Overwhelmed by Your Inbox’

It’s scary to leave the office these days. While you’re gone, if your e-mail is anything like mine, the messages in your Inbox rise to dangerous levels and threaten to overflow onto your desktop. And of that towering stack awaiting your return, at least 30 percent is pure junk.

As agents and brokers conduct more and more business online, we need to find a way to circumvent the junk. Who has time for it?

With this in mind, the creative team at InsuranceJournal.com has picked up on the latest “killer app” of direct marketing (see Catherine Tapia’s “E-Marketing” article on page 28 to learn more). Under the guidance of Mitch Dunford, IJ’s associate publisher/web, we are now sending out Daily News Headlines in the form of an opt-in e-mail. I can hear you all screaming now: “Another e-mail newsletter? That’s the last thing I need!”

But actually, this e-mail newsletter is the only thing you’ll need. Hand-picked news items delivered to your desktop in a tidy package every morning—it’s a fast, free and painless way to find out what’s happening in your industry.

Response has been good so far. Karen Chin, CEO of the Insurance Industry Charitable Fund, wrote to us saying the opt-in “looks great, [is] easy to navigate and right to the point. It certainly fits my crazy day(s), so I can imagine that it’s very well-received by the industry professionals whose time is always so intense.”

Remember when it used to be the fax machine that was overflowing with incoming messages? With the advent of e-mail, fax machines are much quieter these days.

Even voice mailboxes aren’t as full as they used to be. You still get agency answering machines that tell you: “You cannot change or bind coverage by leaving a voice mail”—what about e-mail? Do they have an automatic message yet that shoots back to the policyholder: “Sorry, you may not change or bind coverage by sending an e-mail”?

Some people only do business via e-mail these days. The Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (Spawar) is one example of an organization that made the shift to a paperless environment. Spawar announced in February that it would only be accepting electronic proposals.

I guess their desks must be clean and tidy at Spawar, but I wouldn’t want to see their Inboxes!

P.S. While we’re on the subject of e-mail, let’s talk about pet peeves—everyone has some when it comes to e-mail etiquette. My pet e-peeve? When people tag their e-mail with the little red exclamation point, and it’s really not urgent. Typos in e-mails also drive me crazy. I could go on, but I’ll spare you. Send me your pet e-peeve, sbarnhart@insurancejournal.com.