You’ll get emails. Many people have a love/hate relationship with email. But like the blog comment policy you can create for your community, you can also post guidelines about the types of emails you will and won’t respond to … Because as you continue to publish valuable content on your website, you’ll often find that a lot of the emails you receive aren’t actually from your audience members. For email management, I like to borrow a sentiment from a sign many brick-and-mortar businesses use: “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” A digital business has the same rights, and the customer service aspect of your content marketing duties doesn’t necessarily include responding to every message you receive. Messages worthy of your time are relevant to what you do, so here are three questions you can ask to determine if an email you receive warrants a response. Respond to emails from prospects about doing business with you. Is this relevant to my content marketing platform? While crafting your email policy, it’s a good time to determine what type of advice you’ll give away for free and what type of advice is part of your paid services. And promoting Their Thing is more important to them than your time. Focus on serving your audience with Your Thing … A resource to help you with your content marketing tasks If you like guidelines and best practices, you might like something new we’re cooking up.
When you run a content marketing platform, you’ll get other types of messages from your audience in addition to blog comments.
You’ll get emails.
Many people have a love/hate relationship with email. When it’s good, it’s really good — but when it’s bad, managing your inbox feels like a huge waste of time.
But like the blog comment policy you can create for your community, you can also post guidelines about the types of emails you will and won’t respond to …
Because as you continue to publish valuable content on your website, you’ll often find that a lot of the emails you receive aren’t actually from your audience members.
The messages I’m talking about are essentially spam, but not necessarily from automated bots.
Spam can be from actual people who mean well but lack an effective strategy. Spam can also be from actual people who are clueless.
For email management, I like to borrow a sentiment from a sign many brick-and-mortar businesses use:
“We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.”
A digital business has the same rights, and the customer service aspect of your content marketing duties doesn’t necessarily include responding to every message you receive.
Messages worthy of your time are relevant to what you do, so here are three questions you can ask to determine if an email you receive warrants a response.
1. Is this relevant to my business?
Respond to emails from prospects about doing business with you.
Sometimes you’ll need to guide prospects to the right product for their needs or give them more information about your services.
If someone is genuinely interested in doing business with you, but they need some help before they can commit, provide details and overcome objections.
2. Is this relevant to my brand?
Respond to emails from potential partners about developing your brand.
Sometimes you’ll get emails about collaborations or partnerships from other content creators.
These can be tricky because, unfortunately, they’re commonly not related to your brand and come across as spam (more on that below).
But getting thoughtful, intelligent opportunities from your peers is a rewarding part of building an audience. If you get an offer from someone you respect, responding is a smart move (even if you won’t be able to take them up on it).
3. Is this relevant to my content marketing platform?
Respond to clear customer service inquiries.
These messages aren’t from prospects who want to do business with you (right now), but they are from respectful people in your community who need help with some aspect of…
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