E-mail tips to help avoid
brand, career disaster

By Dr. Julie Miller
Guest Columnist

In today’s information crazed, e-mail driven global economy, how one uses this powerful, immediate and addictive tool can mean the difference between market leadership and upward mobility or business and career disaster.

E-mail has become the single most important communication tool in business today. In fact, U.S. companies alone sent 1.4 trillion e-mails last year. Users are addicted to its speed and immediacy. E-mail commands our attention and action.

Far too many, however, act fast without thinking about the consequences behind their keystrokes. E-mail can be a powerful tool to reinforce and enhance valuable customer relationships, solve urgent user problems, deliver information, market products and services, earn market leadership, and demonstrate authenticity, professionalism and polish.

Similarly, e-mail employed poorly can have negative consequences that can compromise the bottom line of any growing business or personal brand when poorly written messages don’t deliver winning outcomes.

If you have ever been frustrated by a “help desk” correspondent who was not effective at solving an urgent crisis in a timely and courteous manner, you understand the potentially negative halo placed around the company intending to provide the help. When calls of this type are successful, however, the outcome can be quite the opposite. Customer satisfaction and loyalty can thrive, and referrals for new business can flow generously to your door. 

Employ the following 12 tips for e-mail excellence so that your messages are clear, concise and provide the responses and results you want.

1. Develop an e-mail protocol. Each e-mail is a direct reflection of your brand and business. If your team does not currently have a set protocol in place, create standards that are embraced by all employees. These guidelines should address issues such as how to greet and close messages, formatting and responses.

2. Answer briefly. Others will learn to expect it. Write concise, to-the-point messages with a personal touch. Use no more than 20 words in one sentence. Don’t contribute to a productivity drain by including excess words or comments that detract from your intended message.

3. Write actionable and informative subject lines. Most people use subject lines to decide if they will open the e-mail. Summarize the message in the subject line to communicate the level of urgency. Also, repeat the subject within the body of the e-mail to reinforce your message.

4. Remember the reader. Some readers are lazy and elect not to read the entire message. If you have multiple readers, you have three options:

• Write separate messages to separate audiences.
• Write different sections for different readers. For example, put the executive summary first so decision-makers can get an overview of the topic.
• Integrate the information within one document by placing call-outs or boxes that contain either more detailed information or information rewritten to that nontechnical reader.

5. Start your message with a strong topic sentence. Make clear whether action is required up front and then again at the end. Consider putting the number of points you will write about in the topic sentence so the reader can see the information they need within the first few seconds.

6. Manners count. Greet and thank your customer or client with professionalism and courtesy, and keep the tone positive.

7. Make your messages easy on the eye. Format your e-mails with white space, bullets, bolding, headers, lists and appropriate indents. San serif fonts are easier to read on the screen. Remember, it takes 25 percent more time to read something on screen than on paper.

8. Proofread. No excuses for spelling, grammatical and factual errors in e-mail messages — each should be read several times to ensure accuracy. Make sure your spell checker is turned on, and use it. Important messages should be printed out and read as hard copy.

9. Use the four D’s of decision making.

• Delegate the message if it’s not in your area of expertise and forward it immediately.
• Delete unused messages older than three months. Archive old messages by organizing them in folders.
• Do it. If it takes less than two minutes to respond, do it immediately and get it off your plate.
• Defer the message by putting a reminder on the e-mail to follow up and assign an appropriate response date.

10. Manage your e-mails. To avoid a full inbox, create folders to organize your e-mails by client or project. Good time management demands that you control the onslaught of e-mails by organizing the data.

11. Know when e-mail is not the appropriate vehicle. Though tempting to use e-mail to communicate bad news or criticism, this nonconfrontational approach is inappropriate. These issues need to be addressed in person.

12. Remember: Anything you write should be appropriate to send to your mother or put on the front page of the newspaper.

Dr. Julie Miller is a business writing expert, consultant, author, speaker, trainer and coach. Founder of Business Writing That Counts!, she works with corporations, organizations, educational institutions and professionals to improve the quality of their writing. For more information, call 425-485-3221 or send e-mail to julie@drjuliemiller.com.

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