Anvil Graphics Blog

Pretty much every day I get emails from otherwise highly qualified professional people who are poorly identified in their email communication. Here is what I mean.

There is a message in my inbox right now from a great sales lady who works for a really good printing company. She is identified as Terry Knox (not her real name) and the subject is “Did you know….”. I sort through a lot of email each day, and I did not immediately recognize this salesperson and the subject line is less than enlightening. This message was one click away from the trash heap.

In the inbox of email there are two things which identify you and the purpose of your message; the SENDER (or NAME) and the SUBJECT. It is really important that you take full advantage of both of these data fields so that your recipient knows who you are and what you want.

Take the time and go into your account settings and adjust your name. If you are writing email representing a business, then use the business name like “Anvil Graphics”, or if part of a larger organization perhaps combine your name with that of the company like “Bob at Microsoft”. Avoid only your personal name, and for goodness sake don’t use only your first name without identifying the business you represent. When you enter your identity in the email account, don’t use quotation marks. When your message arrives I want to know who you are and where your from (so does everyone else).

Take the time to write a meaningful subject line. Avoid phrases like, “Whadaya think???” or “Call me” or “Proposal”. In a very short phrase try to capture what your communication is about – like a thesis statement, make it specific. So instead of ‘Call me’, you might write, “Need to change Friday’s meeting time”. This is much more helpful when your recipient is reviewing their inbox and trying to figure out what action to take (and how long it will take) for each message.

Specific subjects also really help when organizing email. Some of us file away your email messages for future reference, so we like a quick topic overview. We use Thunderbird to manage email partly because it allows for folder and sub-folders. We file your messages away based on the project, so we can quickly find the information in the future. A clear subject helps us do that much quicker, without having to review the message again.

One final note, when possible, try to limit your email to one topic, that way the message can be filed away easily into one folder (one subject line / one topic / one folder). I admit this takes extra time and effort, but when you get a reply, you actually know the moment you see the message in the inbox what the reply is about – all because you took the time to write a good subject line.