One of the best things you can do for your professional image is to install a Signature that automatically appears at the bottom of each message that you send. It can be text or graphics, but ideally it should be colorful, noticeable, and contain useful information – your name, your business name, and all contact information including website address and social media links. You might need a geek to help you with this one.
The “From” field in your messages should not be blank, or contain incomprehensible jibberish, or display your email address. It should display your name. If this is not currently the case, then change the settings in your email client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc) to accomplish this. Get a geek to help you, if necessary.
After you’ve sent an email, there’s no way to recall it. The damage is done.
Email messages are capable of doing a lot of damage. Don’t type anything into a message that you wouldn’t want the whole world to know. That message is going to archived somewhere for approximately forever.
Be very sure what you want to do before you choose Reply or Reply All. If you get a message that’s obviously addressed to multiple persons, and you wish to send a reply to the sender only, don’t choose Reply All, because that will send your message to all recipients. Which can annoy a lot of people and make you look dumb.
Don’t mark an email as Urgent unless it really is, in which case you might want to just call the person.
Make email messages short. Say exactly what you need to say, then stop. People don’t have much time these days, they’re very impatient, and they get annoyed easily. Be brief. Be concise.
Tom Harris – who has written 30 posts on InSights Group.
This is a guest post by Tom Harris, Your Marketing Coach. Tom helps entrepreneurs and small businesses develop and execute marketing plans. He specializes in website usability and effectiveness.
