Are You Creating Successful E-Mail?

Career Advice:

I want to share with you some helpful career tips regarding effective e-mailing for business purposes. They are from a good book titled “The Language of Success” that’s just come to my attention.

Here are eight guidelines for creating successful e-mail provided by Tom Sant, along with my comments:

1. Choose a business-like e-mail name. (Save the would be funny stuff for another time.)

2. Use the subject line. (Help your reader figure out if the subject is of interest.)

3. Sign your e-mail. (Close the loop. Include contact information. A bit of a business message won’t hurt.)

4. Avoid writing too informally. (You want to be taken seriously, so avoid the hip-hop language.)

5. Limit your emoticons and acronyms. (“Emoticons is the term applied to the various combinations of punctuations used to express emotion and to the actual icons that show little faces in various states of happiness or distress.” You may have already known that, but I didn’t.)

6. Be polite. (Enough said.)

7. Write to be read on the computer. (Keep in mind, many people who are oriented to the printed page sometimes have difficulty reading lengthy message on the screen.)

8. Check it before you send it. (Just think of all the horror stories of people who have gotten in a jam by ignoring this rule.)

I hope these job tips contribute to your career success!

Ramon Greenwood, Head Career Coach
Common Sense At Work