{"id":5165,"date":"2015-05-06T17:13:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=5165"},"modified":"2023-10-18T17:36:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:36:04","slug":"cut-through-inbox-noise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/ca\/blog\/cut-through-inbox-noise\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Ways to Cut Through Inbox Noise (and Get Your Emails Opened)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\u2019re overrun with the stuff: More than 183 billion emails<\/a> are sent every day. That averages out to more than 42 emails received daily by each email address in the world.<\/p>\n

And what about productivity? Unless you\u2019re a customer service agent responding to questions, most business professionals don\u2019t consider \u201cmanaging their inbox\u201d as one of their primary duties. Nearly half (45 per cent<\/a>) of employee time is spent performing primary duties, while the second most common business activity is managing email\u201414 per cent of the time.<\/p>\n

One-on-one emails are the backbone of workplace communications. Unlike email marketing campaigns, one-on-one emails are intended for a private exchange among a small audience. Emails to team members, a few partners, or a manager are all considered \u201cone-on-one\u201d emails.<\/p>\n

There has never been a better time to hone our email crafting skills. Despite the rise in collaborative workplace technology over the last several years, email continues to be the primary mode of communication: a whopping 91 per cent<\/a> of enterprise teams prefer to use email over any other communication method (\u201cplanned meetings\u201d are a distant second at 68 per cent).<\/p>\n

We spend a lot of time reading, writing, and responding to emails, so why not brush up on one of the most critical business skills? Here are 15 steps to cut through the inbox noise, get people to open (and read) emails, and spur action outside the mailbox.<\/p>\n

Write to Reduce Email Volume<\/h2>\n

When we send an email, it creates <\/i>noise by participating and competing <\/i>with others\u2019 noise in a recipient\u2019s inbox.<\/p>\n

Consider how you feel every time you receive an email. Maybe you tense up at the thought of yet another to-do item. In the words of writer and comedian Stephen Fry, \u201cIt is exhausting knowing that most of the time the phone rings, most of the time there’s an email, most of the time there’s a letter, someone wants something of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we reduce the volume, we reduce the amount of time spent in our inbox and allow more time to actually get stuff done. (And we save a little bit of our mental processing for the hard work, too: One study<\/a> found it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back into a state of focus after an interruption.)<\/p>\n

1. Save the urgent matters for outside the inbox.<\/b> We feel chained to our email because we treat it like the place to catch a hot potato\u2014and others expect we\u2019re checking our email all the time. \u201cDid you see my email?\u201d is not an uncommon question within the hours after delivery. Let your contacts know you\u2019re happy to follow up on urgent matters through different channels such as a phone call or text.<\/p>\n

2. Use tools that reduce unnecessary back-and-forth responses. <\/b>Get the real work done outside the inbox. A number of collaboration tools (including Salesforce<\/a>\u2019s Chatter tool) help team members work in a focused environment. Contacts, documents, and conversations can be stored in one location for future reference.<\/p>\n

Write (and Send) to Get Your Email Opened<\/h2>\n

Email Outcome: What Happens to Your Emails?<\/h3>\n