E-mail errors to avoid

The top 12 mistakes that can sabotage your career

by Lydia Ramsey

You return to your office from an afternoon meeting and decide to check e-mail. An hour later, after downloading your messages, selecting those you should read, deleting what looks like junk, crafting replies to the most important ones, filing others to work on later, you wonder where your day went. It was like that when you arrived at work this morning, and tomorrow promises to be no different.

What is this e-mail explosion? Was there a point in time when people decided to use the Internet as their business communication tool of choice? Are there rules for managing messages and being a professional and polite user of electronic mail? There are, but not everyone has gotten the word.

Your e-mail is as much a part of your professional image as the clothes you wear, the postal letters you write (assuming you still do), the greeting on your voice mail and the handshake you offer. If you want to impress on every front and build positive business relationships, pay attention to your e-mail and steer clear of these top 12 e-mail mistakes:

1) Omitting the subject line. We are way past the time when we didn’t realize the significance of the subject line. It makes no sense to send a message that reads “no subject” and seems to be about nothing. Given the huge volume of e-mail that each person receives, the subject header is essential if you want your message read any time soon. The subject line is the hook.

2) Not making your subject line meaningful. Your header should be pertinent to your message, not just “Hi” or “Hello.” The recipient decides the order in which he reads e-mail based on who sent it and what it’s about.

3) Failing to change the header to correspond with the subject. For example, if you are writing your customer, your first header may be “Request for Proposal.” However, as your negotiations proceed and you send more information, label each message for what it is, “Line card,” “Value-added services,” or “Technical expertise.” Don’t just hit “reply.” That way your customer can find a specific document in his message folder without having to read every one you sent. If you change the subject all together, start a new message.

4) Not personalizing your message to the recipient. E-mail is informal but it still needs a greeting. Begin with “Dear Mr. Broome,” “Dear Jim,” “Hello Jim,” or just “Jim.” Failure to put in the person’s name can make you and your e-mail seem cold.

5) Not accounting for tone. When you communicate with another person face to face, 93 percent of the message is non-verbal. E-mail has no body language. The reader cannot see your face or hear your tone of voice, so choose your words carefully and thoughtfully. Put yourself in the other person’s place and think how your words may come across in cyberspace.

6) Forgetting to check for spelling and grammar. In the early days of e-mail, someone created the notion that this form of communication did not have to be letter perfect. Wrong. It does. It is a representation of you. If you don’t check to be sure e-mail is correct, people will question the caliber of other work you do. Use proper capitalization and punctuation and always check your spelling. Remember that your spell checker will catch misspelled words, but not misused ones. It cannot tell whether you meant to say from or form, for or fro, he or the.

7) Writing the Great American novel. E-mail is meant to be brief. Keep your message short. Use only a few paragraphs and a few sentences per paragraph. People skim their e-mail, so a long missive is wasted. If you find yourself writing an overly long message, pick up the phone or call a meeting.

8) Forwarding e-mail without permission. Most everyone is guilty of this one, but think about it. If the message was sent to you and only you, why would you take responsibility for passing it on? Too often confidential information has gone global because of someone’s lack of judgment. Unless you are asked or request permission, do not forward anything that was sent just to you.

9) Thinking no one else will ever see your e-mail. Once it has left your mailbox, you have no idea where your e-mail will end up. Don’t use the Internet to send anything that you couldn’t stand to see on a billboard on your way to work the next day. Use other means to communicate personal or sensitive information.

10) Leaving off your signature. Always close with your name, even though it is included at the top of the e-mail, and add contact information such as your phone, fax and street address. The recipient may want to call you to talk further or send you documents that cannot be e-mailed. Creating a formal signature block with all that data is the most professional approach.

11) Expecting an instant response. Not everyone sits in front of the computer with e-mail turned on. The beauty of Internet communication is that it is convenient. It is not an interruption. People can check their messages when it suits them, not you. If your communication is so important that you need to hear back right away, use the phone.

12) Completing the “to” line first. The name or address of the person to whom you are writing is actually the last piece of information you should enter. Check everything else over carefully first. Proof for grammar, punctuation, spelling and clarity. Did you say what needed to be said? How is your “tone of voice”? If you were the least bit emotional when you wrote the e-mail, did you let it sit for a period of time? Did you include the attachment you wanted to send? If you enter the recipient’s name first, a slip of the finger can send a message before its time. You can never take it back.

E-mail makes everything easier and faster, including making a powerful business impression and establishing positive professional relationships. Business people who use the technology effectively and appropriately see results of that effort reflected in the bottom line.

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2003 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2003.

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