The email avalanche

• The average number of emails in an inbox = 200.

• The average person responds to 25% of their emails and checks their emails every 37 minutes — that’s 15 times per day

• The average email open rate is 18%, although this can vary by as much as 1%, depending on the day of the week.

Sources: Harvard Business Review, Campaign Monitor feed the recipient a tiny bit of information that leads to a call to action to learn more, Adyanthaya said.

“Don’t send a lengthy email right off the bat, and don’t keep repeating what you already said in the last email,” she said. “Know your target market and be really clear about what you are trying to sell them. Keep the subject lines interesting and don’t send the same subject lines out more than once.

“It’s about building a relationship, building that trust, being very clear with your message.”

Adyanthaya suggested a strong beginning, a few bullet points and a compelling call to action at the end.

“I think people tend to read the beginning of a message, lose interest somewhere in the middle part of it and then see what is the point at the end of the message. So your message needs to follow that structure.”

Stay off the naughty list

The quickest way to end up on someone’s “do not email list” is to be annoying, Boyd said.

“If you don’t want someone to block you, don’t be annoying,” she said. “Don’t send repeated emails, don’t ask too many questions. When you send an initial email, take your time before you follow up with another one. If you followed up once or perhaps twice and didn’t get any input or feedback, then it’s time to back off. You still have the opportunity in the future to reach out again. A few months down the line, you can email again and say, ‘I reached out to you a few months ago,’ and now maybe this is the time to start a conversation.”

As for the prospect who isn’t a good fit and isn’t responding to email, Boyd suggested simply moving on.

“I will politely decline something once, and if you answer me after that, I usually I just don’t respond because you can’t respond to every email,” she said. “If I look at the subject line and see this isn’t something that I’m looking for, I will delete the message without opening it. This is why your subject line must be appropriate and relevant.

“If I have declined in a nice way and someone follows up, I don’t respond any further. Otherwise, they’ll be sending me multiple emails, and we don’t have time for this. We all have other important things to do.”

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents’ association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at Susan.Rupe@innfeedback.com. Follow her on Twitter @INNsusan.