They might if you ignore the reality that every note you send a customer, colleague or manager can project your image of professionalism, competency and courtesy — or detract from it. So, if you don’t want your emails to suck, just avoid these worst practices:
- Not asking if everyone on a large distribution list really needs or wants to see this message.
- Retaining long strings of email addresses that precede your actual message.
- Using an ineffective subject line like ‘Report’ or, even worse, ‘no subject’
- Writing long, rambling sentences and paragraphs with multiple key points that make your message difficult to read and digest in a hurry.
- Using ALL CAPS or all lower case in stead of proper capitalization.
- Including humor, sarcasm or slang that can be taken out of context, misinterpreted or appear unprofessional.
- Not using white space, bullets, sub-heads or other text breakers to make it easier for people to read your message … in a hurry. Especially on their phones.
- Sounding too formal or stuffy with a message that should be more casual and conversational.
- Attaching very long documents that could easily get caught in spam or security filters.
They definitely will if you:
- Use ‘cc’ that displays a long distribution list instead of concealing the names with a ‘bcc’.
- Don’t keep it short and simple so the whole message can fit in a single screen without scrolling down.
- Send your response to everyone because you hit ‘Reply All’ instead of ‘Reply to Sender’.
- Begin them with ‘Dear Bob … ‘ instead of simply ‘Bob … ‘.
- Don’t proofread beyond auto-spell check and actually read your message twice before sending it.
- Fail to determine if an email is the best method for solving this particular communication need with this person or group and better than a text, phone call or face to face chat. Or, doing nothing.
So, there you go — simple techniques to help you project a more positive, professional and courteous image and create emails that don’t suck. Your readers will notice and definitely appreciate the difference.