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Eight must-know tips to follow before you hit send
1. Have your own email address, which displays your name. It costs nothing to have your own email account, yet a surprising number of people still share an address—typically with a spouse—and use the other person’s name. That can confuse recipients, causing them to ignore or delete your email—or wonder who is actually reading or sending the message.
2. Know when to use To, Cc, and Bcc. Unless you are sending an email to family members, close friends, or the parents of children on your child’s sports team, use Bcc (blind carbon copy). This protects recipients’ privacy because their email address will not be displayed, as it would be on the “To” line. As for Cc (carbon copy), use it for people you feel would want to be included but are not the main audience for your email.
3. Use the Subject line. Many email services categorize email as junk or spam if it does not contain a Subject line. Recipients often do the same. A short, to-the-point subject also makes searching for the email later much easier.
4. State the purpose of your email in the first sentence. People have short attention spans, and often skim email—or stop reading after the second sentence. Put important information upfront. Even include a sentence such as, “Three things about Saturday’s soccer tournament.”
5. Do not attach large files. Most Internet-service providers will reject emails with files, such as photos and videos, that are five megabytes or larger. Play it safe by linking to videos, as opposed to attaching them, and sending small or low-resolution versions of photographs.
6. Know when to use Reply vs. Reply All. When replying to an email where you are one of many recipients, before you hit “Send,” determine if the whole group needs to see your reply. Not all 25 recipients need to see 23 “Yes, I can’s wait for the party!” replies. But they might need to know if you’re bringing the gluten-free chocolate cake. Try to reply within 24 hours.
7. Just because you think it’s funny doesn’t mean everyone else will. Use caution when forwarding “funny” jokes to everyone on your email list. If you do forward those emails, make sure the subject line explains what you are forwarding.
8. Proofread your email before you hit “Send.” Even if you are in a hurry, it pays to review what you wrote. Better to catch a mistake now than be embarrassed by it later.
