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COVER STORY 32 Email Etiquette and Disclaimers
As with any regular “snail mail” let er, or your website,
you should fi rst take care to observe the standard rules of spelling and grammar when sending out email. Nothing can distract a potential customer more than a misspelling in the subject line or headline of an email. “Special Sale on Jewlry” shows carelessness that may be indicative of how you run your business. For this reason, even if you won spelling bees in school, it is wise to run an email through a spell-check program before sending it out en masse. T e latest versions of Word and other word process- ing programs check documents for spelling and correct gram- mar usage automatically, and sometimes even change a word’s spelling without being asked. T erefore, it is a good idea to scan the email one last time to ensure it says what you mean. If you elect to begin each
email with a personal salu- tation to each customer, i.e. “Hello Eva,” be sure that the customer’s name is spelled correctly. Mistaking “Eva” for “Ava” may or may not be per- ceived by the recipient as an egregious error, but bet er to be certain the fi rst time around than to have to issue an apology later. It is partly for this reason that many companies prefer to go with a “Dear Valued Customer,” opening. Assuming that your email is essentially text, with few
It is important to make sure that the recipient has asked to be placed on your email list.
too good to be true. A few judiciously used exclamation points—“T is is our biggest sale of the year!”; “We hope to see you again soon!”—are perfectly acceptable, but ending several sentences in such a manner is unnecessary and unprofessional. Additionally, be wary of long paragraphs in your emails. T ree or four sentences per paragraph should suffi ce, and even then may be too much if the sentences themselves are long. Elementary school Eng- lish has taught us to start a new paragraph when introducing a new idea, but it is also good email practice to do so if you are still on the same idea but running long. Starting a new paragraph with “And” or “Also” breaks up the text easily with- out losing the reader. T e brave new world of
texting and of personal emails has led to the common prac- tice of including emoticons or “smileys” into communi- qués (
and the like), as
Otherwise, your email may well be considered junk mail (spam).
graphic components, use all capital let ers sparingly, if at all. Online forums on a variety of sites are fi lled with people who feel that they can best make their point by WRITING IN ALL CAPS, and are just as fi lled with others complaining about “shouting.” A block of text in all caps is even more diffi cult to read. Using a plethora of exclamation points is similarly to be avoided, lest you give the impression that your off er is
well as abbreviations like “C U L8r” and “T FN” (“Ta-ta for now”). T ese may be cute and win points with underage nieces and nephews, but are not appropriate for email mar- keting. Unless your company
specializes in selling something inherently cute, like cup- cakes or dolls, keep the emoticons to a strict minimum, and forget the abbreviations altogether.
Who Are You and Why
Are You Emailing Me? Unless sending a transactional email such as thanking a customer for their order or sending a receipt, it is important to make sure that the recipient has asked to be placed on your email list. If your website requires registration, include
Continued On 36 34 November 2010
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