail, don’t respond with “okay” or “:)” — it’s not necessary unless the sender is speciﬁcally asking you a question or requesting a response.

6. Be succinct.
Restrict your messages to a few sentences. If you can’t, pick up the phone or talk in person. This will avoid the back-and-forth of e-mail conversation.

7. Take advantage of subject lines.
If possible, put your question in the subject line, or your message. If that’s not possible, make your subject line very descriptive so the recipient knows what your message is about. Here’s another tip; create a set of codes with your coworkers and place them in the subject line to help them process and prioritize messages. For example, use “FYI” for informational messages. Use “AR” for action required and “URG” for urgent messages.

8. Block time to answer your e-mail and ﬁght the temptation to check your e-mail every few minutes.
You will save yourself a lot of time and be far more productive.

9. Respond to messages when you open them so you only read them once.
If the e-mail requires an action step, schedule the action step and delete it from your inbox.

10. Set time aside in the morning and the evening to process your inbox.
Shoot for a completely empty inbox. File messages you need to keep and set reminders for messages that require you to follow up.

Now, here are some tips to keep from adding to the e-mail overload of others…

1. Be courteous when forwarding an e-mail: summarize the thread and why you are sending it at the top of the e-mail.

2. Don’t copy someone on a message unless it is necessary. And explain why you’re copying them. Recipients won’t need to guess your intentions. This means less back and forth messages.

Do You Make These Mistakes When Sending E-Mail?

October 26, 2007

In this day and age, it is amazing how many businesses and professionals still violate basic e-mail etiquette rules. Almost everyone uses e-mail to communicate with their clients and friends yet very few give any thought to the importance of those communications.

If you want to make sure you are not offending your clients and friends when sending e-mail, here are 6 basic rules to live by:

1. Never send e-mails to people who have not requested to receive them. This is also known as spamming and federal laws are getting much tougher in the rules and penalties for sending unwanted e-mail messages. Many businesses make the mistake of thinking that they are free and clear to send e-mail promotions to their clients, even if the client has not specifically requested to get those promotions. When in doubt, it’s always smarter to err on the side of caution and NOT include them in your broadcast; doing so could cause you to lose favor with your clients, or worse yet, lose their business altogether.

2. Don’t attach files unless you’ve gotten permission to from the recipient. With the looming threat of viruses, it’s considered bad net-etiquette to send file attachments.

3. DO NOT USE ALL CAPS. Using all caps in an e-mail is the online equivalent of screaming at the top of your lungs. Unless that is what you intended to do, make sure you use lowercase letters.

4. When sending to a large list of people, use the BCC (blind carbon copy) feature. Otherwise, you are exposing every recipient’s e-mail address to everyone else on the list. Since most people like to keep their personal e-mail addresses private, exposing your entire list will cause you to lose quite a few brownie points.

Here’s another point to consider: I wish I had a nickel for every sales person that sent out a broadcast e-mail to all their clients and prospects and accidentally copied everyone on the list. This is an EASY way for your competition to get their hands on one of your most precious assets.

5. Never send information you wouldn’t want the entire world to know about. E-mails can quickly spread around the Internet. Never send confidential information, off-color jokes, political opinions, pictures, or gossip that you wouldn’t want made public. This goes double if you are using a business e-mail address. And if you are a business owner, you want to make sure your employees know that it is against company policy to send this type of information through your company e-mail. Even a well-meaning joke can land you in a lot of hot water if taken the wrong way. Always take a minute to think before you hit the “send” button.

6. Avoid fancy formatting, background graphics, and other “cute” pictures and fonts. What looks great on your monitor may be impossible to read on someone else’s; it also may annoy the reader who has to weed through the fluff to find the content.

5 Simple Ways To Avoid Getting An Avalanche Of Spam

July 26, 2007

As you probably already know from firsthand experience, once you’re on a spammer’s list, it’s next to impossible to get off. And changing your e-mail address can be a major inconvenience especially if you rely on it to stay in touch with important business and personal contacts.

To reduce the chances of your e-mail address getting spammed, here are 5 simple preventive measures you can take that will go a long way in keeping not-so-delicious spam out of your in-box.

Use a disposable e-mail address
If you buy products online or occasionally subscribe to websites that interest you, chances are you’re going to get spammed.

To avoid your main e-mail address from ending up on their broadcast list, set up a free Internet e-mail address with Hotmail or Juno and use it when buying or opting in to online newsletters. You can also use a throwaway e-mail address when making purchases or subscribing to newsletters.

Pay attention to check boxes that automatically opt you in
Whenever you subscribe to a website or make a purchase online, be very watchful of small, pre-checked boxes that say, “Yes! I want to receive offers from third party companies.”

If you do not un-check the box to opt-out, your e-mail address can (and will) be sold to every online advertiser. To avoid this from happening, simply take a closer look at every online form you fill out.

Don’t use your main e-mail address on your website or forums
Spammers have special programs that can glean e-mail addresses from websites without your permission. If you are posting to a web forum or newsgroup, use your disposable e-mail address instead of your main e-mail address.

If you want to post an e-mail address on your home page, use “info@” and have all replies forwarded to a folder in your in-box that won’t interfere with your main address.

Create throwaway e-mail accounts
If you own a web domain, all mail going to an address at your domain is probably set up to come directly to you by default. For example, an e-mail addressed to anything@yourdomain will be delivered to your in-box.

This is a great way to fight spam without missing out on important e-mails you want to get. The next time you sign up for a newsletter, use the title of the website in your e-mail address. For example, if the website is titled “successsecrets.com,” enter “successsecrets@yourdomain.com” as your e-mail address. If you get spammed, look at what address the spam was sent to.

If successsecrets shows up as the original recipient, you know the source since that e-mail address was unique to that web site. Now you can easily stop the spam by making any e-mail sent to that address bounce back to the sender.

Don’t open, reply to or try to opt-out of obvious spam e-mails
Opening, replying to, or even clicking a bogus opt-out link in an obvious spam e-mail signals that your e-mail address is active, and more spam will follow.

The only time it is safe to click on the opt-out link or reply to the e-mail is when the message was sent from a company you know or do business with (for example, a company that you purchase from or a newsletter you subscribed to).

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