These people are so overwhelmed by phone calls, instant messages, faxes and spam that they probably delete dozens of e-mails each day without even opening them.

But communications experts say there ar some steps you can take to actually reach folks and have them pay attention, without leaving them feeling as though their time has been wasted.

It’s all about knowing your target audience and getting right to the point, says Alison Davis, owner and CEO of Glen Rockbase Davis & Company, which helps other companies handle employee communications.

She says, for example, that it helops to give potentioal customers some information they can use.

“The best way toget people’s attention is to answer a question or to address a need people have,” says Davis.  “It’s important because so much of it its too general, or includes too much about the person doing the communicating, and it’s like, ‘I don’t care about our program, what can you do for me?’”

Davis recently co-authored “Your Attention Please,” with journalist Paul B. Brown, a book that’s being promoted as a quick read on “How to appeal to today’s distracted, disinterested, disengaged, disenchanted, and busy audiences.”

“The premise is, ‘in and information-overloaded world, how do you get through to people you need to communicate with?’” says Davis.

Davis, whose firm has 18 employees, notes that she always reads messages sent out by Compensation Resources, Inc., because the Upper Saddle River consulting firm has a track record of sending no-nonsense communications.

“They send me information about a trend, about what other companies are doing, or about a seminar I can go to,” Davis says.  “I know I’m going to learn something so I read their e-mails.”

It’s an incentive worth offering, since, by one recent estimate, Americans receive and average of 133 e-mails every day.

Peter Bye, president of consulting firm MDB Group, Inc. in Livingston, says tailoring your e-mail to a specific audience will help you reach interested parties.

“With e-mail or an instant message, you probably don’t even have 30 seconds of a reader’s time,” says Bye, who specializes in helping companies understand that diversity and inclusion is good for business.  “You probably have the first five or 10 words, and that’s why knowing who you’re trying to reach is so important.”

Bye suggests, too, that each message should be crisp clear, and focused,  Too often, he says, people fire off e-mail without giving it much thought.

“You’re trying to influence their thinking and behavior, and the only known way in the world to make that happen is to communicate effectively” says Bye.  “The best way to do that is to think about what points you need them to come away with that they’ll be interested in learning, and to be brief.”

Davis agrees that identifying an audience is important because if the message is too broad it likely won’t speak to anyone.

“You have to get to know them or our message won’t resonate,” Davis says.

If you install and mange software for a living, for example, you might want to use an donline survey company to query potential or existing customers about what they like or diskike about their systems, and follow that up with practical tips on working out any bugs.

Debra Hamilton, who owns Creative Communications and Training, Inc. in West Milford, also says it helps tocut ot the case quickly.

“I call it an early reader payoff,” says Hamilton.  “When someone does open an e-mail, they need to know what it’s about and why you’re writing them right away.”

Save specifics for further down, Hamilton says, and by all means be polite.

“You need to be tactful because tone is very important in e-mail,” Hamilton says.  “Being brief doesn’t mean being rude.”