In a recent article on email communication, we talked about email etiquette and how to avoid annoying recipients of your emails. The last point was not to send unsolicited email. But when is email ‘unsolicited’ and when is it actually OK to send unsolicited email? 

There are some gray areas, but here is one hard and fast rule: NEVER send a bulk email to a ‘hot list’ of 10,000 email addresses you bought from someone. It is never OK to send your ad via email to total strangers. It’s bad form, and I can’t believe it works. Frankly, if someone sent me a spam email offering to sell dollar bills for 50 cents, I wouldn’t take them up on it.

It is generally OK to send email to people you know and who know you. If necessary, remind them how you know each other. (Hi! We met at the ABC conference last week . . .)

When sending to someone you don’t know, personalize your message and let them know why you chose to contact them. For example, I get lots of questions from people who found my website and want more information. Or people who want to discuss doing a joint venture or other business.

It is OK to send email to people who have asked to receive it. This is called ‘permission marketing’. Let’s say you’re a travel agent who offers to send bulletins to preferred customers when you have a great price on air fares. When I give you my email address and ask you to send the bulletins, I’ve given you permission to email me. Don’t abuse it by sending messages several times a day (unless that’s what you told me to expect) or by sending a lot of unrelated messages. And never share your mailing list with someone else. That violates the privacy of your list members and violates their trust as well.

I sometimes send press releases to media contacts via their published email addresses for press release submission. Each email is individually addressed (although I use an automated process to do so) and it is something I believe they will find of interest. I only send to appropriate media, and I don’t bombard them with press releases day after day. And, if anyone asks not to receive future releases, they are immediately removed from my data base. Each of these elements helps to keep me from being perceived as a spammer or just an old-fashioned pest.

In summary, don’t send bulk email to people you don’t know who haven’t asked to receive it. When people have given you permission to email them, don’t abuse it.

And always be polite and considerate of your recipients. After all, many of them get dozens or hundreds of emails every day. Using a subject heading which accurately describes your message helps them sort their messages easily.

Email is an important marketing tool–use it wisely and well!

Email is an invaluable tool for keeping in touch with customers, reaching out to prospective customers, sharing information with others in your industry and more. But you can damage your reputation and image by using email poorly. 

Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind before you press “send.”

DON’T SHOUT! Using all caps is considered bad form, like shouting at someone. All lower case is almost as bad. Your keyboard has a shift key, doesn’t it? Use it. Capitalize the first word of each sentence, proper names and, occasionally, an entire word for EMPHASIS.

Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation. Yes, email is less formal than other types of correspondence. But ‘gd riting gets ur msg acros’—and it leaves a good impression of you.  Sloppy spelling and punctuation also leave an impression, but not the one you want.

For most messages, stick with plain text. Everyone can read it. When you use HTML or other special formats, your recipient may just see garbage.

Only send attachments to people who are expecting them and have agreed to receive them. Many viruses are spread via attachments, so your attachment won’t automatically be welcomed, even by many of the people who know you. (I’ve gotten viruses from people I know and trust–they didn’t know they were infected.) Also, those with slow dial-up connections won’t appreciate the time it takes for large attachments to download.

WHEN SENDING THE SAME MESSAGE TO MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS, USE BCC: TO HIDE THE ADDRESS LIST. I know, I’m shouting. That’s because this annoys the heck out of me. I hate getting messages filled with dozens (or even hundreds) of addresses, and I hate having my address given out to all those people I don’t know. Most email programs have a bcc: feature, and it solves this problem.  (Bcc: stands for ‘blind carbon copy’—a holdover from the days of typewriters.)

When forwarding a message, delete any of the previous headers and text not required for clarity. Have you ever gotten one of those messages that seems like it has been to everyone on the Internet before getting to you, and all of the addresses and headers are in the message? After scrolling through page after page of garbage, you get to the lame joke that was forwarded.  Or, someone forwards a multi-page message with ‘I agree.’ at the bottom. Don’t include a lot of garbage in forwarded email.

Which reminds me, don’t forward every joke, warning, petition, etc. that hits your mailbox to everyone you know. It won’t be appreciated. Think before you send, and don’t send anything that might be considered offensive (which is just about anything, these days) or is probably not true. Check out warnings before forwarding them.

And, finally, don’t send unsolicited email. Does that mean you can never write to anyone who hasn’t written to you first?  Well, no, if it did there would never be any email sent. What it means is . . .well, let’s look at that in a future article.