It’s not always the best way to keep in touch, but with our hectic schedules, we have come to rely on email as our preferred form of communication, for both business and personal use.

To help avoid the pitfalls of poor communication via email, here are some email tips from our monthly newsletter.

Email Tip #1

Use the subject line

Use the subject line to briefly provide the topic. People receive numerous emails throughout the day. A clear subject line helps to ensure that the recipient will read your message, and will also help the reader to be able to locate your message at a later time if necessary.

Email Tip #2

Use proper spelling and punctuation.

Who doesn’t love spell check? I am often surprised at what spell check picks up when I send a message (careless errors from being in a hurry usually). However, we need to remember that computers are not people, so if we meant to type “their” and instead typed “there”, spell check will not correct that.

OMG, be careful about using slang, acronyms, and texting lingo in email, especially in the workplace. Texting shortcuts make sense I suppose in the social networking world. However, when using email in the workplace setting, don’t forget to use real language skills that you learned in elementary school!

Email Tip #3

Make it easy for others to get back to you – provide your contact information – including phone number – in your email message.

When I receive an email and there is a request or a need for a phone call, it’s very frustrating not to have that contact information there in front of me. It sounds trivial, but I think most of you can relate to this right? What if I am out of the office someplace but have access to my email? Make it as easy as possible for people to respond to you.

An easy solution is to set up a signature line that appears at the bottom of every email you send out. It can include your name, company name, phone #, and a live URL (so people can click on it to view your site).

Email Tip #4

Use the KISS Principal = Keep it simple sweetie

Get to the point. Respect your reader’s time. Be brief, using some personality, and be clear with your message.

Email Tip #5

Resist the urge to reply to a spammer.

Any response at all will only confirm that your email address is ‘live’ and will only generate even more spam. Even an auto-respond message will confirm to the spammer that they’ve reached a valid email address.

The best thing to do is simply delete the message and train your spam filter.

Additionally, you can “black list” the offending email address.

Unfortunately, for now, the battle against spam will be ongoing. The best thing we can do is try to stay ahead of it as much as possible.