Email Experience Council Releases Inbox Management Tips

March 26, 2008 — The Email Experience Council (eec), the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) email marketing arm, yesterday announced the release of seven inbox management tips to help people reduce emailbox congestion and frustration.

“Email is an amazingly efficient communication tool, which is why it’s used by 97 percent of all consumers and 94 percent of marketers, according to Forrester Research,” said Jeanniey Mullen, the founder and executive chairwoman of the eec and global executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Zinio. “However, email is used by so many people — and so often — that managing your inbox can be challenging at times. For that reason, the Email Experience Council has assembled this list of inbox management tips.”

The eec’s advice ranges from four actions to take when receiving an email to tips on managing email newsletter subscriptions and inbox organizing. For instance, Outlook allows recipients to set up rules that automatically route newsletters and other routine emails into folders instead of the inbox, which should be reserved for emails that are to be acted on in the near-term.

In addition to providing a personal inbox management guide, the eec’s list includes do’s and don’ts for how to respect the inboxes of colleagues, friends, and family. For instance, don’t reply to “all” when the reply is only relevant to one or two people CC’d on the email. Similarly, don’t CC people unnecessarily.

Taken together, the eec’s tips can reduce a person’s inbox volume and allow them to handle their email more quickly and efficiently.

Commenting on the eec’s inbox management tips, DMA Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ramesh Lakshmi-Ratan, Ph.D., said, “It’s our hope that, empowered by these practical inbox management tips, consumers will be more willing to take advantage of the great email marketing deals and content available in the digital marketplace — from coupons sent from their favorite retailers and travel deals from their preferred airline, to news from charitable organizations and articles from your company’s technology partners.”

About the Email Experience Council (eec)

The Email Experience Council (eec) (www.emailexperience.org), the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) vertical working group that is focused on the email marketing industry, is a global professional organization striving to enhance the image of email marketing and communications, while celebrating and advocating its importance in business, and its ROI value. The eec is committed to regularly conducting a broad series of email initiatives for a variety of organizations that highlight the positive impact and importance of email as a marketing tool, communications vehicle, and branding device. Additionally, eec members are setting the standards for email through Marketing Roundtables. The eec members are representatives of other trade organizations, agencies, advertisers, technology partners, clients, and companies focused on the potential of email marketing via mobile and other digital devices.

# # #