va to manage email

How to outsource email management

In this post I’m going to handle the one subject that I see business visionaries battling with more than all else – dealing with their email.

Studies say that C-Level executives are considered to be ‘online addicts’ and use an average of 38% of their time stuck in their email inboxes.

I was much the same as this. I did a few things that took me from a normal of 6-hours a day in my inbox, to roughly 1-2 hours a day. A level that I still keep up now – despite the fact that I get double the measure of messages today, than I did before.

Below will reveal how I do it, so you can do it without anyone else’s help. If you’re up for the test, that is; as email is the one thing, more than anything else, that most business people are most hesitant to surrender control of – despite the fact that it makes us insane!

Setting Up Your Email so Virtual Staff Can Manage It For You

To start bringing organisation to your inbox turmoil, we have to set you up properly – with the goal that can make you more beneficial as an entrepreneur. When it comes to taking care of your email, it means saying hello to Gmail.

In case you’re still stuck with Outlook, or even Mail (for my Mac clients), getting set-up with Gmail will instantly provide you the capability to access, reply to, and have sent messages all synchronized together, immediately, regardless of what gadget you are using.

I’m able to deal with my email from my iPhone, iPad, iMac (at home and in the workplace) and my 11? MacBook Air, regardless of where I am, what ISP I’m associated with, or what nation I’m in – even machines that are not claimed without anyone else’s input work – I basically sign-in and get to work. This is magnificent in case you’re on a trip and need to get to your email far from your regular gadgets, for whatever reason.

Giving Your VA Access to Your Email

outsource email management

Before you begin to worry, relax. To attain email flexibility, you’re going to need to do this.
You have several choices here. You can either:

a) Share your username and password. You can utilise a password defender administration like lastpass.com in the event that you need to keep your real secret word a mystery, or;

b) Once your Gmail is set up, search for the segment that says “Stipend access to your record” under your record settings. This will permit your VA to peruse your messages, and answer for your benefit.

As I said earlier, handing over our email is most likely one of the hardest things an entrepreneur has to battle with. I can see why, I mean, the very thought of someone other than yourself reading and responding to messages specifically sent to you, is a bit uneasy, as a start.

Here’s the thing – on the off chance that you truly need to keep certain emails (from specific individuals), then you can. Simply provide for them a mystery, non-distributed email address. At the same time, figure out how to have restraint – you can have up to five individuals to access this email address at once.

The rest – you’re going to give up. Hand them over to your VA to oversee for you.

Once your VA has entry to your inbox, you have to invest a little time taking them through your “particular” style. Fundamentally, it states that when you open a message, you are just permitted to do one of the accompanying:

  • Reply
  • Delete
  • Archive

It empowers her to clear my messages rapidly and proficiently, and I realise that, she’s likewise assuming ownership over her activities. I admit it was a battle to get her into the grove at the beginning, however, after a couple of weeks she gradually began to master it and maintain the neatness that I need in my inbox.

I normally receive around 200 messages a day, however, when my VA goes through them first thing in the morning (before I’ve begun my work day!), that number is down to around 30-50 on average. Way more manageable, right?

Make sure to watch the feature underneath, where I go into more detail on how this is attained.

Standards My VA Follows & Why You Need to Make Your Own

One of the simplest approaches to exhibit to you precisely what my VA does when clearing up my inbox, is to demonstrate to you a couple of the “principles” she takes after, for example:

  • Interviews/ Press Request/Appointments – Send to my PA for dialog in Weekly Catch-Up Meeting.
  • VA/ Outsourcing Questions – Provide replies to inquiries utilizing ‘VA Q&A’ Document.
  • Personal Messages – Leave for me to answer.
  • Visitor Post Requests – Reply with prewritten, courteous email, declining the offer.
  • Procuring VA’s/ Virtual Team – Leave for me to answer.
  • Business Proposals/Offers – Send to my PA for dialog in Weekly Catch-Up Meeting.
  • Particular Messages – Check ‘Affirmed Contact’ Lists and leave for me to answer.

These are simply a handful of these ‘standards’, but you do get the general thought, right? It’s about evaluating who will do what, and afterward pulling the trigger.

A simple approach to setting up your own particular email tenets is to take a seat and run through the majority of emails you’ve received over a time in a couple days. By doing this you’ll see what your inbox will look like on a week-to-week premise.

Something else that my VA does is to clear my inbox. This implies that when I check my email at 9am in the morning (which is ordinarily when I start my work day), I know beyond all doubt that she’s been in there to do her thing! This permits me to do MY thing, without all the disarray.

Extra “Ninja” Email Cleansing Tips for Your VA to Follow

Alongside everything else above, you can get your VA to follow these additional rules to put your outsourced email administration into overdrive:
Gmail’s “Starring” Feature – A great illustration of utilising this gimmick is to ask your VA to “star” messages that you generally need to reply, or appear urgent in nature.

Use Labels inside Gmail – For an illustration, my VA marks all invites. I accept with the yellow hued name that we set-up, so it “pops” out at me initially, as talking is something I need to centre all the more on later on.

Set-up Automatic Filters – This is incredible for more “particular” messages, as it means your VA doesn’t even need to peruse them. As a case, when my sibling messages me, his email skirts the inbox and goes specifically into the “family” channel we’ve set-up, with the goal that I can get to it myself.

The Power to Delete at Will – Giving your virtual staff the ability to settle on choices on their own, in accordance with your rules and marketable strategies, is something I regularly discuss. The VA taking care of my email has the ability to erase any message she believes is a waste of my time.

Questions = Content – Every time I get an inquiry by means of email that there is not a pre written reply to, my VA adds it to an always developing spreadsheet of ‘Substance Ideas’ in my Dropbox organiser. The best sort of substance to transform is the stuff that your supporters and online “companions” have requested specifically!

When you have these set up, the time you use on your email will be fundamentally decreased.

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