Creating a Positive Image with Email
Presenting a Professional Image Through the Proper Use of Email
Oct 10, 2009
Email has become a popular form of communication between friends, relatives and business associates. Email to close friends and family may be different than that sent to business associates. Email between friends tends to be informal with an emphasis on getting a message across. Little attention is paid to the little things like grammar and spelling.
Business requires a different mindset. A sender wants to be viewed as a professional. This requires the sender to consider the personality she wants to present. Emails for business seem extremely formal in comparison to casual email communication. Business emails provide the recipient with a picture of the sender’s professionalism and her company’s character. These two can lead to either a positive or negative impression of the company, its products and employees.
What’s In a Name?
At the beginning of every email there is a field titled “From.” This field displays the sender’s email address. The best email address consists of the sender’s email address. John Doe is a marketing rep. His email is JDoe@Company.com. This is a much better address than KingofSales@Company.com. Most companies today use a simple naming process of first initial with last name.
Recent college graduates, when responding to job posts, may continue using their personal, more casual, email address like bigmagic@aol.com or badgirl555@hotmail.com. These email addresses were fun to use while in school but should probably be changed when students prepare to start looking for a job or going on to graduate school.
Acceptable Message Content
Emails send from one business to another should always deal with the business.
- Confirmation of business meeting
- Notice of special, limited time offer on company product
- Email containing links to business-related websites, articles or videos
This type of content represents the sender as a professional and her company as a serious potential client or vendor.
Inappropriate Message Content
More employers than ever before are monitoring employee email in some way. In the American Management Association 2007 report, “The Latest on Workplace Monitoring and Surveillance,” 28% of employers claim to have fired employees for the following reasons.
- Violation of any company policy (64%)
- Inappropriate or offensive language (62%)
- Excessive personal use (26%)
- Breach of confidentiality rules (22%)
- Other (12%)
Clearly there is overlap. It is not one violation but several repeated violations that result in an employee’s termination. Certainly inappropriate or offensive language is right up there at the top. No matter how friendly or personable a business associate may appear a sender must refrain from sending anything that might be construed as being offensive or displaying lack of respect for the sensibilities of the receiver or his company.
Correct Grammar
Poor grammar probably represents the most frequent detriment to a professional email image. These grammatical slips can result in a loss of respect for the sender or his company.
- Capitalization: This rule of grammar is frequently violated in personal/casual emails but cannot be ignored in business. Proper nouns such as company name, a person’s name and formal job title should be capitalized.
- Grammar: In casual email, communication can be less formal. But for business, too much is better than too little. “Currently the company does not have the part your company requested. The parts are on order and we will notify your company as soon as it arrives,” is significantly different from “Our company don’t got none of the parts you wants. We’ll get back to ya when we get some.” Basic rules of grammar should always be followed in professional communications.
- Punctuation: This is the most difficult and easiest to get right. There are numerous special rules and exemptions in the area of punctuation that can cause a writer to run to the reference books. By keeping sentences short and to the point, one need not get overly involved in punctuation rules. There are many fine grammar and punctuation desk references that will help if is ever any serious question concerning punctuation.
- Spelling: Many human resource departments continue to use spelling errors as a screening device when viewing hundreds of resumes and portfolios for a single position. One spelling error can make the difference between consideration and immediate rejection.
Who Are You?
The sender should always place his first and last name, title, and company name at the end of the message. In handwritten letters this was referred to as the signature. While the sender may have vivid memories of their last communications, the recipient may not. The email may be perfect in all other ways but if the signature at the end reads “Regards, George” a serious problem could result.
A professional business email may take longer to compose than a personal email but with a little effort it will present the sender, her company, and the company’s product or service in a professional light.
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