A large portion
of the email I receive is junk email. But I have to be sure before
deleting. I can usually figure this from the preview screen
(Eudora), but sometimes I have to open it to be certain.
What surprises me
is how much legitimate mail *looks* like junk email. Over the last
while, I tried to figure why. The obvious things are misuse of the
...
> From field:
Often crony names, rather than a straightforward email address,
preceded by the full name of the sender make it look like junk
email.
> Subject
field: Often cute and clever, rather than a clear statement as to
content. Sometimes blank.
> Greeting:
Often opens with an odd heading, sometimes in all caps, as is true
of a lot of junk email. Legitimate email opens with a name, as in,
"Bob," Hi Bob," or even just, "Hi."
> First Line:
Lousy grammar and spelling errors right from the start; spammers
write some of the worst stuff you will ever see.
> First Line
Revisited: No sense of the purpose of the message for several lines.
Get to the point. Fast! Junk email is known for going on and on.
Sure, some of
this is from people new to the Web. But a lot of it is from people
supposedly in business. How long they can continue with such poor
standards is another matter.
HTML: Hot Stuff?
Some must
think so, for I'm getting a lot of it. The other day I got a real
dandy: black text on a black background. Totally unreadable. And not
all mail readers can deal with HTML, which means your message may
never be read.
While things
may change, a good deal of the spam I receive is in HTML. While
probably not fair, my first reaction to any message in HTML is that
it's junk. If it proves not to be, then it's someone who is not
being professional.
While sending
streaming media along with HTML may be the wave of the future, it is
not appropriate today in business. Send only standard text in a
non-proportional font such as Courier.
In addition to
the above, here are some common blunders I observed, that contribute
to an overall sense of something I don't want to read. If you want
to annoy people, then go for it.
Most know where the Delete key lives, and use it frequently.
Send
80 Character Lines
Many people,
including myself, have their email reading window set at 65
characters as the maximum line length. So when you do not hit Enter
at or prior to the 65th character, your message on my screen looks
like:
> I wanted to
let you know about a neat site I ran into the other day. Wow
> it's terrific. Knowing how much you are into panda bears,
> you've just got
> to see this site.
This is
difficult to read. "But hey, if folks don't like 80 characters per
line, tough stuff!" Fine. Everybody has a right to their opinion.
Good luck with this one. Many people are almost as impatient when
checking email as when surfing. If you don't make it easy for those
who receive your message to read it, it may be trashed.
"But why would
anybody narrow a screen to 65 characters?" Because a 65 character
line is about twice as easy to read as one 80 characters long. Most
newsletters use this line length, some
even less.
Quote Back Everything!
Never quote an
entire paragraph; your response can be difficult to find,
particularly if the original message wrapped. Also be hesitant to
quote the entire message below your reply. If I can't remember
easily, I have to go hunting for what I said, which takes time. This
is particularly true when the reply is to a message sent out three
or four days back.
The best
approach is to quote just enough to be sure your reader will
remember what was said earlier as a transition to your reply. Quote
no more than a couple of lines, unless more is absolutely necessary.
Also be sure to add blank lines to highlight the difference between
quoted text and your reply. Here's how I might quote the example of
wrapped text above. And I'll remove the wrapping for better
readability.
> Knowing how
much you are into panda bears, you've just
> got to see this site.
Thanks for the
heads up, Joe.
Yes, it does
take a bit more time, but to the extent you care about your image,
it's a must. To the extent you care about communicating effectively,
it's a must. Sending clean, easy to read email is mandatory. Your
customers will downgrade you if you send anything less.
Everybody Loves Email
It is much
wiser to assume the person you are writing to is very, very busy. A
second good assumption is that they receive several hundred emails a
day.
"But hey,
that's not so." Maybe it's not. But make the assumptions anyway.
They lead to better email habits.
