Although larger corporations have long realized the value of email communications to their businesses, many small companies are still hesitant to truly take advantage of the power of email. Fortunately, however, this is changing, slowly but surely. As technology has become more affordable and available, small businesses have implemented technologies that were once reserved for Fortune 1000 corporations. It is now a rare thing for even the smallest of businesses to not have some sort of email account. However, we are left with one remaining obstacle: changing our habits.

We are comfortable with mailing invoices and statements, we are quite used to printing letters, stuffing envelopes and licking stamps, and we are absolutely married to picking up the phone. It's a whole new world for some people to send something off into cyberspace, especially important documents. It can be a little unsettling at first. But, big corporations have been doing this for a long time, because they know that say delivering a thousand newsletters via email is hands down more cost and time efficient that the alternative!

Think about it. The next time you pick up the phone ask yourself if the same call could be handled more quickly via email, find out if your accounting software allows you to email invoices (Quickbooks 2001 does) and finally, start collecting the email addresses of all your new and current (and past) customers so that you can start putting the power of email to work for you!

Email Netiquette
For those of you that are new to emailing here are a few tips to help you get your communications across cyberspace in good order:

1. While not absolutely required, it is a nice touch to address your email recipient by name in a greeting located in the body of your message. This not only lends a more human and personalized feel, it  can help the recipient verify that it is in fact a legitimate message from you and not some virus laden email generated unknowingly from your address book.

2. As an aside to #1, try not to send extremely terse, impersonalized messages. Viruses often come hand in hand with terse, generic messages and those of us who know this may delete your email before even reading any further or may be unwilling to click on an attachment from you. If you are sending an attachment make reference to it in the body of the message and explain what it is. Many people use their instincts, as well as software to protect from viruses.

3. Make your subject line count! If you just keep clicking the reply button and using the same old irrelevant subject line you may come to regret this practice (unless of course it is relevant). Email subject lines can be sorted on in most email clients, this means that you may be missing out on a valuable way to keep track of your communications if you don't utilize this field properly. You'll find out what this means one day when you are furiously searching through old emails to find some bit of info that you desperately need and all of your messages have the same or irrelevant subject lines.

4. Don't use all caps when typing your message. This is considered shouting and is difficult to read.

5. Use your spell checker. Typos can detract from your company image, especially if they are pervasive.

6. Set up a signature file. Usually within the client software there is a place where you can setup a signature file, which can contain your name, title, business name, phone, website and often even a little marketing message. Don't underestimate the use of a sig file.

7. Remember that some things that you write may sound totally different to your recipient sans your facial expressions and tone of voice. Be cognizant of how you may be coming across.

If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t forget, we’re here to help. Call today if you would like to learn more.