Tips for Not Writing Crappy E-mails

The advent of Twitter, Facebook, Google Talk, MSN and other forms of communication have made contacting and socializing much quicker than it was ten years ago. With all of these advances, e-mail continues to be the staple when it comes to business. As a blogger, I experience a high volume of e-mail and most of these I toss in the trash or don’t even bother responding for a variety of reasons.

How do I write effective, efficient and eye-catching e-mails?

Write a subject. Unfortunately, I still get e-mails without having an idea of what I’m about to read. Your message should be written as though it’s specifically for them. Examples: “Great blog, Matt!”, “Guest post proposal for World of Matticus”, or “Need your pro goalie skills on Sunday”. Notice the subject indicates what the body of the e-mail is going to be about in further detail.

Short and sweet. Four sentences. Ten at the most. Most people aren’t interested in reading your entire life story followed by your two line question which has absolutely nothing to do with your life story. If what your asking isn’t too much, there’s no reason to drag it out. If there is a reason to drag it out, then it’s probably not worth asking. Respect the time of others.

ALL CAPS is not cool. You wouldn’t yell at someone when you’re face-to-face. Typing in all caps signifies it as such. It’s also a little harder to read all caps. Just use the standard methods when it comes to capitalization. I spent all those years in grade 5 circling letters and words that weren’t grammatically correct. May as well make it worth something.

BCC is the way. I’ve sent my share of mass e-mails. I learned early on as a courtesy notice that it’s best to use the BCC option especially to people who don’t know each other. By contrast, carbon copies are good as it “signals” to other recipients who else received the e-mail. Good for party invites and knowing who got it and who didn’t. Great way to prevent those embarrassing instances of “Oh, <name> didn’t invite you to his party?”

Use a signature. It’s basically a bunch of text that’s attached to your outgoing messages by whatever e-mail you’re using. It should include your name (or handle), a title, organization, web site and anything else that you deem essential. Save time for your recipients if they wish to look you up or check out your credibility.

Example:

Regards,

Matt “Matticus” Low
World of Matticus – Lead writer
WoW Insider – Columnist
No Stock UI – Editor

If done right, these tips ought to help you become more focused when writing e-mails (especially the business correspondence type).