Using email etiquette increases your chances of your correspondence being opened and read. A lot of people don’t bother to read an email before they send it out, as proven from the many spelling and grammar mistakes contained in so many emails. Instill some email etiquette and protocol, then read through your email through the eyes of the recipient. This will help you send more effective messages and avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate comments.

Email Etiquette

Every email should have all your contact information (full name, title, logo, address, phone, email, fax). If your email is forwarded or printed out, you want to be sure your contact information follows the paper trail, or e-paper trail. If you send something worthwhile, the hope is that your message will be forwarded. Make sure people can contact you.

The cc: field is to be used sparingly. It’s confusing to most people. When you put someone’s name in the cc: field, it means that you want them to be aware of the information, but you aren’t expecting them to respond. Though, recipients might not know who is supposed to act on the message. When responding to a cc: message, include the other recipient in the cc: field as well because they’ve already been brought into the conversation and confusion abounds if you leave them out now.

Include the original message thread included in your reply email. There are too many details being shared via email and to make sure everyone knows what you’re responding to, you have to include the original notes. This saves everyone frustration from having to search out previously related emails for the information.

Quickly respond. Customers send an email because they wish to receive a quick response. If they don’t get a quick response from you, they will most likely contact your competitor. Each email should be replied to within twenty-four hours, and preferably within the same working day. If the email is complicated, quickly send an email back saying that you have received it and that you will get back to them. This will put the customer’s mind at rest and usually customers will then be very patient with you.

Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation. Improper spelling and grammar gives your company a bad image. Your program has a spell-check function. You can turn it on to automatically spell check your emails before sending. This minor inconvenience will no doubt save you from embarrassment down the road.

Each email should focus on a single topic. If you have to discuss several topics, send multiple emails, each with their own subject line so each person can recall the information later. Use short paragraphs and short sentences to make it easier for the recipient to read.

Templates are a real time saver for repeated information such a directions and how-to enroll in your seminars. This ensures a consistent customer experience and saves you time when you save the text is a word document or a pre-formatted email.

The To: field is not the field to use when sending an email mailing. Some people place all the email addresses in this field but there are two downsides to this practice: (1) the recipient knows that you have sent the same message to a large number of recipients, and it’s not personal, and (2) you are publicizing someone’s email address without their permission. One way to get round this is to place all addresses in the Bcc: field. However, the recipient will only see the address from the To: field in their email, so if this was empty, the To: field will be blank and this might look like spamming. You could include the mailing list email address in the To: field, or even better, if you have Microsoft Outlook and Word you can do a mail merge and create one message for each recipient. A mail merge also allows you to use fields in the message so that you can address each recipient personally. For more information on how to do a Word mail merge, consult the Help in Word.

End your email with a link to your website. Your email signature can offer a link to something of interest or value to the recipient. Once there, have a call-to-action that brings them further into your sales process.

Email is a great way to answer questions and to anticipate further questions. If you do not answer all the questions in the original email, you will receive further emails regarding the unanswered questions, which will not only waste your time and your customer’s time but also cause considerable frustration. Moreover, if you are able to anticipate relevant questions, your customer will be grateful and impressed with your efficient and thoughtful customer service. Imagine for instance that a customer sends you an email asking which credit cards you accept. Instead of just listing the credit card types, you can guess that their next question will be about how they can order, so you also include some order information and a link to your order page. Your customers will appreciate this.

Email can be a powerful relationship building tool to connect with your customers, if it’s used in a genuine way. Attempt to make your emails as personal as possible. Use the active voice of a verb wherever possible. For instance, ‘We will process your order today’, sounds better than ‘Your order will be processed today’. The first sounds more personal, and email has the tendency to take on an impersonal and unnecessarily formal tone.