However impressive the rise of new communication channels is, emails are still the dominant channel for Business communications.
Email is not new; I remember sending emails in the early 90s.
Still, there is no single, agreed-upon way to use it.
It feels odd to write some guidelines for using emails in 2022. But I still see so many inadequate emails that it might be helpful for some.
Because it is very flexible, in the way you can choose recipients, in the form of the message, in the type of media you can attach, people use it in various ways.
This polyvalent nature can also bear a lot of inefficiencies.
We are all receiving many emails; some are important, some are urgent, most are distractions.
So if you are a sender, there are several mistakes you should avoid if you want your message to come across and reach the right level of consciousness in your recipients.
Recipients
1/ Entering more than one recipient in the TO: field
When you enter more than one recipient in this field, there is an implicit meaning that your message is informative and doesn’t need a response. If you are calling for an answer or a specific action, it should be clear who you are asking, and it should be a single person.
If you are sending an email waiting for some form of action to several recipients, who are responsible for that action? Nobody knows, and nobody will respond.
(Specifying who should do what in the body of the message is an inefficient way to assign tasks)
Checking that the autocomplete function didn’t push an uninvited recipient can also be useful!
2/ Using the CC: field without caution
Sending a copy of your email to other recipients than the main one is tricky. What do you want to achieve doing that? Is it informative, or are you willing to involve witnesses for your recipient’s unwillingness to collaborate?
If you want to have those copied recipients react, why don’t you forward that first email to them, explicitly asking them for feedback?
It is not rare to see the recipient’s boss in the cc: field. While you may think it is important that the boss is aware of what you are asking from his report, it tells the recipient that you are not fully trusting his ability to act appropriately.
Another common mistake is using the CC: field instead of BCC: to hide recipients in a generic email sent to many people.
3/ Having something to hide in the BCC: field
Sending a blind copy to recipients without the main receiver knowing it is a quick way to inform someone without having to create a subsequent forward email.
But it can become hazardous if the hidden recipient doesn’t understand he is aside from the conversation, and he reacts. Then, the primary recipient will see his answer and understand there was a hidden witness! Your relationship with him will suffer.
Content
4/ Writing an incoherent object
The object field should focus on the main object of the email, and it should give an instant hint to the receiver as to what is inside.
Omitting the object or choosing an unrelated object text means that you were too lazy to recap the actual content and help the receiver prioritize the response.
5/ Missing to highlight the main message
Nothing is worse than reading a long email and not understanding what you should do with it. Try to avoid small talk and go straight to the point if you want to spare the valuable time of your contact.
If you feel like writing a long email, type the main part/ request in bold letters (but avoid capital letters!)
6/ Referring to the attached document without summarizing it
If you want the receiving end to review a specific part of the attached document, you should copy this part into the email body. This way, the recipient may be able to respond quickly instead of searching through 300 pages.
7/ Not having your mobile number in the signature
Let’s face it, people will not enter your details in their contact app if they don’t think they will have a long-lasting relationship with you. So they will be looking at your emails to find your mobile phone. If you don’t put your contact number in your signature, they will struggle to get it.
If you don’t put your phone number in your emails, it speaks a lot about your (un)willingness to have open conversations.
Attachments
8/ Send oversized documents
Your party’s email box may have limited capacity, particularly if they work for an established company managing its email servers. It’s good practice to optimize the size of your documents (removing high-res images, for example) and check they weigh less than 10MB.
If you have to send large documents, services like Wetransfer should be used (or iCloud/ OneDrive) to enable your recipient to download them from the cloud.
9/ Adopt a generic filename
You work on a document; then you receive an updated version bearing the same filename. Either you won’t be able to load it in your application (because it thinks the doc is already opened), or you’ll quickly pile up inconsistent documents with similar names.
The sender should ensure that the filename reflects a version number or an editing date.
Same thing for usual names: don’t send your “datasheet.pdf” file (I already have dozens on my computer), give it a specific name, like “Cisco 2700 router datasheet 2022.pdf”. This way, it will be much more easy to find it in the download folder.
Sending
10/ Omit to check everything before sending
Even if you’re overloaded with work, you should spare time to review your email before sending it.
Did I avoid the mistakes above?
Does the tone of my message match with what I want the other party to perceive?
I remember a time when I sent the wrong version of an Excel spreadsheet to a prospect. That version was an internal version containing margin calculations! As soon as I clicked on the “Send” button, I realized my mistake and began shivering at the thought of the prospect discovering how much margin we took on this deal.
Will we lose the deal (it was a 500K€ deal) by my fault? Will the prospect share this in his organization? Will my boss fire me? It was a nightmare.
I picked up the phone and called my contact, explaining my mistake. He laughed and said he wouldn’t open the file. By chance, I had established a good relationship with him previously, and we finally won the deal!
In my career, I have seen many crises finding their origin in poorly written emails:
wrong salutation
internal emails being sent to external recipients
aggressive tone leading to escalation
etc.
You’d better spend two more minutes double-checking your email than managing delays or crises!
It’s all about communication.
Many people consider sending an email a tedious task that you should get rid of as fast as possible. So they spit an email and move to something else.
They forget that communication is the art of having the recipient understand your diligent message.
There are only two ways to send an email: either you want to facilitate the other party's life and make sure your recipient understands your message, or you only want to get rid of a tedious task.
Let me tell you: I know which side you have chosen every time I read your emails.