Get Your E-mail Noticed

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While you may be spending a significant amount of time crafting the perfect e-mail, your message may land in the recipient?s inbox only to be ignored, or worse yet, deleted.

As authors Dawn Josephson and Lauren Hidden explain in their new book, Write It Right: The Ground Rules for Self-Editing Like the Pros (Cameo Publications, $17.95, ISBN: 0-97449662-6), the answer may lie in your writing skills.

First, check your subject line. Does it lack information or is it sales-y? Be honest. If you saw that subject line in your in-box from an unknown sender would you open it? Probably not. Busy people will not waste their time opening what they perceive to be junk e-mail. And, depending on their computer settings, your e-mail might have even been caught in the trenches of their spam filter.

Second, look at your grammar, spelling and punctuation. Even the smallest grammatical error, misspelled word or inappropriate punctuation mark (or lack thereof) can make you look unprofessional and sloppy. If you’re making a pitch and you send it out with these kinds of errors, your target will question your attention to detail and wonder if you’re the best person to represent their company.

Finally, review your style. When you typed your message did you keep in mind who would be reading it? You wouldn?t use the same tone in an informal e-mail to your best friend as you would in a sales pitch to a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, would you? Word selection is vital. Using convoluted words that aren?t part of everyday language is just as irritating to your reader as using over-simplified terms.

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Sunday, March 21, 2010