Email Tips - w4webdesign

Most people use email. Email is a great thing, but many people don't use email as effectively as they might. We’re not talking about complicated bells and whistles but simple everyday things …..

Signatures - Always include your contact details at the bottom of your emails. The easiest way to do this is to set up a "signature" in your email preparation system. An email signature is a block of text that automatically gets added to the end of the emails you send. Most email systems allow you to do this.

The recipient has your telephone, fax, address and web address etc. right there, so when they want to get in contact they don't have to hunt around for it, or go to your website. Just think of the sales you might be losing because they don't have your phone number to ask a simple question.
You can include an advert for your product or service, or details of a special offer along with a link to your website. Keep this brief, no more than a couple of lines.
It looks more professional. Would you do business with a company that won't even tell you it's name? Don't go to extremes, some companies add half a page of legal disclaimers and so on, this is going to have the effect of diluting the content of your email. If you really feel you need to point yout terms and conditions out to people, just add a link to a web page.
It may sound an obvious thing to do but more than half the emails we receive do not have any contact details at all.

Many people don't realise they have a choice of sending emails as "plain text" or HTML. HTML emails are mini web pages and can include formatting and images. They look good but we recommend using boring old plain text emails. Why are we such spoil sports?

HTML emails are much bigger so they take longer to download. This might not be important on a broadband connected desktop PC but can be frustrating for someone using a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) over a sluggish connection via a mobile phone.

Every email system will display plain text emails as you intended. HTML is not supported by some email systems so your message may not be seen, or might be displayed as undecipherable HTML code.

Make sure the "from name" says something sensible like "ABC Widgets/Bob Jones". That way, the recipient can see straight away who the email is from.

Always set your email system with the business email address. We see a lot of companies that have a great domain name but send out emails addressed from a free email service such as Hotmail, Yahoo or Freeserve. There is nothing wrong with these services for home use, but it looks unprofessional for a business.

"I know that half my advertising brings in results - the trouble is, I don't know which half!"

If that sounds familiar try using different email addresses in your advertising, so that you can pinpoint the sources of your enquiries. Your "catchall" address is useful for this purpose, as it will collect any emails sent to addresses that don't have a mailbox, so you can use any email address you want (e.g. sales@yourdomain, info@, webenquiries@, tellmemore@ etc) and they will all end up in one mailbox.

This is a tricky one for many people. Email has not been around long enough for a clear protocol to be developed. Call me old fashioned but I feel that unless you know someone very well, your business emails should always maintain some formality.

"Dear Peter" always sounds professional, whereas "Hi Pete" risks over familiarity.

Compose your emails with the same care that you would apply to a typed letter. For important emails it is always a good idea to print the email before sending because it is always easier to spot mistakes on paper rather than on screen.

Almost all email systems have a spell checker so there is rarely an excuse for poor spelling. But do take care that people's names are not automatically mis-corrected.