Successful Email Communication
Email has become a standard form of communication in today’s business world. It’s fast, convenient, and easy to use. But is your client or co-worker understanding the message that you are trying to convey? Read this article before you hit send!
“Communication between humans is approximately 90% body language, 8% tone of voice, and 2% what you say. With email, you remove the first 98%.” It therefore becomes very important to make sure you are truly drafting a message that will be interpreted correctly by the receiver. There are a number of guidelines that have been established for this purpose.
KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)
- Brief is better when it comes to email. If possible, keep your entire message in one screen so that the reader doesn’t need to scroll down to finish reading.
- Break one large paragraph into several short ideas.
- Use bullets.
- Follow the 10-second rule. The reader should know what the email is about within 10 seconds of opening it.
- When you must send a lengthy email, organize it into manageable chunks of information, and put very important info (like deadlines) at the top.
Follow Appropriate Email Etiquette
- Respond to all emails within 24 hours (this same rule applies to phone calls).
- Be specific in your subject line. When you have 100 messages in your inbox, you don’t want to open each one to see what it’s about. Instead of putting “meeting” in the subject line, put “production meeting rescheduled to Friday.” The recipient knows immediately what that email is about, and that he will need to adjust his calendar.
- Understand that punctuation can convey tone. USE ALL CAPS AND IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE YELLING. use all lowercase letters and it looks like you are lazy
- Include a signature with contact information in your email. Make it easy for your client to know who the email came from and how to respond!
- Always use spell check. It only takes a second, and can do wonders for your credibility. Extraneous typos can make you (and your business) look careless.
Use Proper Formatting
- Although that email looks perfect on your desktop, it may not maintain that appearance when it reaches the reader. In order to ensure that your email arrives with the same spacing and appearance that you intended, use Plain Text format.
- Second best is HTML.
- Avoid using Rich Text.
When Sending Attachments:
- Avoid sending files that are too large (10 MB should be the max).
- If sending an unusually large file, tell the recipient in advance of sending it.
- In the body of the email, tell the reader the file name and the format of the attachment. For example, “The project proposal entitled Great Big New Client is attached in MS PowerPoint format.”
Good luck with your next email!