“Hey! Did you get my e-mail?”

Ironically enough, this is now one of the most frequently asked questions that most of us - even Fortune 500 executives - get asked these days. “Of *course* I got your e-mail! I just haven’t had time to sift through the pile of bytes yet this morning. Or maybe your e-mail had a naughty word in it, like ‘business’ or that word that you use when you’re refinancing your home, and was blocked by our corporate server spam filters and sent to The Black Hole called /dev/null. Hang on let me put you on hold while I search my entire Inbox and call our IT guy to check and see if your domain is on our blacklist. One sec. Be right back.”

According to Forrester, 80 percent of the e-mail messages being sent these days are spam. 80 percent! I can remember the days long ago when I actually had more time available to process e-mail than I did messages. I looked forward to e-mail. What a wonderful and exciting time it was. The birds were singing. The sun was shining. The e-mail messages were short, in text, direct and concise. I didn’t get cc’d superfluously by people who “thought” I should know. And then the bad men came, with their promises of riches, genital enhancement and lonely housewives, and I woke up. It was a horrible dream.

Checking e-mail this morning, just between 9pm last night and 8am this morning I received 219 e-mail messages! Will I get to them? You bet. I try to answer everything personally, even if it means a short response - *especially* if it means a short response, because I know that the shorter my message is, the more likely it will be read and acted on by the recipient.

I’ll be doing a couple of articles on spam in the coming weeks, but here’s a tip that I used many moons ago and was recently reminded of it when I wrote to a friend and got the following autoresponse back:

“I have been overwhelmed by spam and have changed my e-mail address. If you need to reach me, you can find it listed as a graphic at this address: http://.”

So what he did was route all e-mail from his domain name or old e-mail address to an autoresponder after setting up a new, unpublished e-mail address that he had created as a graphic using Photoshop, Fireworks or Paintshop Pro. The graphic was NOT hyperlinked, meaning that I had to look at it and manually type it into my message to reach him. I used that years ago but it’s interesting to see that it is still one of the most effective ways of turning off the spam faucet.

If you or your business doesn’t already have a domain name yet, I strongly recommend GoDaddy for purchasing domains and either Pair Networks or Dreamhost for Web hosting. I have no affiliation with any of these companies other than being a customer.

I predict there will be a day, not long in the distant future, when some busy executives will put all their e-mail on an autoresponse, and it will read something like this:

“Hi this is Adam Boettiger. I’m now receiving more e-mail than I have time to process. The best way to reach me is through my secretary (or voice-mail) at (206) 888-6824 or by postal mail. My address is …”

But what of those people who are *real*, who are not some randomly made up name or some trick Subject line? What of the people who are genuinely trying to communicate with us for business or to *give* us their business?

The best way to make sure the people you want to get through do get through, is to make sure they have either your private, unlisted e-mail address or your direct line. Tell your inner circle that the best way to reach you is by phone and that you would rather spend two minutes on a quick call than having to read or compose a lengthy e-mail. Route your outer circle to voice-mail. (Footnote: Your “Outer Circle” is “Everyone else”).

There’s one Fortune 500 executive I know who gets so many calls each day that she lets all of them go to voice-mail and only checks it once per week on Friday mornings. Her outgoing message tells people that and says that if it’s urgent to contact her personal assistant. Then she gives out her cell number only to her Inner Circle.

Voice-mail and the telephone are two great timesavers if used properly and if you train your staff to use them properly - as in short, concise calls, each not longer than two minutes. If you’re not publishing a phone number in the e-mail signature at the end of your messages and you’re in business - do it. It will reduce the number of e-mail messages that you have to process. But keep in mind that you may have to train your staff to use the phone more often. Remember, the current generations are all being raised on e-mail and instant messaging!

In the coming years cell phones are clearly going to play a larger role in all of our lives. But, as usual, I’m way ahead of the game. I’m an early adopter to new technologies and gadgets, and by the time cell phone penetration will have reached the saturation point I’ll probably have already moved on to the next big thing and will only be reachable by postal mail. LOL

To your success and effective management of life in a digital world!

Adam Boettiger
adam@digitalocean.cc

PS: If any of you know of any interesting positions open - either Northwest or via telecommute/travel, I’m looking to transition to my next adventure. See below…

About the author
A public speaker and military veteran, Adam Boettiger has been involved with the internet, web and e-mail since 1995 and, after falling victim to a 35 percent staff reduction at a direct marketing agency, is currently reviewing employment opportunities and is taking time to reflect on what his next adventure may be. If your company or someone you know is seeking to fill a position in business development, marketing or sales, please review his resume here.

e-mail: adam@digitalocean.cc
Phone/vm: (206) 888-6824

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Reprinted with permission from Adam Boettiger’s Digital Ocean Newsletter. (Copyright 2005, Adam Boettiger, DigitalOcean.cc.) To subscribe to Adam’s free newsletter, visit his Web site here.

Digital Ocean © 2004 - 2005 by Adam Boettiger
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