How to up your email game with clients, prospects [infographic]

Not even a generation ago, email correspondence was a novelty for some, and non-existent for others.

Today, insurance agents and financial advisors must navigate a business world in which roughly four out of five workers consider email to be critical to their jobs, according to research conducted by the technology think tank GigaOm.

See also: Never break these business email rules

Email may be cheaper and faster than phone calls and “snail mail,” but it also comes with the Achilles Heel of being easily ignored, deleted or misinterpreted by the recipient. In short: When you’re communicating something important, the smart move is to have a plan that goes beyond email.

Leslie Ye, editor of the HubSpot marketing blog, dissected the need for professionals to move beyond superficial business communications in a recent blog post entitled “23 Better Alternatives to the ‘Just Checking In’ Email.”