How many of you have received an email from someone in your contact list only to find they’ve CC’d everyone in their contact list?
Now hundreds of people you don’t know have your email address. Within in a few days your spam and junk mail begins to increase and you’re not sure why.
Then you remember THAT email!
It only takes one unscrupulous person from that bulk email to sell all those email addresses to an unscrupulous email list company, and suddenly you’re all inundated with spam.
What about those emails that arrive with the subject line “Hi” or “Hello,” or even worse, no subject at all, which leaves you wondering what the email is about? Later when you’re trying to find all the emails in the same conversation, you get a large group of emails from various people but only a few relate to the conversation you’re looking for.
These are just two of the things that happen to me countless times and are now pet-peeves that I feel needed addressing.
If you are one of those people that practice either of these email bad habits, then these email etiquette tips are for you.
For emails to multiple recipients, here’s what you should be doing:
- When sending to your entire contact list or to people who do not know each other, blind copy your recipients by clicking BCC instead of To or CC.
- When sending to your entire contact list, send a few at a time to avoid your email being marked as spam and your email address being blacklisted.
- If you need a copy too, don’t send it to yourself using “To.” Instead use BCC.
- Only use To or CC for multiple recipients if you are a team collaborating on a project and where you all know each other and/or have permission to do so.
- Where possible use a CRM tool such as Constant Contact or Mail Chimp which will enable you to personalize your email.
For your subject line, here’s what you should be doing:
- When sending out a new email, add your subject line before you write your email so you don’t forget to add one.
- Don’t use “hi” or “hello” in your subject line. These are salutations not the subject of the email and should go in the body of the email.
- Use a meaningful subject line, something memorable that pertains to the content of the email.
- When sending out a promotion or special offer, use a subject line that will grab the attention of your recipients while giving them a hint of what’s in the content.
If you have any pet-peeves with your emails, let me know in the comment box.
