Email Best Practices - Email has become the predominant form of written, person to person communications of this century. Very few of us get more 'snail mail' than email messages. It is fast; where recipients receive what you send in just seconds, in most cases. And therein lies the importance of Email Etiquette. Click too fast and all your misspellings, poor grammar, accidentally misaddressed, and any other errors can quickly 'brand' you with an image in your professional career that you absolutely don't want. Once you send it, you can't take it back. So pay attention, be diligent, and do it right and you will impress your friends and your professional contacts.
1 Forwarding When forwarding email, strip out all unnecessary stuff. Most importantly, make sure there are no contact names, email addresses, or phone numbers of individuals who’ve previously received the message you are forwarding. NOTE: See the ‘NOTE TO ALL’ at the end of this article. Copy and paste it into your forwarded emails.
2 Subject ALWAYS include a pertinent subject. And NEVER send a message with a blank subject. And DON’T use the subject line as your message body.
3 Signature Do(s) Do use a signature that includes your name, along with any pertinent contact information such as phone, fax, cell, website (if different from your email domain). Since just about EVERYONE uses email as a main correspondence medium, it is considerate of you to make it easy for them to contact you.
4 Signature Don’t(s) Don’t include your email address. It is redundant information that is already easily obtained in the email document. Some feel differently about this, since there are those out there who don’t know how easy it is to extract the email address of the sender. Don't overload your signature with too much information. Keep it simple - who, what, when, where. Don't include graphics in your signature. A graphic in a signature is sent as an attachment, so file size can be an issue. If you do include a graphic, keep it as tiny (in file size) as possible.
5 Filenames When sending attachments, make sure the filenames are complete with the “application specific extension”. This applies to Macintosh users as well, as they frequently ‘hide’ the extension. Most users have no clue what extension is required to allow them to open a document. For example, a Microsoft Word document would have a filename such as “myresume.doc”. Here is a link to the most comprehensive “application specific extensions” listing.
6 Attachment Sizes Attachments should generally be limited to 1MB or less. If the recipient is expecting your attachment, it is then acceptable to exceed that up to 5MB or 10MB. Beyond that, check with the recipient before sending. Many email accounts have limits.
7 Pertinent to all Be cognizant of who you are sending your email to and address it accordingly. Don’t use your Groups or Distribution lists unless the message is pertinent to everyone in those lists. This goes for the use of ‘Reply to All’ as well.
8 To: CC: BCC: Properly use the ‘To:’, ‘CC:’, and ‘BCC:’ address boxes.
✹ ‘To:’ is for people you are directly addressing…those who your message is primarily intended for. It can be left blank.
✹ ‘CC:’ is for those your message is indirectly intended for. Recipients listed here are seen by ALL recipients
✹ ‘BCC:’ is generally used for the same purpose as the ‘CC:’ except, since it is a ‘Blind Carbon Copy’ the ‘To:’ and ‘CC:’ recipients will be unaware of the ‘BCC:’ recipients.
So beware of any unethical implications when you use ‘BCC:’. However, it is the best way for addressing all those jokes, videos, etc. that we all receive and want to share with our friends and co-workers without revealing their contact information to dozens of strangers. Using 'BCC:' also protect the listed recipients when the message is subsequently forwarded to others. And, when a 'BCC:' recipient subsequently uses 'Reply To All', all previous 'BCC:' recipients are excluded.
9 Sent from If you are using your company email, everyone you send anything that might be perceived as ‘less-than-appropriate’ may associate it with your company. This is sometimes considered “Career suicide by email”. So beware. Use your private email account for such purposes. If you don’t have one, you can get a free one with gmail, yahoo, or hotmail. I prefer gmail, which is associated with Google, because they have a superior SPAM filter and the highest limit (in Gigabytes) for storage, and many other features.
10 Educate An insert, like the 'forwarding note' (below), can educate the recipients by pointing out what YOU are doing to protect their privacy. Be a GOOD emailer…copy and paste the text below at the beginning of your next forwarded email.
If you forward this,
please, please, please. . .
✹ delete all forwarding histories, that means any email addresses in the message body.
✹ address all recipients using the 'BCC:' field. That keeps them hidden from future forwards.
✹ by doing so, you have protected every person you forward this email to from the deviants on the Internet who 'mine' email address to propagate SPAM, Spyware, Malware, and Viruses.
11 Check First When someone sends you some shocking e-mail and suggests that you pass it on, don’t. At least not until you’ve first confirmed its truth at snopes.com, the Internet’s authority on e-mailed myths. This includes get-rich schemes, Microsoft/AOL cash giveaways, and–especially lately–nutty scare-tactic messages about our Presidential candidates.
12 Group Email Addresses This is a HUGE timesaver. Are you frequently sending email to a small group of addresses? Create 'Address Groups' or 'Distribution Lists' (some email applications may use other names for "Groups' and 'Lists'). Now when you are updating the people in your department on the latest status of a project, you won't accidently leave anyone out. Simply type the name of the 'Group' in the 'To:' field of your email. I create 'Groups' for different categories of 'readers' that makes it easy and convenient to send an email to the group of people it is most pertinent to. For example, an occasional Macintosh-related tip or news-bite will go to that group of my 'Mac Users'. You get the idea.
Create a 'Group' or 'List' by going to your 'Contacts' or 'Address Book' and adding it, much in the same way you'd add a new Contact. Then, simply drag the names into that 'Group'. To remove a name, open your 'Group', select that name you want to remove, and click 'Delete' or 'Backspace'.
13 Junk & Spam Filters Chances are, your email application, Outlook, Entourage, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Eudora, etc. has a built-in Spam or Junk filter. This is also true of webmail sites such as Yahoo, GMail, Hotmail, and so on.
When you receive messages that fall into Spam or Junk category. Most of them, without any effort on your part, will automatically filter your incoming mail that is likely Junk (though, not always) and move it to a 'Junk' or 'Spam' folder. Of course, you should check it regularly to be sure 'non-Spam' is being identified as 'Spam'. When that happens, make sure you select such messages and click the button or feature that 'marks' it as not being 'Spam'. That way, future messages will not be misidentified. And, likewise, when you see 'spam' in your InBox, click the button or feature that 'marks' it as 'Spam'. The more you proactively do this, the more accurately your 'Spam' or 'Junk' mail filters will work for you.
