Eight Simple E-mail Exercises To Lower Your Blood Pressure
By: Julie Clark - Senior Marketing Director
10/26/2006

E-mail has changed the way we do business, effectively replacing most of the traditional forms of business communication and rendering many of them obsolete (anyone recall recently standing by the fax machine for an important deadline message?).

With so much of our business communication at BMG being done electronically, we try to be very careful in writing e-mails to our clients and to coworkers. Such instant communications can be immensely helpful in gathering information and making decisions, from the first cup of coffee to the last moment of energy at the end of the day. Or, they can raise your blood pressure to unhealthy levels. And nobody needs that.

As with all inventions, e-mail can be used for good or evil. Think “evil” is too strong a word? How many well-intentioned but poorly written e-mail messages during a business day cause you more work and headaches than if you hadn’t received them? There, you’re probably thinking of a word stronger than just “evil.”

E-mail is vital to working efficiently, quickly and profitably. It also helps establish strong business relationships among people who rarely, if ever, meet.

Here are a few tips we try to follow for writing good e-mails.

• Make the subject line relevant to the content. Many people file e-mails in folders for reference and this makes it easier for them to find the right message. When possible, make it a call to action: Information needed for Acme Fireworks project.
• Be sure to address all the issues in your reply. Many e-mails are turned around so quickly that critical information requests are never answered.
• Remember to CC individuals mentioned in the e-mail, or who need the information.
• Slow down and organize your thoughts before you type. Read them over. Spell-check the message. Read it one more time before sending. Make sure you’ve attached relevant and/or promised documents. Seem like a lot of trouble? Not compared with having to do the whole thing over again because you forgot something or had it wrong.
• Use bullet points or line breaks. Long paragraphs are hard to read.
• Avoid stringing together a long list of previous messages underneath your reply. Summarize the content of those previous e-mails in a new message. If you feel you must include those four weeks’ worth of previous messages, don’t assume your reader knows what’s in them. Tell him or her what’s in them.
• Don’t write or reply to an e-mail while you’re multitasking (you know you who are!). E-mailing a business message may seem simple, but it’s still a professional communication that reflects on you and your company. Give it the attention it deserves.  
• E-mails are considered legal documents and can be traced. So, consider thoroughly the content of your message as well as the chances of it being misinterpreted – before you send it.

And, finally:

Stop e-mailing!

Pick up the phone once in a while and talk with your business contacts. Walk down the hall and say hello to your co-workers.

It could just lower your blood pressure.

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