This applies to letters and other written materials (only very old fashioned styles would have indented paragraphs for letters) but even more so to electronic materials such as emails.

Of course, the other advantage of starting paragraphs on the left margin is that it is easier to type – no formatting pages or repeatedly using the tab button! And for email systems that indent previous email messages when forwarding (a very annoying system in my opinion but that’s off the point!), having indented paragraphs would look absolutely horrible and potentially end up far to the right.

So the simple answer to how to format emails is – don’t! That is, don’t format the main text – you do need to consider a space after the greeting and between paragraphs.

Let your words be the focus of your emails, and use your words wisely!

1. keep it short – no one is going to read an email that is full of text for pages. Keep sentences and paragraphs short and as few of them as possible, then use white space and images to make it look appealing and quick to read.

2. focus on getting them to do something – usually the call to action is to phone you or visit your website as that is where you can then provide a lot more information

I read recently that someone would never take advice from a financial planner who can’t afford a quality tie (bad taste is a different issue, of course!) My equivalent statement is that I would never hire someone for SEO help/advice or other digital services (social media marketing, web design, ecommerce, etc) if they can’t be bothered setting up a non-hotmail, non-yahoo email address – Gmail and IP provider emails are not really any better.

The blog I looked at yesterday came to my attention by the owner asking for guest blog posts. He provided a domain name and his hotmail details. Why on earth doesn’t he have an email based at that domain name? Especially for someone claiming to know about SEO?

This is a pet peeve, but there are some valid reasons to use a domain-related email address:

• it builds trust to use your domain name – you have taken the time to get a domain name and matching emails so expect to be in business for more than five minutes
• it looks professional
• hotmail does not build credibility – many people use hotmail as untraceable email addresses so it is not always seen as reputable. Have you noticed a number of places won’t accept a hotmail address when you register?
• every time someone receives your email, you can promote hotmail/Gmail/your ip provider or you can use your domain name and promote your business. No brainer to me
• it shows you pay attention to the little details in your business so proably care about your products/services
• it gives consistency, especially when you list your contact details in one place like on a business card or the end of an email
• you don’t have to change your email address if you change ip providers or the email service stops (or changes rules in a way you don’t like)

It’s true that a picture can convey a message very quickly and sometimes better than words, and can make any document more appealing. However, you need to be careful relying on images in your marketing.

Before making an image the central part of any email message, remember the following:

• many people (I’d guess the majority, in fact) have images turned off so they won’t see the image by default. If your email relies on that image, your email is not going to work very well.
  Yes, sometimes people will accept images and then be able to see your message but I rarely do that if the image is pretty much the entire message as I want to know what it’s about before lowering my security – and I guess I’m not alone in that.
• including a number of images, even if they aren’t the key message, can lead to a poor presentation of your email if images are turned off – not only are there lots of red crosses on view, but it may distort the layout of text, too
• people have different perceptions and ideas, and some see a half empty glass so think carefully about about how your image may be seen. It’s not so bad if a supporting picture is misinterpreted as if it is a key part of your message
• including many and/or large graphics makes your email much larger which may mean higher costs for you and again may limit it’s acceptance by all email servers
• text in graphics and images themselves won’t help your search engine efforts (for emails online as well as sent out) although it does hide words from spam filters. Technology may be changing this but for now it still matters!

So what do you think when you receive an email that is based entirely or predominantly on graphics? Are they as effective in getting your interest as text based emails?

And don’t forget to support your email marketing, too.

