Business E-Mail: How to Make It Professional and Effective

Book Description
A practical and authoritative guide to better written communication. Because Every Line You Write Is a Marketing Tool. . .™ You must present yourself in a positive way in all your written business communication. This book shows you how to make your e-mail messages work for you -- to enhance your career and foster your company's good image.


About the Author
Lisa A. Smith is an award-winning writer of training and business communications, an editor with more than 25 years of experience, and a presenter of seminars on business writing and marketing communications.


Excerpted from Business E-Mail: How to Make It Professional and Effective by Lisa A. Smith. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction to Part 1: How to make e-mail work for you From worldwide conglomerates to one-person companies in home offices, all businesses can profit from using e-mail in a professional way. As individuals, we enjoy the advantages of using e-mail: less printing of letters and envelopes, less money spent on postage, fewer interruptions caused by phone calls. And e-mail is so easy to use, so available, that we don’t think twice about sending message after message. No wonder our e-mail inboxes are full – both at the office and at home. Staying in touch with friends and family has never been easier. You probably don’t want to slow down your personal e-mail by thinking about spelling, punctuation, grammar, or any other aspect of more formal writing. But on the job – in messages sent within your company and those sent to outsiders – e-mail takes on another dimension. Whether you’re writing a thank-you note to a client, an invitation to a lunch honoring a co-worker, a reminder about a department meeting, an announcement about your company’s participation in a volunteer project, a proposal, a request for a quote, or a direct sales pitch, your e-mail message represents your business. Because every line you write is a marketing tool™ you want to be sure that your e-mail presents your company in a positive way. What you say – and how you say it – affects the image of your company. It also affects what people in the business world think about you. And it can have a profound effect on your company’s bottom line. So what image of your company and yourself do you want to project through your e-mail messages? My guess is that you’d like people to think of your company as being responsive to their needs, knowledgeable about their problems, considerate of their schedules and deadlines, and adaptable to their changing requirements. And you’d want them to think of you as a caring and careful professional. The guidelines presented in this book will help you use e-mail in ways that present you and your company in a positive light. You’ll learn why it’s important to make sure that every business-related e-mail message you send is necessary, appropriate for the medium, within company guidelines, clear and well written, error free, brief and to the point. Everything I’ve just said applies to interoffice messages as well as those to the outside world. It’s in your best interest to present the same positive image of yourself to co-workers, subordinates, and managers as you do to outside colleagues, suppliers, customers, and clients. Furthermore, if you are careful about the e-mail you send to co-workers, you may help to reduce their stress on the job. Research by Christina A. Cavanagh, a professor of management communications at The University of Western Ontario, shows that "the major cause of e-mail stress in the workplace is in its inappropriate use as a communication tool, not its volume" and that e-mail "is better suited to certain types of information exchange than others." Also, Cavanagh asked research participants to describe what they considered to be poorly written e-mail. From their responses, she concluded that e-mail messages "are heavily judged on their professional appearance and the care taken in their construction." The purpose of this book is to show you how to make your e-mail messages work for you rather than against you in the business world. Well-written e-mail that looks and sounds professional makes it easier for clients, customers, and co-workers to do business with you and helps them feel good about your company and you. Follow the guidelines presented and you will improve your reputation as a thoughtful communicator whose e-mail messages are welcomed, opened, understood, and answered. The first four chapters end with a one-page summary – a bare-bones outline or cheat sheet related to the text. You may copy those pages and post them at your computer workstation. Use them to jog your memory about the most important points you need to follow when composing, sending, and replying to business-related e-mail.


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