Effective Business Communication blog at SmallBiz1

Much of this article may be perceived as teaching Grandma to suck eggs but having come across a few instances of madness recently, I thought I’d highlight their point about emailing.
Today many businesses conduct much of their sales and marketing and many other communications by email.
It’s therefore key to understand that not everyone uses the same browser and may not see the email in the same format you send it in! It’s infuriating when something lands in your inbox that you simply just can’t read – if you have to click too many times for images, or if the text looks like a jumbled load of nonsense with empty boxes and crosses, most people’s first instinct is to delete.
So, test… send the email to various email accounts with different browsers for “test runs” to see how it looks. Doing this with important marketing emails to customers will ensure you don’t appear unprofessional and that your message is not wasted. Ensure any links you’ve inserted are working and directing the client to the right place.
If attachments are included, test those too. Sometimes, placing the text within an email as opposed to sending it as an attachment is the way to go, and sometimes businesses request that anyway, so again be aware and endeavour to keep up-to-date mailing lists with details of how emails are dealt with at their destination.
Obviously, email is an important tool in today’s business world, saving time and money. However, sometimes emailing is inappropriate – there are better options. Whatever happened to the telephone??
I particularly like the advice to “Avoid emailing when angry or overly happy.” Our instincts as human beings seem to go somewhat awry when we are behind a screen and a keyboard and we “say” things we wouldn’t dream of saying in a face to face situation. This is especially relevant in the business environment, don’t you think?
And remember, if you want to communicate with someone in the same office as you – it’s often more effective to get up and walk over to their desk!
Thanks again to SmallBiz1 – you can read their article at http://www.smallbiz1.com/effective-business-communication.html