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Email Style & Etiquette - Common Writing Errors

A refresher course on writing is always a good idea.  I am treated to a lively discussion of grammar issues whenever I get together with my writer friends.  A few of these friends teach college writing skills, and it is no surprise to me to hear that student writing is often full of errors.

But professional writing, or business writing, should be a cut above the rest.

The resources are out there for learning to edit for errors.  We all remember Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, and there's my favorite, the AP Stylebook for journalists.

Check out "5 Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb" at Copyblogger. 

For a refresher course on common business grammar issues, take the test at BusinessWriting.com's "The Most Common Business Usage Errors."

And here are a few of my own make-my-skin-crawl careless mistakes:

1. It's used as the possessive - the only use for "it's" is as a contraction for it + is.
2. Vague pronoun references - for example, "Send me the book before the weekend, since it is a long one."
3. Good used for well - the word well most often should be used as an adverb, describing a verb.

If you have time, also check out GrammarErrors.com.

Email Style & Etiquette - Scrap Paper Communication

I repeat, all business email is business email.

If an email comes from a business, then it should follow standards related to business writing.

So here is an example of what I call Scrap Paper Communication. This is a reply email from a staff member at a local newspaper consisting of exactly the following, no more, no less:

I think we are a bit to far gone for this year
Sorry, lets look at next year

Here are my first thoughts when I read this in my inbox:

1. What's too far?
2. Who sent this to me again?
3. This sender doesn't care about me as a consumer - not in the least.
4. This sender thinks he/she is texting me to my phone.

And here are suggestions which would make the message more appropriate for business use:

1. Add a greeting, incude my name.
2. Add punctuation.
3. Include a reference to or explanation about the original situation in question to help me recall why I am reading this email.
4. Fill me in on "next year" - who would I contact, when is a good time to follow up.
5. Add a signature, include contact info.
6. A branded design, business logo included.

Feel free to copy the example above and send to your staff.

An article titled "Writing for Business" at About.com elaborates:

"Whether you are writing a sales proposal, an email to your department, or an instruction manual for a software package, there are certain steps you need to follow to create effective business writing. You need to:

1. organize your material
2. consider your audience
3. write
4. proofread
5. and edit your text.

The emphasis on each step may vary, depending on what you are writing, but the steps will be the same." -F. John Reh

A great collection of tips and resources in business writing can be found at Lynn Gaertner-Johnston's blog: http://www.businesswritingblog.com/business_writing/tips/index.html

Cool Resource - EEC White Paper Room

The Email Experience Council does it again. 

In just over a year, this virtual group of professional email marketers has put together an original collection of research and reports specific to our field and intended to improve the quality of email marketing around the globe.

Recently, the new "White Paper Room" appeared with downloadable reports on issues such as:

• "The State of Email Matrics and Bounceback Management"
• "HTML or Text: Practical Advice on Campaign Formatting"
• "Send to a Friend Benchmark Study"

The issues at the core of the EEC are:

1. Deliverability and Rendering
2. Email User Experience
3. Creative that Works
4. List Growth and Engagement

For more on the EEC, go to www.emailexperience.org !

Email Best Practices - Formal vs Informal

On a formality continuum, I believe email falls into place in the middle.  This is where it truly has longevity:

Informal........... Formal..........Most Formal
     |                        |                        |
texting                email                snail mail
cell phone           Internet            postal service

In business, email has a long life ahead as a tool for customer service, customer/member retention, and targeted, anticipated sales.  Effective business email is branded, represents high standards, and targets quality over quantity.  Engage, request and fulfill.

Highlight of the Week - Grand Harbor's "alt" Tags

Are you using your image "alt" tag effectively?

I worry when I see terrific emails consisting of nothing but images.  If an email recipient reads emails withouth the images "turned on," then they won't see any of those bright blocks of color, cool fonts, and expressive photos.

For example, the Grand Harbor Resort sends me updates and specials.  They are full of fun, designed with lots of color and visuals.  And the back-end format of the email is simply one picture stacked on top of another. 

In case you are not familiar, the remedy for missing pictures is the "alt" tag.  For those with systems that do not automatically show images,there is a tool that programmers can use that will enable text to pop into the space where an image should be.  This is called an "alt" tag, and you can include your main point here. 

Amana Meat Shop

If you do allow pictures, you can check to see if an email is making proper use of "alt" tags by letting your mouse hover over a picture in an email, then a collection of words will pop up on top of that picture.  (Try this with the photo at right.)

Most "alt" tags will show up with simple phrases like, "Company Logo" or "On Sale Now."

What pops up behind the pictures in the email from the Grand Harbor Resort is this:

alt="These packages are based on 2 adults and 2 childrem. Additional charges per room may apply Fridays, Saturdays & (Grand Harbor) Holidays. Not valid with any other discount. Price does  not include taxes & gratuities. Not available for groups. Subject to availability. Valid 3-15-2007 through 5-31-07. Grand Harbor Resort & Waterpark is Managed by Platinum Hospitality Group. Located at 350 Bell Street; Dubuque, IA 52001. Phone is 563.690.4000 or toll free at 866.690.4006."

So why not!  It is their entire message, all included in the "alt" tag. 

I am impressed.

Best Practices - Authentication

More on Sender ID and authentication:

Some time ago, I created my own Sender ID record and added it to the SPF (Sender Policy Framework) record that already existed for wincommunications.com.  In order to use SPF, the domain sending the e-mails must establish an SPF record that is published in DNS (Domain Name System) records. 

I believe this has resulted in improved numbers of e-mails successfully delivered to subscribers on my list. 

The process involved simply adding the domain exacttarget.com to my SPF record.  This enables ISP's like Yahoo or MSN to check my record and authenticate e-mails sent by wincommunications.com via the ExactTarget server.

And this is the simple step-by-step guide to publishing your Sender ID record:

How does my organization create a Sender ID record?

1. Visit www.anti-spamtools.org to use the Sender ID Wizard to create a new Sender ID record - you will need to enter the domain that appears in the From Line of your e-mail messages (ie. wincommunications.com).  Click "Start".

2. Scroll down to the "outsourced domains" section of the wizard" and cut and paste your ESP's domain info into into this empty field:  (for example, with ExactTarget it is: cust-senderid.exacttarget.com )

3. Cut, paste and send the entire string of text - this record you just created - to your Technical Contact and request they publish it into your SPF record.  If your SPF record is not currently published, request that this be done.

4. Find the correct technical contact at your organization by visiting www.networksolutions.com or similar site and searching the "whois" record for your domain.

ExactTarget's "Sender ID Implementation Guide" elaborates on why authentication is important:

"Without sender authentication, email users have seen huge increases in email domain spoofing (falsifying the “from” address/domain) and phishing (fraudulent spam that attempts to capture private information or credit card numbers). Sender ID hopes to be the industry standard sender authentication scheme to counter e-mail domain spoofing and to provide greater protection against phishing schemes. This specification is the combined result of Microsoft's Caller ID proposal, Meng Wong's Sender Policy Framework (SPF), and a third specification called the Submitter Optimization. Due to this history, Sender ID is also referred to as 'SPF V2.'"