No matter how great your email is, though, you need to support it on your website – and this is something many people forget so here are some tips for you:

1. use the same branding and style in the email and the web page the email leads to. Sounds obvious but the obvious is often missed when we’re busy and caught in the middle of a project.
2. match the message in the email and your website. For example, if your email is about a sale but links to your homepage which doesn’t mention a sale you will find a lot of people will just leave and those remaining will be annoyed at having to search for the information. If you have specific graphics in the email, they should be visible on the site too – or versions of them – so the connection is immediate  
3. Remember to link to relevant pages, not just your homepage - again, this saves people having to search your site and it can also help your search engine results (especially if a copy of your email is online)
4. it is part of your branding, but to be crystal clear on this opint – keep the same tone in the email as on your website. If the friendly, young sounding email attracts someone, a formal, old-fashioned webpage will alienate and confuse them.
5. ensure the contact details given in the email are correct and that someone is available to respond to them. An ad in a magazine may result in calls over a period of days or weeks, but the majority of responses to an email will come within hours of sending it out – it’s not a good look if you send out an email inviting calls and no one answers the phone or emails for a few days!

If you looked at your latest email campaign and the related web pages, would you see the connection or would they clash? Try the above tips as a testing process and see if you can’t improve the campaign for next time.

So here are some tips to make your memos worth reading…

1. keep it short – it is not a letter or a procedural manual.  A memo is about giving some important information quickly so get to the point and leave out unnecessary information
2. remember that you are writing to colleagues not customers so it’s ok to write something like “see Sue for a copy” or “in the main foyer” as everyone will understand
3. be personal – you know the people you are writing to so it doesn’t have to be very formal. “Call me”, “pop into my office” or “let me know” are much friendly than “don’t hesitate to call me” or “reply by fax”
4. be polite and show respect, even if the memo is pointing out something negative. Compare “we need to improve customer service so…” with “you are all really bad at customer service so…”
5. use personal terms – you, me, I, we – to maintain a connection with your readers
6. be specific so staff know what is needed – “the renovations start on Monday so please clear your desk by 4pm Friday” or “reports are now due by 10am Tuesday” are clear and easy to comply with
7. make it clear who is getting the memo – I don’t want to waste time passing it onto my team if they already have it but I also don’t want them to miss it; if it is sensitive, it helps to know who else is reading the information
8. most importantly, don’t write a memo unless there is actually a need to do so – sending out lots of memos loses their effectiveness no matter how well you write them.

Of course, these same rules apply to important internal emails, too.

Have you reecvied any really bad memos? What made them stand out as bad?

We’re heading for Christmas and most businesses are trying to be prepared for the December rush.

Many businesses send a Christmas email to their customers, supporters and suppliers so here are some tips for writing your email…

• if possible, use the person’s name so your Christmas message is personal
• even if your usual business communications are formal, make this message casual and clearly from you – you are sending the email in appreciation and to share goodwill, so don’t think of it as a business document. However, spelling, grammar and making sense are still basic elements of your email
• if you and/or your customers are not Christian or simply don’t believe in Christmas, send a “season’s greetings” message instead. Even better, make it an “end of year” message
• keep it short – this isn’t the time for a sales pitch or news, just give your best wishes and leave it at that
• still include the basics of a good email – useful subject line, unsubscribe details (if you are using a list rather than truly personal emails) and contact details
• put your message in the body of the email, not as an attachment or in a graphic

Adding some cheery graphics and/or colour is nice, but not essential; if you do add graphics, make sure the email doesn’t become too big.

In this case, the email was from someone who can apparently improve my email marketing – how can I trust that claim when their email is so poor itself?

So here are the main issues and the corresponding lessons to be learned:

