Early internet users loved to tell stories about executives who requested that their assistants print out their emails so that they could read and reply to them on paper. But, of course, email is now the norm, and personal assistants are becoming increasingly rare. They can nevertheless be a valuable tool to manage your messages.
You may be very busy today, but you may feel unproductive from time to time despite your busy schedule. Managing your email inbox is one of many seemingly futile tasks that takes up a lot of time.
Due to the emergence of the collaborative economy, where people can access services on a pay-per-use basis, there is an increasing number of options for getting administrative support. Whether you’re using a virtual assistant service like Wishup, hiring a part-time assistant through Fiverr, or receiving traditional administrative support from the company.
Whether you use plugins or set up rules and filters in your inbox, an assistant can reduce the burden of managing your email in ways that automated systems cannot. For example, you can use them to conduct daily inbox reviews, handle email triage, or respond to individual messages. It’s best to set up human support with intelligent email rules so your assistant won’t waste time on routine tasks such as deleting junk mail or filing messages that you don’t need.
The benefit of having a virtual email assistant
For any employee that receives dozens, if not hundreds of emails a day, having a virtual assistant to manage email and help keep the inbox clean is a dream come true. People can concentrate on more critical tasks when they delegate emails to assistants correctly. To make this process easy, consider using an email builder which will simplify all types of processes.
This article will learn about the advantages of email management through a virtual assistant and some tips and tricks to get you started.
What is email management?
The goal of email management is to organize and run an email inbox to optimize time. To avoid negative impacts on productivity, it is essential to adhere to the best email practices.
According to a study, workers spend 28% of their workday sending and reading emails. Keeping your inbox decluttered can prevent cluttered inboxes and a huge loss of productivity. Whereas, keeping your inbox cluttered can result in missing important emails like an email surveys you would have participated in to share feedback, a banking transaction that you need to keep records of, or any other important email that needs you attention or response.
What is a virtual email assistant?
A virtual email assistant provides email inbox management services for executives, entrepreneurs, and others with busy schedules.
Many executives use virtual assistants to manage email to simplify work while delegating emails to an expert in email best practices.
Why hire a virtual email assistant to manage your inbox?
A virtual email assistant can help entrepreneurs with those extra hours to be productive in other areas. In addition, outsourcing email management will free up valuable time.
Sorting emails is time-consuming as it requires time and attention to weed through your inbox—spam emails waste valuable time. Likewise, choosing and deleting spam emails is time-consuming, even if you don’t read the email before deciding if it’s spam. So, instead let the virtual assistant scan your spam folder for important messages that may have been flagged as spam by accident and dispose of them.
Checking emails regularly is good, but it can steal valuable and productive time. A few minutes here and there adds up. Running a successful business means every minute counts. A virtual email assistant takes over control of your email inbox when you hire one. Business owners no longer need to check their emails every few minutes. That is now the virtual assistant’s task.
An organized inbox helps business owners easily find emails their searching for. Because you can now see what’s happening in your inbox, you’ve regained control. Additionally, the virtual email assistant is responsible for sending and receiving emails on your behalf. As a result, emails that don’t require your attention but need to be sent are taken care of.
Tasks that a virtual email assistant can do for you
1. Firstly, unsubscribe from annoying newsletters
Here’s a chance to streamline your inbox if you subscribe to newsletters regularly. You may be tempted to create labels and filters that can process them out of the way for you, but again, let’s save those strategies for emails that add value to your personal and professional life.
If you haven’t read the past two editions of that newsletter, chances are you’re not getting any value so consider unsubscribing. If you can’t bear to unsubscribe, most newsletters will allow you to minimize their send frequency.
2. Administrative work
Having a virtual assistant for email management would not only free up your time but would also handle other administrative items, such as diaries – scheduling meetings, taking calls, organizing to-do lists and calendars, and booking travel arrangements.
3. Email marketing
You use email marketing to send commercial emails to recipients who have expressly agreed to receive these emails.
A newsletter is an excellent way to promote your brand, inform your contacts, send promotional emails and encourage sales.
You can also use email outreach and cold emails to collaborate with other brands and to build stronger industry connections.
4. Respond to emails within 12-48 hrs
As a general rule of thumb, business-related emails should be replied to within 48 hrs. Studies have shown that taking more than 48 hours to respond to an email can lose potential customers and their dissatisfaction.
According to a survey conducted by Fast Company, over 70% of people expect a response time within four hours.
Again, an email management virtual assistant can help here. It is at least possible to set up autoresponders to tell your recipient that you are paying attention and that a detailed response will follow in three to five business days.
5. Create labels and organize your inbox
After removing the unnecessary emails, you’ll want to organize the emails you wish to with labels.
You can use labels to arrange the custom folder system within your inbox strategically. Name them by project, industry, client, or whatever you desire. The granular organization of your inbox creates an efficient method of finding and processing conversations because they are in their proper place.
6. Customer Service
You don’t need an in-house customer executive because your customers don’t interact with you in person.
Furthermore, because most customer service interactions revolve around addressing issues that are easily resolved by a manual, you don’t need to possess expertise. Of course, if your virtual email assistants can’t handle an issue, it can continually be escalated to a full-time employee.
Spend time explaining what you offer, and your email virtual assistants will be prepared to answer any questions you may have.
7. Writing quality emails
As simple as it may sound, writing professional emails is an art. Email virtual assistants are skilled in writing emails following a professional vocabulary that helps send a clear message to the reader.
Artificial intelligence is catching up and can now write emails on your behalf. But until the technology is perfected, it looks like hiring a virtual email assistant is the next best option.
Wrapping it up
Remember, you’ve been managing your email inbox by yourself. When you hand over your virtual inbox to your email virtual assistant, to effectively take over, clear instructions are required.
It is essential to create a handover list, so you don’t miss out on any points. In addition, it will help you to clarify to your assistant which emails belong to which group and what the appropriate action should be.
It isn’t a rarity for businesses to hire virtual assistants to enhance productivity and growth. Virtual email assistants can help you scale your business and elevate you to the next level.
