I hope you’ve been enjoying my article series on effective emailing. So far I shared about the importance of choosing a good email address, your subject line and given you some tips for a more effective body of text in two parts. Monday, I talked about your signature line. Today I’d like to share some “Other Stuff” important for effective email and then I will conclude the series on Monday.
Other Important Stuff About Sending emails:
1. When to reply
Have you ever gotten an email that was just dripping with disdain or riddled with ridicule? Some emails don’t warrant a reply. If it’s too negative, opens a can of worms or you don’t want to discuss that, why not just let it go? If this is something more delicate, it might be best to handle it in person or over the phone. Since email carries with it the capacity to rip a friendship to shreds, it may be better handled over another medium of communication.
On the other hand, if this is a customer question, Aunt Millie asking you to help her move or a request for information about an item you had in the Pennysaver, it’s impolite to leave it sit too long before answering. Customers generally expect an answer within 24-48 business hours. Aunt Millie may be sitting on her plans until you respond and someone who really needs a washer/dryer may be holding out false hope because you never cancelled your ad.
2. What not to forward
Jokes, known scams, urban legends, things that sound like they are scams, embellished propaganda…it’s always a good idea to check something out BEFORE you forward it. Here’s a clue. If it sounds too incredible to be believable, it probably is! Forwarding things like this communicates that you aren’t careful at minimum. NEVER forward anything like this in a business setting and if you own a business and are found forwarding these types of things to a list where you may find some of your customers, it can reflect on your business.
Here’s another reason to be careful not to pass email along before checking it out. The liberal media loves to show conservatives up as embellishing the truth. That makes us vulnerable to being considered lunatics and for our arguments to be dismissed as silly or dangerous. The more we pass things around that aren’t or probably aren’t true, the more we spread the ammunition they can use to discredit a larger group of conservatives.
Another type of email not to send is the chain letter. They all start with the most beautiful or amazingly uplifting stories and end with, “Please forward this to every living soul you know. If you do, you will inherit a bagillion dollars tomorrow. If you don’t, your nose will fall off!”
I don’t care how lovely a story it is, I don’t want to be told to forward it to everyone who ever lived. Take off the chain letter part at the end and send it to me if you must, but don’t click send until you do!
3. She doesn’t love me! Translation: She never answered my email!
Unfortunately only 70% of emails make it to their intended destination. You know what that means? About 30% don’t! Some don’t because the recipient didn’t notice it wound up in their spam filter. Some don’t because it was eaten by their virus protection. Yet others don’t make it for reasons that are unknown to mankind. Any way you slice it, you need to give grace when you don’t get a response.
What do you do if you haven’t received a response from Mabel? Email her and sweetly say that you sent her an email and hadn’t heard back yet so you’re following up. If you do decide to email Mabel and say, “Hey! Don’tcha love me? I sent you an email six seconds ago and you never bothered to answer me!” do make sure you put a lot of little smiley faces and LOLs after it. ;D
That’s it for my Other Tips. Check back on Monday for my final part on effective email when I’ll be discussing how to email customer service and get results!
