I send a lot of emails every day. Like I once mentioned, that’s the realization that cured me of writer’s block. But emails are super-temporary objects, at least the ones that don’t come back to haunt you, anyway. They take an hour or so out of every day to write, and then they’re gone. The next day, the process starts anew.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
If I write an email that’s longer than a paragraph, my new system is to stop and think if there’s ever going to be a chance I’ll write something like it again. Then I try to think if I can invent a situation that would require a mail like that. If the answer is close to yes, I take five extra minutes for some magic.
Basically, I take those emails, genericize them, and throw them into either a FAQ library that I can cut and paste, or into an autoresponder marketing chain. Today’s reply to a prospect is going to be the basis for a seven step email sequence, for example.
The best part of a system like that is that it all forms the foundation for Operation: Replace Myself. If my business is consistent enough in the kinds of clients I attract and the products and services I offer, the breadth of the emails I write to build and sustain that business is going to get covered over the course of a quarter or so and I’ll have a reusable email library.
Sure, I’ll evolve and enhance some of the messaging over time, but I’m looking forward to a week, not that far off, where 80% of the external mails I send out are either sent automatically or via a cut and paste swipe file that I could teach someone to use.
For now though, the idea that the work I put into an email (and make no mistake, I feel like I “craft” the majority of them, so if you get one, be sure to appreciate it, ha) will pay off more than once is pretty cool, and a new idea for me as I get out of the “well, I’m typing so I must be busy so I must be doing it right” mindset.
Photo by flattop341
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