Unasked for E-mail is Spam

A site visitor was curious and pondered:

I am organizing a green event in my area, which is a grass roots, environmentally minded social gathering. The whole point is to get as many people from as many different disciplines as possible together, so I want to send out an email list invitation. However, I do not personally know some of the people that I want to invite (for example, there are some organizations in the area that are environmentally minded, but I have not actually met them yet, also there are the municipal planners and government officials that I would like to let know about the event, people from the local university, etc). Is it inappropriate to email them even if I can easily locate their email addresses on their websites?

Sending of any unrequested mass e-mail regardless of how noble the sender feels the topic is, is still spam. This is an event your company is putting together which is a community marketing effort you hope to gain from. The last thing you want is to have your event tainted by those who may not agree, many not want to participate or correlate your event with unsolicited e-mails.

For those you don’t know, it is best you send them a flyer via snail mail (USPS) with a Web site address or contact information that they then can contact for more info. Put a notice on your Web site where folks can get on your mailing list for that kind of stuff — then you can e-mail them as they have formally given you permission to do so. Because e-mail addresses are on a Web site doesn’t give you permission to mass e-mail them about something they didn’t ask for that is not directly related to their business.

Business E-mail is All About the Details

The details that create a positive impression are so very important to those who rely on e-mail as part of their daily business activities. Details that many times take very little effort to integrate.

Those darned details like including a “Hello” as an opening greeting, and signing off your e-mail with an appropriate closing and your name. Details like using proper sentence structure, grammar and spell checking. Little details that can make a big difference in so many subtle ways.

From taking the time to type in complete sentences and adding a nice “Thank you in advance!” at the end of your e-mail to addressing the recipient by name. Little details like this can make a huge impact. Especially considering many others communicate as though they didn’t make it out of grade school!

I know — we all have too many details to deal with. Off-line details and responsibilities combined with working in an online environment that relies on you paying attention to all these little details. That’s life folks – details. And whether you like it or not, your quality of life is greatly dependent on what details you choose to pay attention to and those you neglect.

E-mail is no different. Especially when it comes to using e-mail for your business success where all too often the important details fall by the wayside in lieu of being in a rush, assuming too informal of a tone, lax attitudes and lack of desire to hone one’s skills.

Not to mention the unintended terse tone that all to often comes across from folks who are otherwise very nice because they just don’t want to take the time to pay attention to those darned e-mail details that reflect their intent accurately.

The most important details are those that reflect you care about how you are perceived. Online, the devil is in your details. How you e-mail, what words you choose and how you choose to use them, as well as whether you choose to use punctuation and proper grammar will make a big difference. A positive difference — which you can take to the bank!

I regularly type about these issues because I am constantly surprised on how those that communicate with me, knowing my stance on such matters, then proceed to minimize the importance of these issues as though E-mail Etiquette & Netiquette are a “Judith thing.” It isn’t a “Judith thing” – it is a “courtesy thing”, a “perception thing”, an “I’m educated thing.”

Potential partners, customers and anyone you do business with will react to you less than positively if you do not pay attention to these details. If you want to be taken seriously — you need to type as such. If you don’t care if you are perceived as a 6th grader — then you will be. Make demands and you may not get the response you desire. Write with courtesy and kindness and you will be surprised at the prompt and friendly response you will get.

E-mail details are not as often attended to as they should be and unfortunately many times ignored. The Web is very much like the off-line world. Type unto others as you would have them type unto you. It’s all about the details.

When Email Apologies are Moot

Funny how some folks apologize while they are doing the very thing they are apologizing for.   Is an email apology sincere if you are doing something you know could be a problem to start with but you’re doing it anyway — with your apologies?

Not in my book. To me that just smacks of “I’m going to do it anyway regardless because that’s what I want to do, but I’ll apologize just in case someone gets upset.”  That’s not a very professional approach to take in your business email communications.

When it comes to proper technology use, there seems to be a wide array of opinions on what is proper, correct or just a matter of courtesy. Many times folks take the issues of proper technology use and assume they can disregard these topics or make them fit what they are willing to do — or not.

What prompted this rant today was someone sending 150M of attachments while saying “I apologize if this fills up your inbox…”

This person knew it would; did so anyway — but apologized.  So everything is O.K. right?  Wrong! By acting in this matter this person actually told me they had no concern whatsoever about filling up my inbox and causing subsequent emails to bounce–because they did it anyway.   Their apology was moot and insincere.

Just a word of advice if you do want apologies to be taken seriously.   Don’t apologize while you proceed to do the very thing you are apologizing for.  Courtesy will not be perceived as being there as you reflect no concern for the person on the other side — with an apology.

There are guidelines and considerations online for a reason.  My tag line of “Using technology effectively to communicate with knowledge, understanding and courtesy” stands for something.   At least to me and the thousands of site visitors who let me know they feel the same way.

Apology not accepted.

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