• subject “Meeting request for Tash” email opening “Hi, well…”
  lesson – if you can put my name in the subject, how hard would it be to address the email to me too? Names are important, and beyond getting my attention in the subject
• opening sentence “Well I hope this note finds you well”
  lessons – using well twice in such a short sentence looks wrong and lazy, and the opening well doesn’t really fit there anyway; it is an email not a note
• “I know you place tremendous value on your time, so I’ve included an overview of what we do”
  lesson – you may assume or expect it but  you know anything about me; why give me an overview when I don’t even know who you are? Perhaps “so I will introduce myself quickly” or just “so I will be brief”
• “in-house data append… we would run append test and get back to you with the appended fields”
  what does data append mean (no, not a facetious question as I really don’t know and this email doesn’t even give me enough clues to guess!) Pretty obvious lesson – don’t use jargon or terms the reader may not know, or at least define them!
• “If you are looking at adding value to your investment and get more revenue…”
  what investment are we talking about? Do you mean adding value to my business, my brand, my marketing, or something else? Lesson – be clear and finish with something relevant to the entire message
  lesson – use good grammar when doing a cold call like this. ‘If you are looking at… get more revenue’ does not read well – no complicated grammar there!
• “Send us a 50 -100 records from your database…”
  Does this mean now or after we sign up for your service? Do I have any assurances how you will use that data – I care about the privacy of my subscribers. And more grammar issues (“a records” just grates!)
• Listed fields they include (which I don’t think is very relevant in a first call email but anyway) has ‘zip code’ which I don’t like – either they are emailing me from the US or they have copied a US email and are too lazy to localise it. Lesson – if in Australia, use Australian terminology, and likewise for any other grouping of people
• The email includes her name, her job title and the name of a business (presumably the one she is emailing about but she never actually mentions them in the email!) so I don’t know where she is from and a .com email address again gives me no assurance she is Australian.
  lesson – provide contact details and enough information for the reader to know how relevant your message is for them. Knowing where she is from affects things like currency (not such an issue while the AUD and USD are so close), time zones for support, spam and privacy laws and also how relevant her data acquisition would be
• under her signature is one line “To stop receiving our newsletters, reply back with STOP in the subject line”
  lesson – anti-spam laws at their minimum but surely an email company can have an automated unsubscribe system? What is worse, however, is the thought that I may get newsletters from these people when I never asked for it and certainly don’t want it after this email! If she has subscribed me as well as emailed me, I would be tempted to report her for spamming.

How would you respond to getting such an email? Would you just delete it as spam anyway, send a terse ‘no thanks’ or would you ignore all these issues if the service itself was of interest?

Personally, I think it is useful to start the subject the same way for every edition of your newsletter. I suggest using the name of your business or newsletter as the subject

You can add a date or specific subject as well, but a consistent start is helpful because:

• it is easy to identify as your newsletter whereas varied subjects may get deleted by even your keenest readers
• it is easy for people to collate different editions in their inbox if they have the same subject
• it helps build your brand – just a glance at the subject reminds people of you without them reading it

Thinking of enewsletters you receive, do you prefer ones with a consistent subject line?

If you don’t believe me, think about how you feel when you are ‘treated like a number’, someone pronounces your name poorly and you get a letter with your name wrong in some way.

I once got a letter that referred to Mr T Hughes, opened with Tash and had Mrs Hughes on the envelope. I didn’t like being called Mr but the lack of care shown by the inconsistency was very poor.

Getting people’s names right is a sign of respect, and in business it also shows attention to detail matters to you. So consider the following tips:

• check the spelling of someone’s name before you send a letter or email – and use their spelling even if you don’t like it
• personalise where possible – if sending a letter or email, consider adding their name to the subject and/or body as well as in the opening line
• think about what form to use – title and surname or just first name for instance will depend on your audience and your business style. Note if they have shown a preference for one style then make sure you use that style.
• if you are not sure of gender from the name, avoid using terms that indicate gender as getting it wrong can be offensive
• never make fun or joke about someone’s name, even if you think you have a friendship, unless they have done so first – even then I would hesitate before joking about their name
• wait to be invited to use a nickname or abbreviation. So many people meet a Michael or Jonathon and start saying Mike and Jon, but if Michael hates Mike it will not impress him at all. Besides, nicknames are personal and often reserved for friends
• ask how to pronounce their name if you are not sure – people don’t mind helping but may resent errors
• do your best to remember names, especially at networking events or if a client introduces you. There are many techniques for improving your name memory and it is a valuable skill to have

PS On a humorous note, I received a phone call a few days ago where the person asked “Is that Mr Tash Hughes” (badly pronounced)
I answered “No” thinking – do I really sound like a Mr?
Next question “Can I speak to Tash Hughes?”
My answer “You are – I am Tash but I’m not Mr.”
“Oh, I thought you were a boy, Goodbye” and hung up!