This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
Don’t let your e-mail inbox prevent you from doing one of the most important business & PR tips: following up.
No, this is not a re-hash of my follow-up phone call blog post!
This is a revelation about how our e-mail inboxes can sometimes bog us down, and prevent us from doing good business PR.
I have a “Potential Client” folder in my inbox. I love it. If a potential client conversation leads to a dead end for the time being, I file the e-mail train into this folder and I leave it be. Then I make a note either in my agenda or desktop document when next I should follow-up.
Yesterday, I was going through this folder to see if there was anyone in 2014 who I had one of these communications with, and who I might want to follow up with now. I ended up finding an e-mail that I had not responded to after the person had said something along the lines of “maybe you can help us with PR in the future.” And this e-mail was received about the middle of the year.
Oh HEEELL NO!
Don’t get me wrong, we NEED organized e-mail inboxes to help us not have a thousand e-mails in our main feed, and to help make our lives easier. But sometimes, if you do not schedule that follow-up, you will not be able to master it. And sometimes, the follow-up is the key to doing business.
Don’t lose potential contact e-mail messages like I did this once. What steps do you take to ensure you are keeping organized and maintaining business relationships?
