Email Etiquette
Out of all the Internet activities that people do, email is probably the most important yet undervalued resource at your disposal. Close to 88% of all Internet users in the U.S. use email. This statistic comes from a UCLA Internet Report. This same survey states that 90% of those use it for business purposes.
Out of all of the years I have been in this business, I have found most people, not all, but most could improve on their email skills or Etiquette. Unfortunately there is no “written guide” or “book of laws” that govern the use of email, if there was then we would not have spam – wouldn’t that be nice? But there are a number of things to keep in mind when emailing for business.
- Use a business email address. If you get an email from sexymom.isp.com,
would you take it serious? Enough said. - STOP!! Turn your ‘caps lock’ off! YOU DON’T WANT TO SOUND LIKE YOUR SHOUTING.
- Keep it short and clean. Don’t go on and on and on and on, (eh sorry) and
not get to the point, most people are not reading a book, just a message so
get to the point. Your email will be more readily read if you keep it concise
yet descriptive but remember to be polite at the same time. - Be Polite. Make use of the most powerful 3 words in the business – “Thank
You” and “Please”. They a greatly under rated and more importantly under used
and goes a long way with emails - Were you joking? It is important to remember that your email does not reflect
your tone of voice or facial expressions so choose your words carefully and
make sure you don’t offend someone. - HUH? Don’t use shorthand or whatever people call it. Business is business
and it is important to convey professionalism so don’t use ” Can U plz send..
“ in the place of “Can you please send..”. Don’t assume everyone understands
this shorthand just because you do. - Proof Read. Make sure you don’t have glaring errors or poor grammer, although
I have never been known for mine. Just double check your wording and spelling
quickly BEFORE clicking the send button – it’s a little late to do it after
the fact. - Did you get my email? I can’t tell you how many times I have emailed a
client or colleague and never received a response. Now I am not saying that
every email requires a response, though anything important should. I would
email a vendor with a problem and never get a response yet the problem did
get fixed. The issue here is NOT that there was a problem, but there was no
one on the other end to let me know they were working on it. If find that
my clients respond well to problems if they know I am working on it. So let
people know that something is happening with their request.
I am not stating that I am a certified expert on this topic, but I am conveying my findings of years using the Internet and email. Keep common sense when using your email and use good manners and you will find your emails will be much more effective for you.
