Using Email for Better Business

This Week with Sara Fitts looks at email and how it can be better utilized for developing your business and enhancing your professional image. These are just a few strategies that may make a big difference for business owners and their staffs. These strategies are especially helpful for self-employed professionals with no employees or limited staff support.

• Use a spell check program and read the entire email prior to hitting the "send" button.
• Use the subject line carefully. Make it sound professional and business-oriented.
• Be aware that every email can be forwarded thousands upon thousands of times. Make sure that nothing in your email is offensive to anyone who may receive it. Make sure your email is factual and legitimate.
• Use a signature that is a business builder. Make sure you have all necessary contact information and websites listed in your electronic signature with correct links. Use your signature as a major marketing tool. Make it as professional as possible.
• Use correct rules of grammar. Begin sentences with capital letters and end them with correct punctuation. Never use all capital letters and never use all lowercase letters. Each email should be a business letter from you to a client, customer, or prospect.
• If you are sending the same email to a number of different people, use the BCC feature so as not to "out" all the people receiving your email.
• Check your email several times each weekday. Respond quickly. Clean out your inbox each week at a minimum by deleting all emails that you don't need to keep and setting up folders for those you do need to keep.
• Avoid sending any email when you are angry or upset about the matter at hand. Take time to read and read again your repsonse to make sure that it won't be misinterpretted by the reader. Written words are much more easily misinterpretted than spoken words.
• Remember that email is a tool. The phone is sometimes a better tool at the moment. Send the right message utilizing the best tool for the particular situation.

Email is a necessary strategy and must be used in the best possible way to build and enhance your business reputation.

Sara L. Fitts is a business coach who works with small business owners and self-employed professionals to enhance their business development. If you'd like to find out how she can help you, contact her today.