When Harvard Business Publishing offers a ‘Tips’ article on business writing and refers mostly to email writing, you realize two things:

1. How essential email is in business communications
2. How poorly most business emails are written

Here’s a link to the Harvard Business Publishing article, “Four Tips for Better Business Writing“, by David Silverman.

You likely use emal to communicate with customers, prospects, colleagues, managers and executives . . . and with wives, husbands, friends and others. You may be so used to dashing off a quick and casual email to a colleague or spouse that you end up being quick and casual when using email for important business communications. That’s where you get in trouble:

• An email to a customer that isn’t proofread and ends up riddled with typos. There’s a dent in the brand armor.
• An email to your manager that rambles on without purpose or direction. That’s one way to waste time.

Silverman brings up a great point when he states that every email should have a call-to-action. What do you want the recipient of your email to do? If you answer that question, your email has a purpose. An email with a purpose and call to action will eliminate a lot of those numbing FYI emails. It will eliminate emails to customers or prospects that aren’t relevant to their interests and needs.

One thing that bothered me about Silverman’s article was his ranting against an email that says “What are your thoughts?” followed by a long string of forwarded messages. What made me squirm is that I’ve sent that type of email in the past. I either didn’t know how to succinctly summarize the main point or define purpose of the email – or didn’t take time to do it. I’m cured of that problem now.

Here’s a couple of additional tips on using email for business communications:

• Don’t respond hastily to emails, especially ones that contain information you may not agree with. The quick, emotional response is often not the best. Take time to think about what you really want to say and compose a careful reply.
• Don’t send any email to customers and prospects unless you can identify why your email will be engaging and relevant to them.
• Use the subject line to let recipients know exactly what your email is about. If someone sends you an email and you hit ‘reply’, you can add a few words to the existing subject line that will help define your purpose and improve clarity.
• Get a book on grammar and usage and write like an educated professional, not a teenager in IM mode. And leave the little emoticons off