I am a huge fan of email. In fact, if you do business with
me the bulk of our communication will not be through the telephone,
but via email. Email is quick. Email is convenient. Email
takes less time than long-winded telephone conversations.
Most importantly, email gives me an electronic record of my
communications with clients, employees, partners, and vendors;
which makes it easy for me to refresh my quickly-aging memory
by easily referring back to our electronic conversations.
As someone who receives and sends a couple hundred emails
a day I have to tell you that I am constantly amazed at how
poorly written and unprofessional most business emails are.
I receive emails every day from fellow entrepreneurs that
don't even contain full sentences. They are often rife with
spelling and grammatical errors or typed in all capital letters,
and sometimes, are virtually illiterate.
One email I recently received from someone trying to sell
me an expensive piece of equipment actually read, "tom
- what you think - ready to buy?" First off, the name
is "Tim" and secondly, what I think is: I will take
my business elsewhere. Thank you, drive through.
Why should you worry about how your emails are reviewed by
their recipients? Because in business, you are constantly
being judged by your customers, your employees, your investors,
your partners, and your peers. If your emails give the impression
that you don't put much thought into the composing of the
message or that you're too busy to be bothered or that you
are a total idiot who can't even use a spell checker, what
do you think that says to the person on the other end?
Email is quickly becoming the business correspondence medium
of choice for the reasons I covered above, and if you don't
take the time to learn how to effectively use email in a professional
manner, it will come back to haunt you.
There are rules that should be followed when sending business
emails. The website email replies gives 32 tips for email
etiquette. Culling from that list and adding a few of my own,
here are Tim's top 10 Rules of Email Etiquette that
every entrepreneur, executive, and employee should follow.
Make it Short and Sweet
An email isn't a letter from camp, so don't drone on any
longer than necessary. Keep in mind that reading an email
on a computer screen is harder than reading printed communications,
so keep it brief and to the point.
Use Proper Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation
This is not only important because improper spelling, grammar
and punctuation give a bad impression of you and your company,
it is also important to make sure your message is not misconstrued.
Emails with improper punctuation (a comma and a period every
now and then would be nice) are difficult to read and can
sometimes even change the meaning of the message. And, if
your email program has a spell checker do everyone a favor
and use it.
Include a Signature Block in Every Email
A signature block in an email is the same as the signature
block you would use to end a letter. You should include
your name, title, company name and address, telephone number,
email address and website address.
Reply Quickly
This is my number one pet peeve: people who take forever
to answer email. Fast response is especially important if
the email is from a customer or contains time-sensitive
information. Customers send an email because they wish to
receive a quick response. If they did not want a quick response
they would send a letter or a fax or talk to your voicemail.
Each email should be replied to within at least 24-hours,
and preferably within the same working day. If the email
can't be answered in full immediately you should at least
send a reply saying that you have received their email and
that you will get back to them ASAP.
Read Every Email Before You Send it
There's no better way to embarrass yourself than through
a hastily sent email. A lot of people don't even bother
to read an email before they send it out, as evidenced by
the many spelling and grammatical errors most emails contain.
Apart from this, reading your email through the eyes of
the recipient will help you send a more effective message
and avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate comments.
Do Not Discuss Confidential Information
Sending an email is like sending a postcard. Once it leaves
your computer, the end user can do whatever they want with
it, so if you do not want a documented record of your comments
or the information shared with others, don't send it. Moreover,
never make any libelous, sexist or racially discriminating
comments in emails, even if they are meant to be a joke.
There have been court cases where email correspondence was
used as evidence. That's a road you do not want to go down.
Don't Use All Caps
In email terms, if you write in captial letters it seems
as if 'you are shouting', so please tone it down. All Caps
are hard to read and can trigger an angry reply if the recipient
mistakes the intention of your email. Emails should be written
in standard sentence style. Turn the Caps Lock off and back
away from the keyboard.
Avoid Abbreviations and Emoticons
In business emails, try not to use abbreviations such as
BTW (by the way) and LOL (laugh out loud). The recipient
might not be aware of the meanings of the abbreviations
and in business emails these are generally not appropriate.
The same goes for emoticons, such as the smiley :-) and
his depressed pal :-( . If you are not sure whether your
recipient knows what an acronym means, it is better not
to use it.
Don't Use Backgrounds or Silly Graphics
I actually received an email from a fellow entrepreneur
that had an animated smiley face waving a gloved hand in
his signature block. If the email had come from Walt Disney
i wouldn't have been shocked. Coming from a small technology
company, i had to wince. Not much to smile about there.
Remember That Email is a Formal Business Communication
You wouldn't send a formal letter to a customer that lacked
a salutation, a well-thought out body of text, and a signature.
You should use email in the same manner. A proper business
email should be structured like a short letter. It should
have a salutation, the body of the message, a sign off,
and a signature.
Next time we'll discuss email issues that should be a concern
to larger companies. If your company doesn't have a formal
email policy, you should. Tune in next week to find out why.
