LESSON: WRITING E-MAILS

DATE: 

Make sure your computer is set to the right date and time. Otherwise it may be put into someone else’s inbox in order of what they think the date was. Your e-mail may get lost in a list, if others don’t go through their inbox on a regular basis. People like to be addressed properly.

ADDRESSING:

   Sending to a Distribution List

Learn how to use your e-mail software. Make sure that if you send a message to a distribution list, recipients don't see everyone else’s e-mail address. If for no other reason (and there are plenty) - than to protect their privacy. Most of the e-mail programs have two carbon copy fields "cc" and "bcc". Put the addresses in the "bcc" field (blind carbon copy) - NOT in the "cc" field.  Go here for more information on creating  a Suppressed Recipient List.

   My Advice?  Try to Avoid the Forward Button.

Forward only important mail. Something your *know* the other party will appreciate. Just because what you got in the mail sounds very interesting to you, it doesn't mean that it is worth to forward to everyone on your list. Most likely it is not.  This is the best way to avoid the ">>>>>>>" that occurs form on-going forwarding.

SUBJECT: 

Remember to put one in that refers specifically to what is in the main message.

BODY:

A good impression is made in several ways, and in business, how you write,
communicates intelligence and professionalism. 

  Keep your lines short.  The shorter your message is, the better. Keep your writing concise and crisp: Don't feel the need to "liven" up your writing or be overly descriptive.

  Eliminate misspelled words and grammatical faux pas. Use a spell checker certainly,  BUT always reread what you have written.  A spell checker does not recognize the different meanings among words such as to, too, and two. 

   Use as few sentences as necessary. Get to the point, put in your period and then close. 

  Layout

It is difficult enough to read from a computer screen so you want to make it as easy as possible for others. It is very important to ensure your messages wrap around after about 60 – 70 characters.  You can do this simply by going into your mail preferences / options and programs.  I use 66 characters and it seems to work well.

You want your message to be read as you intended it to be read otherwise your recipient might end up with lines broken in the most unexpected places. You have probably noticed how much of a pain this can be when you receive e-mails or forwarded text that is broken up in weird places.

Even if your mail software does a "word wrap", you may want to use the hard return key at the end of each line to avoid the problem. I find this a pain to do – but if it is important or messages I intend to use a couple of times, I do use a hard return.

Sooner or later you will engage in e-mail "conversation", exchanging message back and forth. Each time you get an answer, a ">" mark or quotation mark will be added at the beginning of the quoted line and the line width will grow slightly. Usually it breaks the lines of the message which makes difficult to see who said what previously. With short lines and that extra space at the end, your e-mail messages will always look clean and inviting to read, even after several such exchanges.

"Trim the fat"   

When you respond to someone's message, quote it by all means – it helps to remind the topic of conversation. But trim the fat. Erase the irrelevant text so it is not repeated. It takes just a moment of your time and makes you appear thoughtful and more professional. Quoting anything more than just few lines is way too much, unless there is a really good reason. These unnecessarily long messages are not only a waste of time; quite often they waste money too. Remember that many people around the globe pay for the Internet connection and every minute of downloading time counts. And never EVER return the entire e-mail message preceding your own, unless it is very short.

SIGNATURES:

Make sure to end your e-mail formally, e.g., "I look forward to hearing from you, <your full name>" or informally, e.g., "Thanks, <your first name>".  Finally, create a signature that includes your name, company, phone number and if you have one, your website. 
There is a whole lesson on signatures.

"Postcards"

Electronic postcards are great idea for close friends and family members but among business people it is too time consuming for them to go to a site and wait for the postcard to load. It is much more effective to send a simple personal note in plain text. And if you really want to do something special, send a greeting card via regular mail.