E-mail for Marketers: Getting Organized!


As I mentioned earlier in the site, the lifeblood of a web marketer is email. Everything they do revolves around it. As every form of commerce and transaction, as well as joining programs and promoting a web based business depends totally on it.

If you are just starting out in this field or have already started, and have reached a point you are frustrated with mail don’t make rash decisions because of the volume and time it takes to handle it. All you need is some common sense knowledge on how to organize it and appropriately manage it.

With a few smart actions you can easily manage all your mail as it comes with much less time as you have without it. The key is organization.

To be practical and pragmatic, you create a system that become an automatic response by you that becomes habit. These habits save you time, money and worry.

First, you will get 4 main types of mail.

1. transaction receipts

2. welcome and member info mail

3. necessary junk mail

4. personal business contact mail

In my earlier topics I discussed how important it was to maintain several mailboxes to segregate these different mail types. This has several important benefits, but the most important is that you know what kind of mail to expect in each. While no one is impervious to spam and junk mail, you can significantly reduce where and how much you get to your personal contact and transaction mailbox.

Number one in maintaining this is to rigidly never use those email addresses for anything other than their designated purpose. Lets say your transaction address is bobspay@hotmail.com, don’t use this address to mail the owner of a program you joined. Use your contact address, that’s what it is for.

As I mentioned, even safelists and other advertising sites sometimes mail a few ads daily to your contact address for them. Only use your list contact address when you join a safelist, don’t use your personal contact address. The same goes for the subscribe address when joining a safelist. Remember which is which when you join. Your subscribe address is the one you will get ads from all the members to, so be certain even if you must write down the addresses and keep them visible when you join safelists and ffa’s.

The following info describes how to organize and maintain your mail on your home pc, not on a web based email service. This method is only possible on your own physical pc. While they allow making folders, this is very time consuming because of the time lag you endure for the server to perform these tasks.

Your home pc and its hard drive operate much faster, and you have instant backup capability with it. For these important reasons, I stress you do this on a local pc.

Organizing is nothing more than taking the existing mail you have and putting each one in a folder named relevant to the subject of the mail. Lets take a for instance situation, and assume you only have an “inbox” folder. As a marketer you will get mail from advertising you buy, member info from programs you join, questions from prospects and numerous mails that are critical that you keep in such a way you can easily locate them and refer to them.

The biggest reason for doing this is taxes you pay the following year. Advertising expenses are deductible but you must have proof of those expenses in the event you are audited.

Lets start with transaction email you get from your payment processors like Paypal and Intgold. Make a folder under your “Local Folders” named “Financial”. Then select that folder, and make a folder named “Paypal”.

Store all your mails from Paypal regarding your membership and login info in that folder. Don’t put your receipts from Paypal in this folder though. You need to store them in a folder associated with the site you made the purchase to, and likewise notifications of payment you get from that same site.

Lets approach a real life scenario so you can see how this works. Lets say theoretically, you joined “JohnsWidgets.com”. When you join, lets also say you paid a membership fee with Paypal to join. JohnsWidgets is an affiliate program that allows you to offer his widgets to the public and you receive a 20% commission from every widget you sell from his site.

First off, you will first get an email from Jognswidgets.com probably with a link in the message that you must click on to verify your email address. This is NOT a mail you need to keep. When you click the link you will go to his site, and get a message stating you have confirmed your email address with them.

Next you should get or may already have got, a “welcome” email from Johnswidgets.com. This has your login info, and important links. This is an important email. You should save this one in case you loose or forget your username and password at his site.

Make a folder under your local folders, named “Affiliate Programs”. Under that folder, make a folder named “Johns Widgets”. For this email, make a folder under that one called “setup info”, and store this email in it.

Next you should have or soon get a mail from Paypal, your receipt for paying the fee to join Johnswidgets.com. Click on that email with your right button. A context menu will appear. Choose “move to folder”. You will get a browse list showing your email folders.

Browse to “Affiliate Programs” , then “Johns Widgets”. Select the Johnswidgets folder, then click on the menu button in this box on the right hand side, labeled “New Folder”. This will give you a prompt to type in the name of the new folder. Name it “2005”.

You’re not finished, select this new folder you just made FIRST. Then click on the button “ok”. It will put your receipt from Paypal in this folder. That is how you move an email to a folder and create the new folder all in the same process. Of course if you would rather you can make your new folders first then move the mail. You can also drag your messages to folders as well. But this is cumbersome and you can accidentally move it to the wrong folder and not even see it.

Then you will have a hard time finding it in the future because it wont be where you expected it to be.

This is how simple it is to organize your mail as you get it. A little practice and self-discipline will quickly make this habit for you, and keep your records so easy to maintain and refer to. As a marketer, you will probably join many programs and purchase much advertising and services. It will not take long to accumulate hundreds of mails.

Starting out this way keeps the clutter from ever happening to your inbox, and makes you much more efficient. Efficient always means less time you will spend doing daily mandatory tasks like this.