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Communication is the key in most everything in life, and as a Project Manager even more so. During the development cycle of a web site, I’m constantly in contact with my clients and the development team with questions and answers. Making sure the details are clear is key to the success of the web site.
Back in the day, telephone and face-to-face were pretty much the only way to communicate. Today, by far the majority of all correspondence is handled by email. I love email the majority of the time – it’s a time saver and I always have a written record of what someone tells me (and what I tell them). But it’s only as good as the person writing the email and I find that more and more people are forgetting how to write a professional email.
Just like you handle yourself in a more professional manner with your co-workers and clients than you do your friends, you want your emails to convey that same professionalism. And sometimes, if you don’t follow certain standards, you’re actually making it more difficult for the reader.
Here are just a few easy things that will help your recipient effectively read and respond to your email:
1) The Subject Line is there for a reason – use it! Nothing is worse than an email without a subject except one that is completely unrelated to what’s in the email. I get some emails with the subject line “Hey Lisa.” Well, that’s a nice greeting but it doesn’t belong in the subject line. Weeks or months later when I need to find some important information about a project detail, “Hey Lisa” does me absolutely no good in helping me find that email. And then there are the people who insist on starting the first line of the email in the subject line followed by … and then picked back up in the body of the email. Please, do not do this! Ever!
2) If you’re answering questions that were in an email sent to you – please use Reply with History. It’s incredibly helpful to have the original email right there when reading responses – especially if the responses are short answers like “Yes” or “No.” If you can’t do Reply with History for some reason, make sure you include extra detail in your answers and refer back to the time/date stamp of the email you’re actually replying to.
3) Along those same lines, don’t reply to an email and then give completely unrelated information from the original subject. It’s not that difficult to start a new email and your recipient will be very grateful (again, it goes back to easily being able to find information down the road). If you have to send an email this way, at least change the subject line to what the new subject of the email actually is.
4) Use your signature line and include all of your contact information – Name, Business, Title, Phone, Fax. I may want to use the old-fashioned phone to answer or clarify a question and having the phone number readily available is helpful, not to mention it just looks more professional to have this information in the signature of emails coming from your business email account.
I could go on and on but Sima Dahl finishes this list for me nicely - read her article on Top 7 Tips for Writing Effective Email Copy.
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