Keep Your E-mails Professional – Personal & Home Business Ones
October 17, 2007 by Mary Emma Allen
Writing careless, unprofessional e-mails may turn off customers. Take time to use the proper English (or other language) you’ve hopefully learned in school.
I’ve even seen writers express the idea that they don’t need to proof their e-mails. “After all, that’s not serious writing,” they comment about casual e-mails.
However, just about any writing on the Internet might be seen by others. You never know who might be in that online group, chat group, or reading your blog. For a writer..maybe the editor who had expressed interest in your book. For a business owner…perhaps a customer who now wonders if you’re as sloppy with your product production or service as you are with your e-mails.
Celine at Pimp Your Work has some good tips about writing e-mails in her post, 7 Ways to Make Your E-mails Unprofessional. She writes sort of “tongue in cheek,” but has some very valid points to make. I hope you aren’t practicing any of these!
Mary Emma – This is a timely post.
Professionalism in emails has been on my mind too. I wrote this post
http://www.smallbizmentor.com/2007/10/sending_responding_to_group_em.html
about a Reply All nightmare and professionalism.
With email being such an important part of business, poor email etiquette can reflect badly on the professionalism of your business.
So many people don’t seem to think that e-mails matter…how you write them and what you say. But they go out throughout the blogosphere and often are there for anyone to see.
Mary Emma – Emails are a form of business communication. In some cases, they are legal documents.
Professionalism and email know how can set a business apart from its competitors, even in a small way.
Because it’s the Internet people tend to adopt a too casual attitude about their online communications. Great reminder!
Good comments for thought and consideration, Laura and Yvonne.
This is an excellent post about the importance of professional emails. It’s all too easy to become casual when sitting behind a keyboard. Perception is still everything!