The do’s and don’ts of professional e-mailing

E-mail. It’s the dominant communication medium of the day. E-mail has replaced letter writing as an acceptable form of communication in most business contexts, and it’s a quick-and-easy way to send brief messages to friends, family and contacts.

However, the quick-and-easy nature of e-mail is a double-edged sword. Because it’s so simple to fire off an e-mail, people often neglect the rules of professional correspondence. Yes, e-mail can help you keep in touch with clients and promote to potential customers, but it can also sink your business if not used properly. People are very particular about how they are contacted. If you annoy them, you lose them.

Especially as you’re establishing a relationship with a new client or business contact, it’s best to err on the side of formality. To help guide you in this process, we’ve put together a few “do’s” and “don’ts” of professional e-mailing. There are many, many more suggestions out there, and it wouldn’t hurt to do some additional reading if you want more info. However, these basic tips should guide you in the right direction.

The “do’s” of professional e-mailing

1. Do be nimble and be quick. When it comes to e-mail, brevity is golden. Be concise and get to your point quickly. People use e-mail for speedy communication, not a medium for lengthy discourse. You will lose your reader’s attention if you drone on for more than a couple paragraphs.
2. Do be your own editor. This point cannot be emphasized enough: E-mail correspondence is not exempt from the rules of the English language. Nothing makes you look more unprofessional than a grammatically awkward e-mail that’s full of spelling and punctuation errors. A sloppy e-mail implies a sloppy professional. Read over your messages—multiple times, if necessary. Use your spell check. Your e-mails don’t need to be Shakespearean, but they shouldn’t be painful to read either.
3. Do ditch the extra baggage. Keep your attachments to a minimum. Large attachments slow down e-mail downloads. Plus, many people are hesitant to click on attachments for fear of viruses. Of course, if you’re sending a client an important document, an attachment may be necessary. However, if you’re trying to share some images, consider posting a link to a download site or a Web gallery. If the link is associated with your website, you may also get yourself some additional Web traffic, and there’s a better chance that your client will share the link with others, promoting your work in the process.
4. Do write for the screen, not the page. People read computer screens (and smart phones) differently than printed pages. Consider not only the length of your e-mail but also how it’s structured. Long paragraphs that require scrolling down are difficult for readers. Try to divide your thoughts into shorter paragraphs and space them with a blank line in between. Don’t indent or use fancy formatting, as the various e-mail clients treat these formatting conventions differently. What looks good in your e-mail program may come out as a jumbled-up mess on your customer’s screen. With e-mail formatting, it’s best to keep it as simple as possible.
5. Do keep your big groups anonymous. For mass e-mails, use Bcc: or do a mail merge through programs like Microsoft Excel and Outlook. Do not simply cut and paste your entire mailing list into the To: field. For one, if you put everyone’s address into the To: field, you’re giving all those e-mail addresses to everyone on the list. You never know if someone on your distribution list is a stalker or a Spammer or just someone who likes to forward annoying e-mails to large groups. Putting everyone in the To: field also opens you up to potentially embarrassing messages if someone accidentally hits “Reply to All” (see #4 under “Don’ts”). Protect your clients’ privacy and make their e-mail addresses invisible to other recipients.
6. Do remember that it’s still a business letter. Whether in electronic or printed form, a business letter is a business letter. When you correspond with clients via e-mail, you are corresponding with business associates. You don’t have to be stuffy. By all means, be friendly and familiar. But you should always, always be professional. As a rule of thumb, if you wouldn’t put it in a letter, don’t put it in an e-mail.

The “don’ts” of professional e-mailing

1. Don’t make everything high priority. Those little red exclamation points should be reserved for the rare situations when you really, really need someone to respond right away. And if it’s truly that much of an emergency, try picking up the phone.
2. Don’t SHOUT. WHEN YOU WRITE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE SHOUTING. Many people use all caps to emphasize certain points. Rather than emphasizing a point, it comes off as aggressive, even if that’s not your intention.
3. Don't snip the thread. When replying to an e-mail, don’t delete the previous message thread. Everyone gets a lot of e-mail. The person with whom you’re corresponding may not remember the exact context of your ongoing conversation, so leave it all in the message. This is usually as simple as hitting “Reply” instead of writing a new e-mail. That way your correspondent can look back over the full conversation and pick up the topic.
4. Don’t always “Reply to All.” Use this feature sparingly or risk annoying a large group of people very quickly. This is not a feature for sharing your witty commentary or inside jokes with a group. Only reply to all if everyone absolutely needs to read your message.
5. Don’t get too casual with abbreviations. We all now about the abbreviations that permeate text messaging. But unless you’re writing to your BFF, leave them out of your business e-mails unless you want people to LOL at your lack of professionalism.
6. Don’t get cute with emoticons. These may seem cute, but overusing them is similar to saying the word “like” too much; you come off as very junior high. If you want your clients to view you as a professional, maintain your grownup reputation and skip the :-), the :-(, and everything in between.
7. Don’t worry about breaking the chain. Don’t forward chain e-mails to business contacts. Ever.
8. Don’t forget that e-mail is forever. Your messages don’t disappear once you hit send. They live on in cyberspace, or in your clients’ inboxes, and like three-day old sushi, they can come back to haunt you in the worst ways. Don’t ever put anything in an e-mail that you wouldn’t want to see later. Or, better yet, if you wouldn’t say it, don’t put it in writing.

What You Can Do Now

• Get some tips on how to word your e-mails, especially automated e-mails, by reading the past “Stop Turning Customers Away with Voicemails and E-mails” Vital Signs.
• Check out the forums on OurPPA to get e-mail advice from other photographers.
• Attend the Sales and Customer Service class at Imaging USA. Julia Woods and Edward Zemba will discuss techniques on how to better understand what your clients want and how to better communicate with them.